BISQC, days 3-4

In three concerts, two yesterday and one this morning, the nine contestants in the Banff International String Quartet Competition got through their second round, each playing one work of their choice from the 19th-century Romantic-era repertoire.

The most interesting contrasts came from paired works by the same composer. Claude Debussy wrote only one quartet, and his was the only single work played twice. If you like Debussy, you would have preferred the Viatores Quartet version, full of the lush, exotic Debussy sound. If, however, you prefer something drier, you might have liked the Cong Quartet, which played it strong and heavy part of the way but reverted to standard Debussy in the second half. I'm not a Debussy fan and wasn't really thrilled by either.

I do like Robert Schumann, however, and here we had a vehement contrast. Quatuor Magenta played his First Quartet with surprising vehemence, tough and even brutal. The one thing it didn't do was sound anything like Schumann. I found it very impressive in its own way, but less sure it was a way worth pursuing. The Arete Quartet, on the other hand, played a Third Quartet that sounded just like Schumann. It was slow and romantic in approach, and it had soul. The fast loud passages achieved intensity without vehemence, just to prove after Magenta that it could be done.

There were four quartets by Felix Mendelssohn. The big contrast here was between two quartets from his Op. 44 set. No. 3 from the Nerida Quartet was an ideal performance. Their Haydn had been lively and bustling, and their Mendelssohn was also lively and bustling in the same spirit. That works for Mendelssohn, and this was an outstanding job. Quatuor Elmire in No. 2 also did a good job, but their style seemed fussy and mechanical coming immediately after the Nerida. It wasn't bad, it just faded in comparison.

As for the other Mendelssohns, both Quartet Kairi in Op. 13 and Quartett Hana in Op. 80 were very good, Hana tighter in execution, Kairi a little sloppy except in the slow movement, which was their best part. My problem is that both these works have been spoiled for me by hearing truly great performances of each in the past that have stuck in my head, and however good you may be, if you can't match those it's going to sound like weak tea to me. Kairi was further cursed by a mishap not of their own making. Op. 13 begins with an introduction of slow, soft chords which repeat at the end. And both occurrences were marred by cell phones going off. And this after the competition director had, introducing the concert, warned yet again to turn those buggers off.

If the Nerida got second place in my ratings for the best performances of the round, first place definitely went to the one remaining entrant: the Poeisis Quartet in Johannes Brahms's Op. 67. I am a great partisan of Brahms chamber music, except for his string quartets which I find most performances of to be bland and rather boring. Not this one. It was lively and exciting, and most importantly it sounded like it was written by the same composer whose next opus would be his dramatic and intensely characterful First Symphony. This had that same character. It was, hands down, the best Brahms quartet performance I have ever heard.

Poeisis and Nerida both did among the best of the Haydn round. They're the best here. I'll be especially looking out for their work in the next two rounds.