Concert Review—

Parker String Quartet Performance Confirmed Extraordinary Reputation

By Julie Stern

They come from California (violinist Daniel Chong), Minnesota (violinist Karen Kim), Texas (violist Jessica Bodner) and Seoul, South Korea (cellist Kee-hyun Kim).

Since coming together as the graduate quartet in residence at New England Conservatory, however, the members of Parker String Quartet have jelled into a harmonious unit whom The New York Times has called “something extraordinary” and of whom The Washington Post declared “they propel the music irresistibly but with extraordinary grace and flexibility and, above all, they make sense of the music.”

This was clearly evident at a concert performed at Edmond Town Hall last Sunday afternoon, when they performed Mozart’s Quartet in G Major, K387, Schumann’s Quartet in A minor, Opus 41, No. 1, and, perhaps in a nod to the Halloween season,  Gyorgy Ligeti’s Metamorphosis Nocturnes.

The choice of pieces was interesting in that Mozart wrote K 387 in a tribute to Haydn, because he was inspired by studying several of Haydn’s quartets, and then, sixty years later, Schumann wrote Opus 41 to demonstrate what he had learned from studying Haydn and Mozart.

Ligeti, a modern Hungarian composer who fled the country during the 1954 revolution and became a naturalized Austrian citizen, and who died in June of this year, wrote many kinds of music from choral and operatic works to absurdist experimental pieces. In addition, his music was used by Stanley Kubrick in movies including 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut.

This cinematic quality hovered at the edges of the Nocturnes, so that one could almost imagine shadows of goblins flying behind the white backdrop.

In all cases the group played with remarkable definition and synchronicity, so that every note was easy to hear, every passage easy to follow. The performers were filled with electric energy and joy that spilled over into the audience.

The auditorium was solidly packed, and included many young people,  some of whom were going to be working with the members of the quartet the next day as part of an outreach program for the eighth grade music classes at Newtown’s middle school.

Perhaps because some people were attending their first chamber music concert; they didn’t realize that one does not clap at the intervals between movements. The musicians handled this with the same grace and good humor that permeated their entire performance.

It is had to imagine a better group with which to ignite a love of classical music in kids.