The Classical Review

The Dover Quartet has received critical acclaim as one of the finest chamber music groups currently playing and recording classic and contemporary repertoire. The four Dover players more than confirmed that impression with a superbly executed program Monday night at the University of Miami’s Newman Recital Hall. 

Culminating a day-long residency at the Frost School of Music that included coaching and masterclasses, the concert was a demonstration of skilled ensemble playing and interpretive depth. The Dover’s intonation and corporate blending are impeccable and their skill at playing even the most difficult scores is awesome. 

They opened with Strum by Jessie Montgomery, a contemporary vignette that is fast becoming a modern classic. The piece opens with the violist strumming on the instrument like a guitar, followed by rapid figurations and fragments of melody that sometimes allude to country fiddling. Montgomery herself is a violinist and chamber music player and that is reflected in her string  writing. Her virtuoso romp found the four musicians in a swinging pulse at hard drive.

The String Quartet No. 1 (“The Kreutzer Sonata”) by Leoŝ Janáĉek is a 20th-century classic. The work is based on a story by Leo Tolstoy about a husband suspecting his wife of having an affair with a fellow musician she rehearses Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata with; the tale ends in murder and tragedy. 

The Czech composer transmits the passion and fury of the story in his concentrated musical voice while creating a technical minefield for the players. The Dover conquered all the myriad challenges while presenting a performance that served as a textbook example of dramatic projection and insight. They vividly transmitted the high theatricality of the first movement in a performance of fire and intensity. The off kilter Czech dance rhythm of the second movement was given edgy thrust with sumptuous sonority from Julianne Lee’s viola. 

Violinist Joel Link’s strong leadership gave impassioned emphasis to the deeply romantic theme of the Molto vivace, only to be interrupted by Lee’s viola with a terse figure depicting the husband’s killing of his spouse. Her sound now turning harsh, Lee’s repeated fiery pronouncements made a powerful impact. The impassioned, dark theme of the final movement was given full weight, in an aptly searing conclusion. Throughout the quartet’s reading, violinists Link and Bryan Lee’s sound remained silken and beautiful, even in the most daunting passages in their instruments’ highest range.

Czech chamber music of a different character was heard in the String Quartet No. 12 in F Major (“American”), Dvořák’s postcard from Spillville, Iowa in the summer of 1893. Both Dvořák’s Czech roots and his prophecy for American classical music to be based on Native American songs and African-American spirituals are given full sway in the quartet’s lyrical outpouring. 

With pristine clarity of articulation, underlying voicings and phrases in the opening movement that usually go unheard became clear and transparent. Camden Shaw’s lightly bowed cello solo fully brought forth the poignant nostalgia of the Lento. The dance-infused character of the third movement was fully captured and robust assertiveness brought the final Vivace to a brisk, festive conclusion. The Dover foursome offered a traversal that was more than the sum of its parts. Rather than play each movement as a separate piece, they encapsulated the entire score’s long structural arc in masterful fashion.

Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 in D Major represents nationalism of a distinctly Russian variety. From the very first bars, the Dover players enunciated that theirs was going to be anything but a standard, routine version. Rather than spacing out the opening motif with pauses, like many Russian ensembles, they assayed it as one sweeping theme. The secondary subject was likewise broadly stated in an elongated span. 

Adopting a moderate tempo, the Dover allowed the famous Andante cantabile to unfurl its melodic riches organically. Vigorous attack and lithe phrasing brought the Scherzo to a musical boiling point. The Russian soul embedded in the Allegro finale was fully manifest and the players ratcheted up the intensity of the final bars, the last chords immediately brining the full house to its feet.

The applause and curtain calls continued until the players returned with a delightful encore: the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E minor, Op. 44., no. 2. With a light, feathery touch, the Dover brought out the playful aura of this sprightly excerpt.

The Dover Quartet performs in Boston on Friday night and Salt Lake City March 4. celebrityseries.org