14 • 6 March 2009 • Skidmore News

a&e 

music review 

Quartet captivates hundreds 
Christopher Weigl
Photo Editor

The quartet’s presence on campus is both a boon to learning musicians and others who appreciate fine music.
The Hawthorne String Quartet, named after Nathaniel Hawthorne, started in 1986 with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Violinists Ronan Lefkowitz and Si-Jing Huang, violist Mark Ludwig and cellist Sato Knudsen travel the world performing a variety of pieces from the contemporary to more classic works.
     
Filene filled up early this past Friday with a mix of students and visitors from the broader Saratoga community. The group began Saturday’s concert with a Charles Ives piece, “String Quartet No. 1.” Broken into four movements, the piece quickly showcased the talent of the four musicians.
    
The group possessed an amazingly robust sound and moved as a cohesive group; bow movements and entrances were nearly flawless. The quartet played four pieces in total, with a short intermission breaking the performance in half.
    
In addition to the Ives, the quartet performed Hans Krasa’s “String Quartet”, Elliot Carter’s “Fragment No. II for String Quartet”, and Franz Schubert’s “String Quartet No. 13 in A minor." Although Schubert’s piece is better known, the Hans Krasa composition stole the show. Ludwig discovered that Krasa originally envisioned an artist painting his response to the music on-stage, and so painter Jim Schantz accompanied the quartet.
    
Working on a large canvas throughout the song, Schantz ended with a creation made up of bold colors and large, sweeping strokes. However, disappointingly the painter’s movements and strokes did not directly correlate with the music’s crescendos and swells. This disconnect made the painting seem like more of a sideshow than an enhancement.
    
The quartet’s presence on campus is both a boon to learning musicians and others who appreciate fine music. In addition to the official performance, the quartet members “individually coached different string chamber groups...both Skidmore and local high school,” Peri Strongwater ’11 said. These smaller, student groups had their own performance Sunday. Despite a somewhat lackluster visual aspect, the quartet’s Friday performance was enjoyable.


The Hawthrone String Quartet delighted the audience at Skidmore this past Friday as part of the Sterne Virtuoso Series. 
Photo illustration by Chris Weigl                                                                                       


Artist Jim Schantz accompanied the quartet on stage, his painting inspired by the music. 
Chris Weigl