San Francisco Performances presents Esmé Quartet
Herbst Theatre
Veterans' Building, San Francisco War Memorial Performing Arts Center, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102-4522 USA
7:30 PM, Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2022 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2022 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:34 PM] {lights down, welcome speech by Melanie Smith, performers out}

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809): String Quartet in G Major, Op. 77 No. 1, Hob.III:81 (1799)

1. [7:37 PM] Allegro moderato
2. [7:44 PM] Adagio
3. [7:50 PM] Minuet. Presto - Trio
4. [7:55 PM] Finale. Presto
   [8:00 PM] {work ends; applause; all off for a minute or so}

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957): String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 26 (1933); score

1. [8:03 PM] Allegro
2. [8:10 PM] Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto
3. [8:14 PM] Larghetto: Lento
4. [8:22 PM] Waltz: Tempo di Valse
   [8:28 PM] {set ends; applause; all off for break!}

[8:49 PM] {lights down, performers out}

Antonín Dvorák (1841–1904): String Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 106 (1895)

1. [8:49 PM] Allegro moderato
2. [9:00 PM] Adagio ma non troppo
3. [9:11 PM] Molto vivace — Un poco più mosso
4. [9:18 PM] Finale. Andante sostenuto — Allegro con fuoco
   [9:29 PM] {set ends; applause; all off for encore break}

[9:30 PM] {comments from Wonhee Bae}

1. [9:33 PM] Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992): Introducción al Ángel (1963), Mvt I of Suite del Ángel, (arr. Eckart Runge)
   [9:38 PM] {show ends; applause; all done by 9:39 PM}

Esmé Quartet

• Wonhee Bae: first violin;
• Yuna Ha: second violin;
• Ye-eun Heo: cello;
• Jiwon Kim: viola.

Tonight was the Esmé Quartet's North American debut, and wow!, what an introduction!

The opening performance of Haydn's late work was utterly divine: elegant, refined, and thoroughly exciting in the presto finale.

The second piece performance was also quite good, though I'm not so enamored of Korngold's sumptuous romanticism. I liked some of the sections composed for viola, but ending his work with a waltz? What a goofy idea!

Tonight was the first SF Performances show I can think of in awhile that came in two sets. Yay! That's a sign of the return to normalcy despite the ongoing pandemic. And an encore too! But more on that after a moment.

The second set Dvorák was great, even if my attention span wasn't quite up to the task of staying engaged for the full period. I admit it: after the first movement my thoughts began to wander here and there like a flock of parrots flitting about Telegraph Hill. So what stood out? The second violin part in the first movement really grabbed me… And then what? Hard to say! So much for my grand aspiration to a exalted career as a music critic, eh? Things probably would have gone better in this department if I'd have been taking notes, but my pen ran out ink, and it was all I could do to scratch timing info into the program page.

At the conclusion of the work, the crowd was quick to stand and applaud, and after two curtain calls, the group came back for a welcome encore. Wonhee made a lengthy introduction, giving us a bit of back story on the genesis of the arrangement they played (namely, that Artemis Quartet cellist Eckart Runge presented this piece to the group as a celebration of the birth of Artemis Quartet violinist Natalia Prischepenko's first child), and making a small joke about asking Ye-eun to do her a similar favor in the future.

And how did it go? Terrific! The piece was a fabulous nightcap. I look forward to seeing them again sometime in the future.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2022 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2022 event list! ☸ On to the next event!