Quartetto di Cremona
The Quartetto di Cremona has established itself over the past dozen or so years as one of Italy’s top chamber music ensembles, performing throughout their homeland as well as in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Until this weekend, the group’s performances in the United States had been limited to a single stop in New York City about six years ago.
So the fact that the Quartetto di Cremona began its first U.S. tour -- of only two cities, true, but still.... -- by performing as the guests of Chamber Music Tulsa made its Sunday afternoon performance something of a coup for this organization.
Equally unique was the program – all works by Italian composers, three of whom are known more for operas than chamber music.
The exception was Luigi Boccherini, whose compositions for small ensembles number in the hundreds. His Quartet in C Major, Op. 32, No. 4, which opened the concert, was bright and lively – even its slow movement might be described as “serenely pensive.”
What was most impressive was the unity of tone these four musicians had in this piece – a dry, crisp sound, quick and precise, that gave this music an additional lift, from the jaunty melodies of the opening to the stately dances that made up the finale.
The real highlight of the afternoon, however, was the Quartet in E Minor by Verdi, composed around the time his opera “Aida” was being premiered.
Not surprisingly, it is a highly theatrical, operatic work – agitated, tumultuous music that creates a sense of character and conflict, an urgent forward momentum and all sorts of wild fiddling. Even at its most solemn, the music still contain darkly dramatic strains.
And all this was marvelously embodied by the players – violinists Cristiano Gualco and Paolo Andreoli, violist Simone Gramaglia and cellist Giovanni Scaglione. This quartet has an almost 20th century feel to it, in the dramatic shifts, the way melodies will twist in surprising ways, the striking juxtapositions of diverse musical fragments (that lyrical solo by Scaglione coming like an oasis amid the furious fiddling of the third movement, for example). It was a most impressive performance.
Puccini’s elegiac “Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums)” followed, featuring musical elements that would later be incorporated into the opera “Manon Lescaut,” with Cherubini’s Quartet No. 3 in D Minor rounding out the afternoon.
The Cherubini quartet also contained its share of musical drama, with its inventive and wide-ranging explorations of various melodic materials. And, like everything the Quartetto di Cremona played Sunday, it was executed with a phenomenal sense of energy and passion, by players able to maintain strong individual voices within a tightly knit ensemble.
