The San Francisco Classical Voice has a review from Saturday’s San Francisco Performances series “The String Quartet at a Time of War: Benjamin Britten and his Contemporaries.”
“the Alexander Quartet gave the Bartók a restrained and poised, even introverted, performance, without in any way neglecting the work’s varying moods. The march had the appropriate swagger, the Burletta (burlesque) a dry wit and a hint of the grotesque. The Mesto introductions provide each member of the quartet with a solo, and each played his beautifully. A tip of the hat to Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz, violins, Paul Yarbrough, viola, and Sandy Wilson, cello, for their lovely playing in this and in the Britten.
“Here we saw the other side of the Alexander, with the quartet’s playing proving to be an explosive and extroverted match for both the impetuous and the calm aspects of the Britten. The quartet’s sound positively glowed in the eerie still of the first movement opening, where the violins and viola hover at the extreme upper edge of their ranges, as well as in the gorgeously intense third movement.” — Lisa Hirsch, San Francisco Classical Voice
Program 3 (March 9):
The Hinge of Fate
BRITTEN: Quartet No. 2 (1945)
WALTON: Quartet in A minor (1946)
Program 4 (March 16):
Triumph and Tragedy
BRITTEN: Quartet No. 3 (1975)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Quartet No. 8 (1960)