A Fugue That Stands Alone

A week after finally seeing A Late Quartet, a small film about a string ensemble's 25th anniversary, we saw the same scenario acted out at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music.

The Blair String Quarter - first violinist Christian Teal, second violinist Cornelia Heard, violist John Kochanowski and cellist Felix Wang - is pretty well-known in classical circles. Their lineup hasn't changed since Wang joined in 1999. But it will later this summer.

After a final hometown performance, Teal would bow out after 42 years and a pass through one of Beethoven's complex movement, the Grand Fugue, an 18-minute, dissonant and driving passage that earned boos after its debut yet still sounds modern nearly 200 years later.

The Grand Fugue (or Great Fugue, pick your poison) caps of Opus 130, one of Beethoven's challenging late quartets. Two years after finding a copy on LP while crate-digging in Seattle, it was become one of my favorite pieces.

I once made a stab about writing about the Grand Fugue. Maybe some slow month I'll post that ragged copy. But it's an amazing feat, coming immediately after the beautiful, tear-inducing Cavatina movement.


Nancy and I could not skip the evening once we saw they were playing it. The unpopularity of the Grand Fugue to 1820 audiences led Beethoven to compose new final movement and issue the Fugue under its own opus number (133), but most modern groups go with the more challenging original ending.
 
The quartet's opening number was also a revelation. First the quartet brought in pianist and Yale professor Melvin Chen to perform Ernest Bloch's Piano Quartet No. 1. A dark, driving piece, the quintet was an impressive technical work.

Naturally, Op. 130 would finish the night. No one would expect a string quartet to conjure strength for an encore after such a demanding piece.



Kochanowski gave a brief history of the quartet, saluting its retiring violinist, as well as some humorous anecdotes about the quartet and its infamous movement.

The quartet could be forgiven for bowing out after that marathon. They burned through some horse hair on their bows during its frantic pace. it's a moving piece throughout the first five movements, but it becomes visionary when the final movement challenges the beauty that precedes it.

When the quartet finished, the boos the quartet endured in its first performance were nowhere to be found. The concert hall roared with rapturous applause.

When the quartet reemerged for a second bow, the other three members discreetly held back while Teal alone strode forward, unaware that they stopped. By the time he realized what had happened, the other three performers applauded as vigorously as the audience.