The Miró Quartet from Austin, Texas, entertained a large audience to end the Northwestern Winter Chamber Music Festival on Sunday. In performing a program of classics by Franz Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven and modern/contemporary works by George Walker and Caroline Shaw, they showed off remarkable precision, cohesion, and intonation—and had some fun while doing it.
Walker and Shaw are on Miró Quartet’s recent album Home, which celebrates American music. It is nominated for the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance at the Grammy Awards this Sunday.
Onstage, Miró Quartet uses an unusual seating configuration. As is typical, first violinist Daniel Ching was in front toward stage right. Upstage from him was cellist Joshua Gindele, instead of second violinist William Fedkenheuer, who was in front on stage left. Completing the square upstage from Fedkenheuer was John Largess on viola. It is always nice to see ensembles trying something different.
They opened with Haydn’s second-to-last completed quartet, in G-major, Op. 77 no.2, and took the opening Allegro moderato with a very march-like tempo, a bit slower than usual. Their tightness came through in places like the transition between the sections in the recap. They also clearly sounded every note in the rapid, melodic runs, which sloppy performers often slide over. Not here.
The second movement, a slow Adagio, had a dream-like quality consistent with its distant key. They captured the moodiness well. In the minuet, which is really a Scherzo-type movement that the young Beethoven was making popular, their playing seemed a bit restrained. With a Presto tempo marking, this is where Haydn should be rambunctious. Instead, the Miró Quartet took a reflective approach.
My biggest issue is that they did not honor Haydn’s request for repeats in the opening movement or finale. At this time late in life, Haydn’s recapitulations were abbreviated. Without the repeats, the outer movements are too brief, diminishing their weight on the whole quartet.
Their entertaining approach came out in the two next works on the program, both of which are on their album Home. Second violinist Fedkenheuer gave a thoughtful introduction to George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, calling out similarities to another work on their album, the string quartet version of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Like the Barber, Walker’s piece started life as a string quartet.
The aural palette of Lyric for Strings is remarkably similar to that of Adagio for Strings. The main difference being that, instead of a sad pensive feel, Walker’s piece sounds more optimistic, even though, as the program noted, Walker dedicated it to the memory of his grandmother. It was a very effective vehicle for the Miró Quartet to show off an amazing ability to gel, where instruments sound so uniform, it is not always clear who is playing what. This is an ideal sound.
The fun appeared with Microfictions, Vol .1, which Caroline Shaw wrote for the Miró Quartet in 2021. Cellist Joshua Gindele explained how it came about while Shaw was stuck at home in New York during the pandemic. Its six and a half brief movements are based on the stories by science fiction writer T. R. Darling, who limited the length of these stories to the number of characters allowed in a posting on Twitter. Before each movement, a member of the quartet read the stories aloud.
Shaw required a large variety of musical playing techniques for the ensemble, and Miró Quartet played it well. The funniest part came in “Movement III ½, Between the Third and Fourth Movements.” There, first violinist Daniel Ching explained that the break mid-way through allowed the second violinist say “Hello,” at which point Fedkenheuer stood up, waved, and said “Hello.”—a very humorous touch.
After intermission, Miró Quartet offered Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 8 in e-minor, Op. 59 no. 2. As was the case with Haydn, they did not honor Beethoven’s requested repeats. In this case, however, the repeats matter a lot more because the recapitulation in the opening movement has two endings. By ignoring the repeats, four measures of Beethoven’s music were not performed. Few ensembles honor that repeat, so Miró Quartet is not alone in this regard. I’m always hoping to hear all of Beethoven’s music in concert.
In any event, the performance was still great from the crisp opening chords to the contrasting melodies that quickly follow. This is dramatic Beethoven, and the Miro’ Quartet milked it for every moment of intensity. The Molto Adagio second movement in E-major allowed them to show off precise ensemble interaction and intonation. Starts, endings, and dynamic variations were perfect.
As an encore, the Miró Quartet performed William Ryden’s version for string quartet of Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen from The Wizard of Oz. This stunning encore, which is also on their recent Home release, showed off ever more talent. Best of luck to Miró Quartet at the Grammys!