San Francisco Performances presents a Robert Greenberg lecture: Mozart in Vienna, Season 2: Mozart Transcendent featuring the Alexander String Quartet with Charith Premawardhana
2016-01-09
St. John's Presbyterian Church
2727 College Ave, Berkeley, CA
10:00 AM, Saturday, January 9, 2016

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

• Mozart: Quartet in F Major, K. 590
• Mozart: Viola Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 614

[10:03 AM lights down, announcements by Ruth Felt]

1. [10:05 AM] [Lecture by Robert Greenberg]
   [ends 10:33, pause for a bit of tuning]
    
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): String Quartet No. 23 in F major, K. 590, 1790
2. [10:34 AM] Allegro moderato
3. [10:43 AM] Andante
4. [10:51 AM] Menuetto. Allegretto
5. [10:55 AM] Allegro
   [set ends 11:02 AM; applause, then all off after a minute]

1. [11:25 AM] (Lecture by Robert Greenberg)
   [lecture ends 11:56 AM; pause for applause, then tuning]
    
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: String Quintet No. 6, Viola Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 614, 1791;
   with Charith Premawardhana: viola.
2. [11:57 AM] Allegro di molto
3. [12:06 PM] Andante
4. [12:14 PM] Menuetto: Allegretto
5. [12:18 PM] Allegro
   [show ends 12:24 PM]

Alexander String Quartet

• Zakarias Grafilo: violin;
• Frederick Lifsitz: violin;
• Sandy Wilson: cello;
• Paul Yarbrough: viola
  with special guest,
• Charith Premawardhana: viola.

• Robert Greenberg: lecturer.

Arrived a little early to find both a plethora of parking spots and an over abundance of drivers seeking the same. I'm not sure why folks were having a hard time selecting one, but instead of waiting for them, I simply pulled into the first space available. Decision-making doesn't always have to be so hard, does it? Turns out that today's guest violist was one of the folks ahead of me, and the church seems to have simultaneously scheduled some sort of neighborhood meeting (Berkeley Property Owners Association?), so at least some of the delay can probably be attributed to first-time visitor confusion. In any case, the lobby was pretty empty when I entered, and after grabbing a cup of Peet's, I found a spot second or third in line to enter. Perfect!

Today's first lecture was excellent – I really enjoy it best when Robert focuses on the technical and structural elements of the music rather than the sociological and historical background. Not that the other stuff isn't interesting, but it doesn't help me grasp the music much better, which is what I'd like to get out of the lectures. And I did! And the following performance was excellent – as good as I can hope for!

Wandered outside at setbreak to finish my lukewarm coffee under threatening skies while waiting for other folks to grab a cup, then bummed to find the dispenser dry once I returned inside. Drat!

The second lecture this morning began by covering the major elements of the final work on the program, Mozart's incredible Viola Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 614 , and ended with a brief discourse by Robert Greenberg explaining why he thought most of the speculation about Mozart's death is preposterous. Bob's conclusion: rheumatic fever, a recurring scourge until the advent of modern antibiotic treatment. The lecture was fun, but strangely, I felt a little let down by the performance in this half of the concert. Whether it was from my unfamiliarity with the work, it's technical difficulty, or some other issue, I can't really tell. What I can say is that at numerous points, it seemed to me as if the intergroup timing was a little off, leading to a mushy, blurred sound instead of the crisp playing I normally expect from musicians of this calibre. Ah well, they can't all be perfect shows, and who's to say, maybe I was just a little too distracted, worrying about the hacking coughers around me – gotta dodge those invisible flying sputa! Ain't no way that I'm gonna collect any rheumatic fever particles from this show. Next time I'm bringing my ColdAvenger face mask…

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!