Doric Quartet @ Phillips

Charles T. Downey, Britain’s Doric Quartet shows off knife-edged sound at Phillips Collection
Washington Post, November 13, 2012

R. Schumann, String Quartets, op. 41, Doric Quartet (2011) Schubert, String Quartets, Doric Quartet (2012)

A young string quartet may distinguish itself by its unusual sound, an unconventional choice of repertoire or an attention-catching gimmick. The gimmick groups generally fade in short order, but Britain’s Doric Quartet showed the first two, more enduring distinctions during a concert Sunday afternoon at the Phillips Collection.

For the somewhat unexpected program, cellist John Myerscough thanked the organizers of the Phillips series, who gave the Doric greater freedom by not insisting on any tried and true audience pleasers. The group’s fine recordings for the Chandos label have included discs devoted to Erich Korngold and William Walton, but it chose instead the Quartet in C Minor, Op. 35, by Ernest Chausson.

It gave its first movement a searing intensity, the chromatically inflected sense of pining contrasted with a blithe middle section. The four musicians moved with a near-faultless cohesion, giving the middle movement a sentimental quality and the third a slightly harried, dancing propulsion. [Continue reading]

Doric String Quartet
Schumann, Quartet in F Major (op. 41/2)
Ernest Chausson, String Quartet in C Minor, op. 35
Benjamin Britten, String Quartet in C Major, Op. 36
Phillips Collection

SEE ALSO:
Tom Huizenga, Music Review: Doric String Quartet at the Library of Congress (Washington Post, November 21, 2010)