Catalyst Quartet

GLASS TOWER SHINES IN CATALYST QUARTET CONCERT

A concert produced by Brave New Music and featuring the Catalyst Quartet March 18 in Healdsburg’s SHED Grange Hall was a delight from almost any standpoint, or sitting point. Unlike the first Brave New Music concert last November, this time there were no visual accompaniments (film) behind the performers, so the focus was on the music and performers. A perfect old-fashioned simplicity, even in a brave new setting.

To this reviewer, the program seemed to emerge in the SHED as a visit to a wonderfully landscaped theme park. We enter to an inviting, energetic home space that makes us love the group immediately. Jessie Montgomery's composition "Strum", born from a tuning regimen turned expressive, was the opening work, and is happy and effusive yet concentrated. It featured pizzicato (strummed) harmonies as the substrate for poignant lyrical streams, played variously by individual voices, and soaring in intensity to something almost Ravelian.

Then we moved to Glass’s Quartet No. 3, composed in 1985 for Paul Schrader's film "Mishima." Given the programmatic opportunities and drama of the story and movement titles, I was determined to like the work. But from the beginning the two against three rhythmic undertow and slippery minor harmonic shifts invited me unwillingly to the theme music for "Downton Abbey" (perhaps a credit to that series for seeking Glass-iness). It was mesmerizing and mildly foreboding without the charm of British (or Japanese) acting. Each movement was infused with its own energy and subtle patterns, delivered deftly and with clear articulation by the quartet, and occasionally reminiscent of Schubert's colorations. But I wished that for this piece there had been a film backdrop with the visceral storyboard of Mishima's life. In the concert setting it became a tribute, a tragedy embalmed in the pastels of distant remembrance, reminding me more of windshield wipers in the rain.

Then, after the intermission and out of the verdant landscape, Joan Tower’s powerful “In Memory” was heard. Composed in 2002 for the Tokyo String Quartet, it was the musical highlight of the evening. As a commission, the work was begun in memory of a personal friend, but expanded after September 11, 2001, to express the collective angst and fury around the incomprehensible American loss. The piece was first performed in February 2002 at the 92nd St. Y in New York City. Immediately the music was riveting, the dissonances welcome after the numbing swash of Glass’s minor triads.

The Catalyst performance revealed a more interesting work than the Glass, much of it in 12/8 time with beautiful and sometimes frantic chordal playing. They played it more like a Bartok Quartet, rhythmically tight with perfect string unisons and seconds that in lesser hands would have gone awry. There were also parts reminiscent of Shostakovich’s Quartets, juxtaposing anguish and reflection, nostalgic memories and desperate dreams. The ending of this marvelous work was a captivating soft unison.

Paquito D'Rivera's "Wapango," introduced by cellist Karlos Rodriquez, was a fast and furious piece that closed the concert with some scratchy col lengo effects to ruffle the audience's feathers. A genuine crowd pleaser.

The concert could happily have ended here but the Catalyst brought an encore with them, something to mellow us after all the drama and dance effects. Golijov’s "Jerusalem," the last part of the 2002 “Tenebrae,” was performed like a serene prayer. Violinist Karla Donehew-Perez played the theme elegantly, a gorgeous and contemplative ending to the concert.

Terry McNeill contributed to this review