UCLA Performing Arts The Emerson String Quartet, regarded for
more than a decade as one of music’s hottest string quartets, is
performing at Schoenberg Hall this Sunday.
By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin contributor
Cellist David Finckel is in his hotel room and it’s the
day before the Grammy Awards. He is nominated for two.
“All I know is that Eminem is not next door,”
Finckel said in a phone interview. “It’s been pretty
quiet.”
It’s hard to believe things stayed quiet after he and his
comrades, who together make up the Emerson String Quartet, won Best
Classical Album and Best Chamber Music Performance at the 2001
Grammys for their readings of the Shostakovich String Quartet
cycle.
Coming off of its recognition, the Emerson Quartet will be
performing works of Shostakovich, Barber, Haydn and Beethoven at
Schoenberg Hall on Sunday.
“We found that the Shostakovich Quartets were very
theatrical and the tension in the room with people there was
amazing,” said Finckel about the Grammy-winning album.
For that reason, the Emerson Quartet recorded the Shostakovich
live in Aspen, Colo. Eschewing the convenience of recording in an
empty concert hall, the group found that the audience added another
dimension to the piece.
“There was lots of silence,” Finckel said.
“The room was so quiet you could almost hear the people
breathe.”
Many musicians consider string quartet pieces to be a
composer’s most personal works, a tradition that extends from
Beethoven to Bartok. Soviet composer Shostakovich was no different,
infusing his quartets with dissonances and irony that bespoke his
own struggle with the Communist authorities who imposed their
ideals on his work.
Indeed, as he grew older the composer became increasingly ill
and tormented. Finckel believes that concertgoers can feel the pain
in Shostakovich’s 15th and final quartet which is entirely
made up of slow movements.
“There’s a tremendous amount of emotional
content,” Finckel said. “Going to hear a string quartet
is more like going to the movies than like hearing pop music on the
radio. They tell a story. The emotional and structural curves are
woven in as themes. The exact words for the story you make up
yourself.”
Emphasizing the story aspect, Director Simon McBurney recently
employed the Emerson Quartet in “The Noise of Time,” a
stage production about Shostakovich. The first half of the show is
a multimedia presentation of Shostakovich’s life and
struggles. The second half consists of Shostakovich’s final
quartet, played by the Emerson Quartet, while contorting dancers
move on stage, bringing a sense of mystery and darkness to the
piece.
“The music is very much in the foreground,” Finckel
said about McBurney’s production. “There are no spoken
words, only symbolic gestures that connect the music to the
audience.”
Finckel, who joined the quartet in 1979, met his colleagues,
violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer and violist Lawrence
Dutton, as students at The Julliard School. When he isn’t
touring with them, Finckel maintains a concert career with his
wife, pianist Wu Han, who appeared with her husband at Schoenberg
Hall earlier this month.
In his spare time, Finckel also coaches string quartets at the
Los Angeles Cello Club.
The Emerson Quartet’s 1987 Grammy Award for Best Classical
Album was the first ever awarded to a chamber ensemble. Its
recording of the Bartok Quartets brought Finckel and the Emerson
Quartet to the limelight.
“We learned all six of the Bartok Quartets,” Finckel
said. “One of us had a crazy idea to play all of them at one
concert. It was a big success, so we recorded them.”
Following the Bartok Quartet cycle came the Emerson
Quartet’s recordings of the complete Beethoven Quartet cycle,
earning them another Grammy.
They continued that legacy with the Grammy for the Shostakovich
album.
“The great thing about the Grammys is that it recognizes
the composer, the performance and the string quartet,”
Finckel said. “Even to have a string quartet nominated is
thrilling for music in general and encourages people to go to
performances.”
Indeed, Finckel believes encouragement is necessary as he sees
the classical music audience slowly diminishing without the influx
of younger generations.
“In Singapore and Hong Kong, the average age of a
concertgoer is 35,” Finckel said. “In this country it
is 50 to 60. The older generation in Singapore wasn’t
introduced to classical music so they don’t go, but here
it’s the younger generation that isn’t getting
introduced.”
Nonetheless, Finckel will continue to perform music and get it
heard. After 25 years, the Emerson Quartet shows no signs of
slowing down. Next on their recording schedule are some Haydn
Quartets.
“I’d like to bring them back from being thought of
as stuffy,” Finckel said. “They are actually full of
life, ingenuity and wit.”
MUSIC: The Emerson String Quartet plays at
Schoenberg Hall on Sunday, March 4 at 2 p.m. For ticketing
information contact the Central Ticket Office at (310)
825-2101.