Jake Grimsley

New Bartók String Quartet

This concert was an incredible experience, especially after having just started to play a

string instrument in general. Having gone from a class with people who don’t feel incredibly

comfortable playing their instruments, and even the scales that we play don’t necessarily sound

the best, to a concert with all virtuosic players playing incredibly difficult music was amazing. It

shows you as a player who’s not very comfortable with their instrument what you can do if you

work incredibly hard and practice a great deal. Seeing people who play string instruments as a

career is inspiring and reinvigorates the drive to learn and play better in your classes, as although

these classes are hard, and in the cases of instrument tech classes, sometimes uncomfortable,

they do a lot of good which you may not realize while you are in them. The program started off

with a piece by W.A. Mozart called “Quartet in D Minor, K. 421.” The performers in the New

Bartók String Quartet, violinist Wanch, violinist Airi Yoshioka, violist James Stern, and cellist

Eric Kutz, played four movements of this piece, the second which was called “Allegro”, the

third, “Andante”, the fourth, “Menuetto & Trio. Allegretto”, and the fifth, “Allegretto and ma

non troppo”. This piece was a wonderful first introduction to the concert, and allowed me to

watch them play and to just enjoy. The precision that they use when playing is incredible. I was

obviously there through the entire concert and I don’t believe a heard a single note that was off-

pitch. They were able to play fast passages, extremely expressive passages, and just about

everything you could imagine without sounding off at all. As someone just learning that playing

a D major scale is incredibly hard, this was humbling and inspiring to see. The second piece

they played, written by Béla Bartók, was entitled “Quartet No. 6 Op. 7,” and the movements they

played were called “Mesto-Piu mosso, pesante-vivace,” “Mesto-Marcia,” “Mesto-Burletta-

moderato,” and “Mesto.” This piece continued the same trends in the earlier piece. Going

though, they played wonderfully as a group, and when sections in the music came for each of

them to play a more exposed part they did so as well. All of the pieces played in this concert

were not modern by any means, so they didn’t have many “extra” sounds. They were straight

forward in terms of technique, which made their technique all the more intriguing. Every little

bit seemed to be just about perfect, which was very inspiring to watch. As a future music

educator, this concert in general made me want to become more knowledgeable about string

quartet music in general, and to be able to pass some of that knowledge and appreciation onto my

students. This was a wonderfully played concert, and very inspiring as a whole.