Modern String Quartet shows elegance and energy

By Emilie Sueur and S. Harmono

JAKARTA (JP): Four German musicians offered a new vision of string quartet playing to the audience at the German Embassy in Jakarta last week. The innovation may come from the fact that the Modern String Quartet, established in 1983, plays music composed on the threshold of the next millennium.

The program featured works composed by the Quartet members Jorg Widmoser (first violin), Andreas Horicht (viola) and Jost-H. Hecker (cello). Winfried Zrenner (second violin) is also a composer but since his pieces are in his opinion "even more modern", he had doubts about including them in the program.

Going back in music history, Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Dominico's father, was the first to compose string quartets. This musical form flourished with Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, two French composers living almost a century ago, each wrote most arresting compositions for string quartet, the only ones they ever produced.

Three of the Modern String Quartet received a classical musical education while Widmoser has a jazz background. Their encounter sums up the spirit of the ensemble.

The idea of the Quartet is to "bridge the gap between classical and modern music," according to the write-up in the program notes. The four musicians' background was ideal to achieve this goal in a string quartet formation.

String quartet playing requires high level technique that only classical studies can provide. The originality of the Modern String Quartet lies in the addition of jazz characteristics. And the role of Widmoser was to teach the classical players the secrets of improvisation.

The outcome of this encounter is what Hecker calls a "fusion between two worlds", the worlds of classical and contemporary music.

Their first work was mainly oriented around jazz standards. Yet, they had to do their own arrangements to make the pieces suitable for a string quartet. This was, in a way, their first step toward improvisation.

But soon they felt they could create their own style and then began to compose their music. How to describe their style? As it is something new and very personal to them, a precise description is difficult to provide.

Listening to the myriad sounds in W.Y.H.W.Y.G. (What you hear is what you get), we might think that Bela Bartok's work influenced Horicht in his 1995 composition.

Enlivening

Then, the syncopated rhythms in Jord Widmoser's Third Character had the enlivening effect on the audience of the best jazz jam sessions. It is therefore quite difficult to classify their music as it seems to be an innovative and unique style.

It was quite surprising to discover in the middle of the program a piece by Dmitri Shostakovich. But there again, the quartet had added its particular touch.

The musicians choose not to play classical pieces for the string quartet. When they perform classical pieces, they always select those that were composed for other instruments, except J.S. Bach's composition from the Art of Fugue which was played as an encore on that evening.

The prelude and fugue by Shostakovich they performed was originally written for piano. The Quartet added their personal stamp by arranging it for a string quartet, making the piece unique in its style.

Actually, the very form of their ensemble which classifies them in the music chamber category provides them with a large space of freedom for composition and interpretation.

Besides freedom of musical expression, chamber music allows the creation of a special relationship with the audience. Something definitely happened between the four players and the public on that evening.

It could be said that managing to enliven and stimulate an audience made up, for the most part, of diplomats and business general managers is in itself a great success. The audience effectively entered into an interactive relationship with the quartet.

In Hecker's Bremsflussigkeit for instance, many spectators started fidgeting in their chairs trying to glimpse the musicians as unusual plucking and percussion sounds came from the string instruments. Then, curiosity gave place to excitement and finally ended in salvos of applause.

The transfer of energy from the musicians to the audience was perhaps also due to the visual impact of the performance. Listening to one of the quartet's compact discs may certainly give a different sensation.

The movements of the musicians seem to be important to give body to their music as they appear to be completely committed in their playing.

Hecker, who is certainly the most physically active in the Quartet, compares musicians to sportsmen. Like them, musicians should be humble in front of the music and like sportsmen, they have to give their best and to be involved at a hundred percent in their performance.

The outcome of this philosophy and of its consequent production of energy was a joy for the eye. With them, you do not get bored, as it might quite often be the case with recitals and concerts performing standard repertoire music.

The choice of the Modern String Quartet by the German Embassy as part of the German cultural weeks was a good one.

It is the first time the embassy has organized the event but, according to press and cultural affairs attache Klaus Bormann, it should be continued in the future.

The cultural weeks end Oct. 3.