Inspired by the Brentano Quartet’s performance of Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 quartet, the Entr’acte sounds like it has one foot planted in the 18th century and the other firmly in the 21st. Time and sound seem to refract through a kaleidoscope of colors, leaving the listener endlessly fascinated.
The music is melancholy with intense fluctuations in dynamics like the liquidity of emotions. Pitch is relevant until it is not as the score takes a curve into another world with an extended technique of brushing the bow hair on, but not vibrating, the string for whooshes and sweeps.
Wherever the music takes us, the musicians expertly create the path with exact skills. The soundscape is marked by exceptional colors, harmonics and bent sighing notes. Pizzicato, a traditional technique, is put to full use and with dampened strings during a notable solo by concertmaster Daniel Jordan.