Put a top-notch string quartet on stage with one of the most gifted pianists in America, and the results are bound to be compelling.
But the performance by the Vermeer Quartet with guest pianist Leon Fleisher Monday evening in the Civic Theatre surpassed expectations. Here was musicmaking of the most passionate kind, in which eloquent playing was brightened by brilliant technique and tempered by a heightened sense of taste. Five musicians performed, but one powerful vision came forth.
The work was all the more impressive considering that Fleisher and the Vermeer were playing the obscure Quintet in G major for Piano Left Hand and Strings by Franz Schmidt. Not exactly a staple of the chamber repertoire, the Quintet was commissioned in the 1920s by Paul Wittgenstein, the famed pianist who lost his right arm in World War I and then persuaded several major composers to write works for left hand alone.
Among the present generation of pianists, Fleisher has come to be the preeminent interpreter of the left-hand repertoire, and for reasons virtually as poignant as Wittgenstein`s. A prodigy who quickly developed into a superb young artist, Fleisher was struck by a mysterious muscular/neurological malady in the `60s that made it impossible for him to play with the right hand.
He kept his career aloft by taking up conducting and performing the left- hand piano repertoire, and only a few seasons ago did he again attempt to perform publicly with both hands. Alas, he quickly retired once more to the one-hand repertory.
Whether we will ever again hear the full scope of Fleisher`s powers remains uncertain, but his work with the Vermeer amply illustrated what a profound artist can accomplish within considerable limitations.
The great difficulty of playing the Quintet`s keyboard part lies in its textural transparency. Other left-hand repertoire may be flashier and more technical, but here the piano writing is thin, light and sparkling. Every gesture is exposed to the listener, and only a performer who can shape each phrase will succeed.
Fleisher showed remarkable control, projecting melodic lines and supporting them with gently uttered harmonies. The Vermeer Quartet matched his tone colors precisely, and the five musicians interacted with a natural, unhurried eloquence.
The pairing of Fleisher with the Vermeer was a clever one, for these musicians are essentially of the same poetic bent. A full, warm tone palette is their ideal, and they always achieve it.
Based at Northern Illinois University, the Vermeer Quartet (violinists Shmuel Ashkenasi and Pierre Menard, violist Richard Young and cellist Marc Johnson) remains one of the finest in the United States.
Its reading of the program opener, Beethoven`s Quartet in G Major, Op. 18 No. 2, handsomely combined classical sensibilities with an appropriately robust rhythmic charge. And in Dvorak`s Quartet in D minor, Op. 34, long lyric lines sang forth with stirring intensity and indigenous Czech flavor.
Performances as vibrant as these appear infrequently, but they will likely long linger in the minds of the many listeners who crowded the Civic Theatre to hear them.
