![\"Arcanto](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/mbArcanto4t.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 The 11-year-old Arcanto Quartet<\/a>, heard here last Friday (Jan. 24), is everything a chamber group shouldn\u2019t be for promotional purposes. There are no family ties. Their instruments don\u2019t match. They share no doctrine about period practice. They don\u2019t grind out whole cycles of anyone\u2019s music. Not surprisingly their U.S. debuts in 2010 passed with only modest fanfare: the Washington Post reviewer found himself split yet intrigued<\/a> while The New York Times gave no coverage at all. Happily the Arcanto\u2019s record label, Arles-based Harmonia Mundi, favors substance over flack and has documented their work in Mozart<\/a>, Schubert<\/a> and Bart\u00f3k<\/a>. The latter disc took a Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik<\/em>.<\/p>\n Anchored by Jean-Guihen Queyras<\/a>\u2019s nimble cello and the resonant viola of Tabea Zimmermann<\/a>, the group produces a centered, refined, light sound. Three centuries happen to separate the instruments used by these two members: Queyras, longtime soloist at IRCAM<\/a> in Paris, plays a 1696 Cappa. But this detail seems incidental. Antje Weithaas<\/a>, artistic leader of the Camerata Bern<\/a>, and Daniel Sepec<\/a>, concertmaster for the Deutsche Kammer-Philharmonie Bremen<\/a>, are the sweet-toned violinists. Twenty-five months ago, here at the Prince Regent Theater<\/a>, the Arcanto achieved minor miracles in Ravel\u2019s Quartet in F Major before partnering J\u00f6rg Widmann<\/a> for an ardent, haunting traversal of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet. The finicky Bavarian crowd roared its approval.<\/p>\n Last Friday\u2019s visit, with the final quartets (1826) of Beethoven and Schubert, took place in the cool vaulted milieu of the Court Church of All Saints<\/a>, diligently filled by presenter Bell\u2019Arte<\/a>. Versatile, nuanced playing proved that each work had been considered on its own terms: the F-Major Beethoven (Opus 135) characterized by nonchalance, the grander G-Major Schubert (D887) by an emphasis on fractionalized ideas that shadow late initiatives of the elder composer.<\/p>\n Beethoven\u2019s Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo<\/i> ruminated in a contented, consoling way. Queyras launched the lyrical second subject of the Muss es sein?<\/i> movement with spry point, matched by Zimmermann. As Weithaas danced gleefully over the music\u2019s last measures, after the shared pizzicato, the ensemble built cheerful true resolution not only of the immediate material but of the whole score. The Schubert received an intriguing performance. Ghoulish drama laced its Andante; delicate understated voices emerged lucidly in the Trio. In the passionate sections of the last movement, Allegro assai<\/i>, the players found power in especially intense collaboration. The same composer\u2019s Quartettsatz of 1820 (D703) served as recital opener, guided with spontaneity and considerable elegance by Weithaas.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Marco Borggreve<\/p>\n Related posts:
\nPublished: January 31, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n
\nGloom, Doom from the Arcanto<\/a>
\nFestive Sides<\/a>
\nWidmann\u2019s Opera Babylon<\/a>
\nVolodos the German Romantic<\/a>
\nHorn Trios in Church<\/a><\/p>\n