The Players Change, Brilliance Does Not

Plain Dealer - Mar. 11, 2006

by Donald Rosenberg

Enduring string quartets go through personnel changes that either sustain or alter the group's salient qualities.

The current incarnation of the Tokyo String Quartet, which Japanese students started at New York's Juilliard School in 1969, includes only one original member. But founding violinist Kazuhide Isomura, second violinist Kikuei Ikeda (who joined in 1974), cellist Clive Greensmith (1999) and first violinist Martin Beaver (2002) are stellar keepers of Tokyo traditions.

Their concert Tuesday at Akron's E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall confirmed that the burnished sound, intense interplay and interpretive acuity for which the group long had been celebrated are brilliantly in place. It doesn't hurt that the musicians perform on Stradivarius instruments that comprise the "Paganini Quartet," named for a previous owner, the great 19th-century violinist, Niccolo Paganini.

The Tokyo's program consisted of three B's-Beethoven, Bartok, Brahms-each of whom took the genre of the string quartet and turned it on its expressive and structural ear. Beethoven's Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4, received a tightly coiled performance, full of boldly delineated chords, urgent phrasing and enormous dynamic extremes.

Beaver sailed through the challenging first-violin writing and collaborated with superb flexibility and subtlety. The players emphasized Beethoven's architectural, cadential and timbral innovations. In their nimble hands, the last movement was a breezy race to the finish line.

In Bartok's Quartet No. 3, the musicians savored the visceral folksiness and eerie corners. Moments of fuzzy intonations kept some of Bartok's pungent language from registering. But power and rhythmic propulsion were never in short supply, and the score's array of magical sonorities often floated or flew from the stage.

The third movement of Brahms' Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 67, is another example of sonic enchantment, a meeting of muted violins and cello with unmuted viola. The Tokyo players embraced the contrast to vivid effect. Their Brahms was warm and animated, reflecting the music's life-affirming character.

The concert was the season finale both for the Tuesday Musical Concert Series, which presented the program, and the ensemble itself. Before heading for vacation, the Tokyo offered a glistening encore, the finale from Hayden's Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3. The piece's subtitle is "Rider," reflected delightfully in the galloping rhythms and the group's equestrian grace.

The Tokyo returns to Northeast Ohio on Tuesday, Dec. 5, to preform works by Mozart, Higdon and Schumann for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.