Barry Lewis
Ancora String Quartet (from left): Benjamin Whitcomb, Robin Ryan, Wes Luke, Marika Fischer Hoyt.
A young and energetic new first-chair violin helped launch the new season for the Ancora String Quartet.
Wes Luke, a local freelance performer and teacher who plays in both the Madison Symphony and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, was a guest first violinist for the Ancoras two years ago. Now Luke has stepped in as a full member, replacing Leanne Kelso League, who has withdrawn from the ensemble after periods of absence.
Luke brings new excitement and vitality to this already outstanding ensemble, something much in evidence in the season opener at the First Unitarian Society on Sept. 17.
The quartet played the first work, Beethoven’s Quartet in G, Op. 18, No. 2, with unusual exuberance and focus. One could hear clearly how the young Beethoven was already creating a fusion of the older Classical style with the emerging new Romantic spirit.
The Spanish composer Joaquin Turina (1882-1949) has been overshadowed by his countryman Manuel de Falla, but he created much fine chamber and orchestral writing of his own. El Oración del torero (“The Bullfighter’s Prayer”), Op. 34, originally written for a quartet of Spanish lutes and then recast for string quartet, is perhaps his best-known composition, in its adaptation for string orchestra. Idiomatically Spanish in character, it is a moving picture of a toreador’s emotions before entering the bullfighting arena. The Ancoras gave it a powerful rendition.
Finally, the quartet launched into Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 in D, Op. 11. A youthful work, it shows how instinctively skillful the composer was in his first full-length work in this form. It is best known for its second movement, the Andante cantabile. Partly based on a Russian folk song, the string orchestra version is one of the composer’s all-time hits. But the other three movements are full of imagination — melodic and rhythmic. The Ancoras created a stunning rendition of this work.
I was able to hear them play this complete program in two different acoustical venues — the Grand Hall at Capitol Lakes Retirement Center and then at the Landmark Auditorium at First Unitarian Society. It is fascinating how different settings affect performing results. At Capitol Lakes, the sound was rich and beautifully blended; at the second venue it was more lean and transparent. Neither was “best,” but each showed how responsive the Ancora Quartet is under new leadership.
