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.
Ludwig von Beethoven’s birthday is next week. Musicians all over the world are marking his 250th year with celebratory performances. Constrained by the pandemic, the Sarasota Orchestra is celebrating with a compact, meaningful concert of two of the master’s string quartets.
The program opened Thursday night with his String Quartet No. 4, Op. 18 in C minor from Beethoven’s first set of quartets composed while still bearing the shadow of his teacher, Franz Josef Haydn. Pioneer of the form, Haydn had set a high bar for standards in the classical style for all to follow.
Beethoven, however, was already thumbing his nose to classical style, though stealthily at first. Seemingly smooth and melodically tame, syncopated accents and unexpected harmonic shifts catch the listener off guard in this early quartet.