BISQC, day 1

It's time for the triennial Banff International String Quartet Competition, and I am not there in the Canadian Rockies, I'm at home watching/listening to the concerts on livestream.

For today's concerts, four of the competing quartets played one Joseph Haydn quartet and one work from the 21st century - it's a quarter-over now, there's enough music to choose from. Each work was of the group's choice. Tomorrow, the other five groups will have their chance.

What's great about listening to Haydn at Banff is that all the groups are good, but for different definitions of what's good. They all had distinctive styles. I was particularly impressed by the Quatuor Elmire in Op. 76/5. It was an old-fashioned performance, but sumptuously beautiful, especially the slow movement. Those tend to be the dull spots in Haydn performances, but here it was the highlight for elegance. The minuet also, courtly and graceful, and the rest of the same caliber.

But the best was probably the Nerida Quartet in Op. 54/2. They were the ones who found the wit and joy in Haydn, bouncing it along in a lively manner. Their slow movement was of organ-like sonorities behind first violin Jeffrey Armstrong presenting some spectacular displays. The Neridas looked like they were enjoying themselves, too, which is not an insignificant contribution to the whole, especially those lively facial expressions on second violinist Saskia Niehl.

The Viatores Quartet had a light and airy approach, particularly unusual since their work, Op. 33/1, is in a minor key. Except for the fast part of the finale, where they alternated between that style and a darker and grittier one. The Quartett HANA played Op. 74/1 in a more modern, rougher style, but they came first and I missed that part of the livestream, only watching it later on repeat, and by that time I was getting tired, so I didn't really absorb it.

The Elmire, who are French, chose a French composition for their 21C piece, the Fifth Quartet of Pascal Dusapin. I don't know his work, but it seemed to me that they brought the same sweet and gentle approach, rather against the grain of the music. This microtonal and rather querulous work was worth hearing once, but not twice. The HANA, on the same concert, also played it, but I skipped out on their rendition.

Nerida won my favor by playing Caroline Shaw's Entr'acte. I've heard this before, and Shaw is one of my favorite living composers. This performance seemed to me to emphasize the minimalist roots, with violist Grace Leehan sawing away in a Philip Glass style while the rest played holding chord sequences.

But the Viatores dismayed me with Jörg Widmann's Hunting Quartet. I'd heard this at BISQC once before, nine years ago when I was there in person. I thought this parody of 18C music consisting of making the instruments play very badly was a worthless piece of merde the first time, and my opinion hasn't gone up much. Widmann is not always a bad composer: it's just that he likes to follow entirely different compositional procedures on successive pieces, and this one didn't work.

I'm excited with what's in store for tomorrow.