r: « V ' . ‘ _-_-—-—-—-

MAUREEN

By, Alan Bjorndal ~ On Feb. 5th, at the "

Confederation Centre,

one of the finest musical

experiences of this year

happened. The Orford String Quartet presented, with ‘

Maureen Forrester, an

evening of music that I personally won't forget for a long time. ‘

_The program opened

'with the "Quartet in G major, Opus 51+" dating from 1788 by Haydn.

The opening movement is marked Allegretto and this sprightly feeling flowed throughout the entire movement. V

The second movement is marked Allegretto Gon Brio and it nicely contrasted the more stately'firstu

The third was the traditional Minuetto, and Terence Helmer on 1st violin shone with his warm sensitive play-

ing.

(xjgjh51fl3LID

4i UV

The final mOVement, Finale-Presto, was _ played very joyfully. Haydn definitely ‘ enjoyed himself when he wrote this very happy ending. ‘ ‘ r '

The next item on the program was "La Tentation de Sainte Antoine" by the modern German composer Werner Egk. Ms Forrester ’ joined the Orford Quartet to sing 8‘of the 13 songs of this cycle.

gThe 8-songs were interesting in the way in which Mr Egk tried to

eachieve a balance between

the problems of writing atonal music within a small structure.’

Maureen Forrester's singing was excallent from the start. Her concentration was. unbroken and flowed from one song to the next.

, The only criticism would be that Ms. Forrester's usually very intimate rapport with her audience was hindered by the use of the score for the songs. She conCentrated more with scbre than with the audience.

The next work was "Il Tramonto" by the early 20th century composer Ottorino ReSphigi. His work,which was essentially a Tone Poem for Contralto and String Quartet,echoes his great Symphonic Tone Poems. ,

'This performance was performed with great skill and artistry.

The differences in colours achieved by the strings" alone was incredible.

To add to this, the

voice of Maureen Forrester,which went from a flowing Bel Canto to

an easily'achieved Dramatic

The Orford String Quartet

with

Maureen Forrester

-

THE UPEI SUN} Thursday, February 28, l980} page 9 _-—-—-—

FORRESTER, w PERFORMS WELL

presence, made the. effect of the work very convincing.

The final offering was the Quartet No 8 from the Rasoumovsky cycle, so called because they were composed for

a Count Rasoumovsky in 1806.

The Quartet is from

’Beethoven's middle period,

the latter half of this PeriOd, incidentally.

The Orford Quartet played

Athis demanding work with

such ease that they made it appear simple to play that musically.

The entire concert was an evening of fine music being played very well by some of the finest musicians Canada has to offer. It was a concert the likes of which we

probably won't ex erience 1n Char ottetown or

a long time.

AH%WSNWQMNRéyH¢E

"‘ %5%¢a% ram l

in .'