There was no shortage of competitive riders in Melbourne during Cup Week, but the visiting string quartet, Brooklyn Rider, was a clear winner.
For this performance, the audience was seated around the players on the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall stage. Chamber music is inherently an intimate affair, conversation between friends, and in this intimate setting, the quartet quickly established a close rapport with the audience.
On its second southbound tour, the New York-based quartet presented “Citizenship Notes”, a program of works that speak to an individual and national sense of identity.
Violist Nicholas Cords explained that all five works on this program were born in times of turbulence. Brooklyn Rider presented three contemporary American works to Melbourne, including one written by the quartet’s own violinist, Colin Jacobsen.
Book-ending the program were quartets by Haydn and Beethoven; Haydn’s written during the “age of reason”, when political philosophers began to challenge the status quo, while Beethoven’s was written during Napoleon’s war in Europe.
Haydn’s string quartets have been so extensively played that you could be forgiven for thinking that rich musical vein had been fully mined. But Brooklyn Rider proved otherwise, playing this early Haydn work as if it were fresh off the page.
What made this performance special? Perhaps it was gentility. Stand-out moments included violinist Johnny Gandelsman’s exquisitely refined interpretation of the filigree passages in the adagio, with the equally refined and tender accompaniment underneath, and the lilt the quartet gave to the minuet. Even though this music contains numerous repeats, there was never a moment when the music felt predictable. It was a truly fresh and invigorating performance.
Borderlands, by contemporary American composer Matana Roberts, was written in response to the 2018 US-Mexico border crisis. Roberts envisaged this work as a way healing the rift this crisis exposed. The audience was put on high alert when Cords mentioned that Roberts had left some aspects of the performance to chance, had scripted text as well as notes, and that the “score” they were playing from centred on a visual image Roberts had created herself.
This piece was theatrical. It began with the word “borderlands”, uttered softy by the musicians as they played their first notes. Chance (the musicians rolled dice on their stands) played a part in directing the sequence of sounds. The music was often disjointed, with sudden eruptions of sonic violence, some spoken and intoned text, and players lunging forward urgently. There were also moments of resolution, where super-soft sounds made with quivering bows blended to create a calm musical vibration that hung in the air. Brooklyn Rider brought it off and Borderlands received warm applause.
American songwriter Gabriel Kahane wrote American Studies, based on the song “To be American” for Brooklyn Rider. Kahane describes his work as both a celebration and interrogation of nostalgia for the pre 9/11 years. Though not always upbeat, it has a happy feel. Feet are tapped; there’s a jaunty rhythmic pulse and syncopations that keep the listener in suspense.
Violinist Colin Jacobsen introduced his reworking of “The Times They Are a-Changin’” by observing that time is something musicians are very familiar with. Revisiting Dylan’s anthem caused him to reflect on the notion that while times change, they also repeat themselves – in life as in music.
Jacobsen’s arrangement blended the feeling of the original with the familiar melody, evoking memories of those earlier times as the theme and variations structure highlights each instrument’s distinctive tone.
The suspense created in the first few notes of Beethoven’s Op. 59 No.3, “Razumovsky” quartet augured well. For this work, being seated so close to the action, meant every nuance of this complex musical conversation / journey was not only audible, but clearly visible. There was a sense of expectation throughout, and in the second movement, it was enthralling to watch the meandering music take its course. The helter-skelter final movement was exhilarating, without being stressful. The race to the finish had much in common with the Melbourne Cup, with the musical leadership changing as each part looked for an opening to break through.
The four members of Brooklyn Rider – Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen (violins) Nicholas Cords (viola) and Michael Nicolas (cello) – showed a genuine, unassuming and thoughtful appreciation of each other throughout this program: a perfect example of chamber music at its best. They definitely deserved their standing ovation.
Photo supplied.
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Sue Kaufmann attended Brooklyn Rider concert “Citizen Notes”, presented by the Melbourne Recital Centre at The Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on July 5, 2025.
