United States Various, ‘Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series’: Juilliard String Quartet (Areta Zhulla, Leonard Fu [violins], Molly Carr [viola], Astrid Schween [cello]), Catherine Cho (violin), Marcy Rosen (cello). Alice Tully Hall, New York, 4.12.2025. (DS)
Brahms – String Quartet in A minor, Op.51, No.2
Leonard Fu – Popular Dances (world premiere)
Kurtág – Six Moments Musicaux, Op.44
Schoenberg – Verklärte Nacht, Op.4
Last week, the Juilliard String Quartet gained a new violinist, Leonard Fu. His debut with them (as both performer and composer) at Alice Tully Hall revealed a fresh, adventurous, highly discerning voice that will undoubtedly alter the path ahead for this 79-year-old musical institution in exciting ways.
With a frank and natural spontaneity that in no way detracts from their exacting technical mastery, the quartet’s style evokes camaraderie – they listen to one another, play as equals, and the output is inspired. Fu performed second violin with seven-year member Areta Zhulla on first. They struck a mellifluous unison that signaled a strong partnership ripe for growth. Zhulla’s candid, heartfelt style of unbridled expression found balance with Fu’s methodical approach, well-anchored in a sincere, beautiful sound.
Opening the recital was Brahms’s challenging String Quartet in A minor, in which players must tackle a vast array of the composer’s styles and approaches to material variation in quick succession. The group’s signature precision of rhythm shone in the quietest, most complex moments – one was left breathless. While their gentle repartee was positively luminous in parts, I wished for more effective advance planning (which may emerge as they settle into their new configuration) on each buildup to climactic material – so easily overdone with Brahms and a trap they fell into most times. Yet their poise in ensemble playing maintained a thread throughout, with cellist Astrid Schween time and again proving herself their core player; she reset several moments by drawing out a line with a disarming, heavenly warmth.
In a gesture of welcome, the quartet members had asked Fu to compose a new work for the evening, which he introduced to the audience as a ‘counterbalance’ to the weightiness of the program. While that proved to be true, Popular Dances did not lack in seriousness. It had a tight structure with a medley of styles that moved fluidly from one to the next. Fu ingeniously pits the instruments against each other in a jovial style that led each to vying, charmingly, for attention. It was convivial competition filled with harmonics, plump plucks, shimmering tremolos, descending pizzicatos and exquisitely executed ascending layers. Popular Dances is definitely one to take on the roads.
For me, the evening’s superlative moment lay in their performance of György Kurtág’s Six Moments Musicaux: small works that are densely filled with an array of sounds like Webern for a post-modern era. They maintained deliciously tense timing in the movements ‘Footfalls’ and ‘Capriccio’, especially in sections of disjointed syncopation. Their treatment of dissonance evoked a feeling akin to Hitchcockian suspense. And in the standout movement, ‘Rappel des oiseaux’, they displayed nimble shifts between textures and sonic spaces, from the deepest sounds to the most ethereal. However, what Kurtag may not have realized was the addition of live coughing that these distinct sculptural works demanded, not to mention various dropped items throughout the hall to sprinkle in the most quiet, hovering moments. The unintended audience participation verged on the Cageian. But it was still great.
The evening concluded with veteran faculty from the Juilliard School joining to make up a sextet for Schoenberg’s somber and mysterious Verklärte Nacht – like the god Janus himself, a work that faces back at Brahms while simultaneously staring down the new century ahead. The performance was polished and narratively expressive, painterly even. Violist, Molly Carr, who all along performed with a deep, shining color palette, proved exceptional with the Schoenberg, handling the first viola part with a firm yearning tone and a precise, alluring vibrato that married well the romantic with the modern.
A leader in American string quartet playing, the Juilliard String Quartet occupies a unique position by performing both as artists and teachers. This dichotomy affords them a passport for flexibility and exploration in terms of voice and style that other ensembles could find themselves under scrutiny for even endeavoring to attempt. In this new iteration, I am eager to see where the journey takes them.
Daniele Sahr