Principally Precocious

Principally Precocious

First Unitarian Universalist Church, July 14

July's chamber-music capital of the world continued to flourish with the Austin Chamber Music Festival's Principally Precocious. For all the talk of youth obsession in our culture, in classical music such a fixation is unavoidably all the rage. With Saturday's performance, the festival, under the artistic direction of Michelle Schumann, exploited this in the best of ways.

Jam-packed into the clamshell-shaped sanctuary, the audience was animate from the start. Enter the Jupiter String Quartet, chamber music's rising stars. The 2007 recipients of the career-defining Cleveland Quartet prize, the ensemble – whose members are all younger than 30 – reprised its triumphant 2006 visit to the festival with an ambitious program: Mendelssohn, Bartok, and more Mendelssohn.

As described in Schumann's spirited introduction, Felix Mendelssohn's String Quartet #6 is a departure from his typically buoyant style. Written following the sudden death of his beloved sister, the piece is wrought with anguish. In the able hands of the Jupiter String Quartet, however, the result was a sublime elegy, its angst brought to life with clarity and drive.

When the audience calmed, cellist and Austin native Daniel McDonough broke from the group to lead a humorous, interactive tutorial on the quartet's next piece, his peers assisting with musical snippets. It was clever to introduce an intense and unusual piece in this way, as was McDonough's closing hint: "So sit back; you won't be able to relax."

The five movements of Béla Bartók's Fifth String Quartet are written in "arch" form, which wraps the outer movements in symmetry around the distinctive third movement. Given its dense modal harmonies and tricky rhythms, this was nothing if not meaty repertoire. Any concerns about the quartet's maturity, however, were silenced by a technically brilliant, inspired performance. Through the battles of the first and fifth movements, the mournful tones of the second and fourth, and the Bulgarian-folk-inspired jaunt of the third, the ensemble attacked the piece with an impressive vigor that only improved through the most challenging sections. The piece ended in rapturous applause, the lovefest in full force. And that was just the first act.

For the latter half of the program, the festival brought out the Azmari Quartet – itself a dynamic up-and-comer – to join with the Jupiter Quartet for Mendelssohn's majestic Octet for Strings. Written at the age of 16 – a full two years before the prodigy chose composition as his profession – this was Mendelssohn's personal favorite work. Gauging the anticipation of the audience, it was obvious the sentiment wasn't his alone. The players soared through the symphonic Octet with an infectious joy, eventually settling into the fine balance of a single ensemble. By the concluding rush of the last movement, played at a frighteningly furious pace, the audience (this writer included) exploded in the kind of roaring applause that marks a genuinely inspired performance.

This was an event with glorious personality: thoroughly welcoming, energetic, and mischievous. In a field where a shrinking audience and appeal is an often inescapable concern, it was exciting to see scores of young people, toddlers to teenagers, taking in the experience. What resulted was a fiery brew of youthful, virtuosic programming, for which Schumann and her festival colleagues have an obvious knack.

During the third ovation, Austin Chamber Music Center students, armed with roses, took the stage to award their chamber idols. Precious? Maybe. Precocious? No question.