half a concert

This week was the Stanford music department's annual chamber music seminar, where visiting and nonpro groups get coaching. Public events included noon concerts, which I didn't get to because weekday parking at Stanford is so difficult, and a Sunday daytime blowout where everybody plays, which I didn't get to because I didn't get going early enough in the day.

But I did get to the Saturday evening showcase concert, though I can't tell you who was playing because they didn't hand out programs, just posted one on a wall. You could photograph it, but my screen would have been too small to read it, so forget it. A group of I think 7 string players, including Paul Wiancko, the new cellist of the Kronos Quartet, played a hypnotic-sounding work of his. And a young string quartet undertook Beethoven's Op. 132, surely the second most challenging quartet in the classical repertoire (Op. 130 is tougher). This was the first time I've heard it without any preparation whatever, but by this time I know it well enough that I didn't feel I needed any. Excellent job, basic interpretation effectively done.