Ives Quartet, young clarinetist will make converts of jaded ears – San Mateo County Times (CA) May 20, 2003

By Keith Kreitman

It is difficult to find words that fully convey the beauty of the sounds of the Ives Quartet, which recently presented a concert at the First Congregational Church in Palo Alto.

This is a string quartet for those who don’t think they would like string quartets. It is truly a feast for the ears.

With the addition of violinist Robin Sharp’s exquisite tone, the members are so attuned to each other that I have joked they must have been born quadruplets.

From its luscious opening sounds to the last notes in the program, the quartet never loses that remarkable warmth of timbre, even in the most rapid of passages, and never fails to respect every nuance of dynamics embedded in the scores by the composers.

The rich cello tone of Stephen Harris lays down a firm bass line that supports first violinist Sharp’s explorations into the musical stratosphere and the inner voices of excellent second violinist Susan Freie! r and violist Scott Woolweaver.

Woolweaver successfully overcomes the viola’s second banana status with solo passages that recall Stradivarius’ violin elegance.

First they wheeled out an antique, one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most beautiful and popular chamber works, the Quartet in D minor, K. 421, in order to establish their classical music credentials. This work must have been custom ordered for their remarkable sonority.

Then they brought out a surprise, a String Quartet in E minor, written by one of the past century’s greatest violin virtuosos, Efrem Zimbalist.

It is a real find, Russian at the core from the opening phrases, but with some startling harmonic passages possibly never heard before. Jaded ears perked up and drowsiness vanished.

If anyone thought this bunch was only a pack of pretty sounds and faces, the fiery last movement should put an end to that. Led by Sharp at warp speed, the group never gave away one iota of its ri! ch sound to the technical effort.

The main course of the evenin g was the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B minor by Johannes Brahms.

Of all the other instruments that join string quartets in chamber music, the flowing liquid timbre of the clarinet undoubtedly blends best with strings. Like Mozart before him, Brahms appreciated this, and the great works for the clarinet were among the very last creations of their lives.

The highly talented young clarinetist, Dimitri Ashkenazy, won a standing ovation for his consciously controlled dynamics and timbre, as he blended seamlessly into the flow of the strings in this complex and lyrical masterwork.