Leipzig String Quartet

The first thing I noticed about the Leipzig String Quartet was the fantastic mood of the musicians. They were all smiling pleasantly, exchanging quick laughs between movements and making discreet gestures to the visibly delighted audience.

The second thing I noticed is that they were all melting away. Ottawa’s August humidity was clearly a problem for this group of Germans from Leipzig (much more so than for musicians of the Shanghai Quartet) who were constantly having to pull a white cloth out of their pockets to wipe away the perspiration dripping from their faces.

But the main thing was the music, and it was great. The execution was exciting and full of panache, the shaping was innovative without being distracting and the repertoire, yes the repertoire, was finally conservative: Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich.

I was truly impressed by the wonderful ability of these Germans to sing. They didn’t just play notes, they played music by treating each note as a syllable and each bar as a key word of a song. Every last bit of music was sucked out of the page with the end result often sending shivers up my spine. It helped of course that they played Mendelssohn and Beethoven, two composers with a real knack for melody , but even the Shostakovich G minor piano Quintet performed jointly with Stéphane Lemelin had intricate phrasing and real lyricism.

My only criticism is the same one that I make after every concert, namely: I want more sound. I’m beginning to think that it must have something to do with church acoustics or my seating in the hall because I consistently feel that performers could easily double the volume without hurting anyone’s ears. The NAC Music Director Pinchas Zukerman likes to use the phrase “Play to the exit sign” to help young musicians perform with a full sound. And while Zukerman may be a soloist rather than a chamber musician, his advice still applies to the Chamberfest musicians: a sound that can fill the hall right up to the exit sign is more exciting not only for its added power and depth, but also for making possible the stark volume contrasts that are so fundamentally important to chamber music.