Modern String Quartet shows elegance and energy

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.