A. Gonzalez, V. Fung, K. Kim, R. Freivogel, J Freivogel (A. Wasserman Photo)

JASPER'S LUSH PERFORMANCES OF STILL, DVORAK AND FUNG QUARTETS

The Jasper String Quartet’s November 10 concert in Mill Valley revealed sonic jewels in the music of Still, Vivian Fung and Dvořák. The Jasper members—J Freivogel and Karen Kim, violins; violist Andrew Gonzalez and cellist Rachel Henderson Freivogel, achieved lovely balance and dense harmonies in their performance before a near-capacity audience in Chamber Music Marin’s second offering of the season at Mt. Tamalpais Methodist Church.

The concert began with a captivating performance of Still’s lush Lyric String Quartette (his spelling), subtitled Musical Portraits of Three Friends, 1960. During a fecund period for African American composers (Price, William L. Dawson, Undine Smith Moore, W.C. Handy are others), Still was regarded as the most distinguished. His three-movement portraiture opens with “The Sentimental One,” a warm and tender musical poem of rippling tonalities that soothed my post-election blues. Although it had moments of agitation and playfulness and edges of dissonance, the overall mood was gently questioning. Toward the end a four-part unison trill segued into a sweet ascending solo by Mr. Freivogel reminiscent of Vaughn-Williams’ The Lark Ascending. Still didn’t identify the friends who inspired his composition, although his daughter Judith has proposed that the second movement, “The Quiet One,” portrays her mother, Verna Arvey, a pianist and librettist who collaborated frequently with her husband. That movement began ethereally with Ms. Freivogel’s eloquent cello and Mr. Gonzalez’s deep-voiced viola that led the ensemble into music of packed harmonies.

A lively change of pace, the third movement, (“The Jovial One”) morphed from a Copland-like Americana into a sudden Bartókian dance with a strongly pulsating beat. Could it be that this third friend was Romanian American? Altogether, the music spoke of warm friendships that soothed and scintillated.

Vivian Fung’s Quartet No. 2 (2009) was introduced by Ms. Kim, who pointed out that a strong sense of place connected the three works on the program. Ms. Fung, who lives in the Bay Area, joined her to note that she and the Jasper have a fruitful, decades-long relationship. She expressed appreciation for their collaboration. The work’s opening theme is a Chinese folksong that Ms. Fung’s mother used to hum around the house. This theme occurs in several of the movements and is obviously the heart of the composition. Its six movements are played with the briefest of pauses between. The calibration of tonal colors throughout was a tightly woven pattern out of which colorful notes popped to the fore before subsiding. “Introduction” began with the theme as a chorale, very slowly and nostalgically, conveying sorrow and loss. A single plucked cello note marked its conclusion. It was followed by “Of the Wind,” a rushing slide down the scale, a feeling of tree branches being whipped to and fro shedding twigs in a furious ostinato. The third, “Of Birds and Insects,” was rich with string glissandos and trills, altogether delightful from the opening call of a cuckoo through an air-scape of busy insects. The musicians’ spiccato bows skittered along their instruments’ strings like hopping crickets, creating a rhythmic dance of nature. It was electrifying.

The folksong theme returned in the fourth movement with a difference: each musician played one note at a time, passing on the next, like a round robin of people telling a story one-word-by-one-word yet making it sound intelligible. It’s obvious that Ms. Fung and the Quartet relish a challenge because it came off as smoothly as whipped cream with spice. According to the program notes, the term for this in German is klangfarbenmelodie, or tone-color-melody. The fifth movement, “Of Tribes and Villages,” was compellingly rhythmic while also evoking a sense of loss, possibly the loss that one suffers when leaving their home country to start anew. The final movement, “Of Ghosts and Memories,” reprised the Chinese folk song, again played as a chorale interspersed with memory fragments of the past.

Completing the program was Dvořák’s monumental last quartet, Op. 105 in A Flat Major. Th composer began the work in New York City but stopped after writing some 77 measures to return home to Czechoslovakia, and composed an entirely new quartet, then completed the Op. 105. The two last quartets thus embrace each other, with Op. 105 finishing last.

The performance began with a brooding cello statement by Ms. Freivogel, followed by seeming cries of frustration or pain from the other strings. Then the musical mood changed to nostalgia and hope, lightheartedness and freeing of spirit, followed by a gleeful march. Emotions rapidly shifted and built in intensity, with repeats of the original musical phrase. The second movement was performed with much spirit, light and airy repetitions and sentimental connections. A long unison note led to a tender section and a quick waltz with inner flourishes that morphed into a vigorous folk dance. Ms. Kim’s intense second violin playing throughout was movingly expressive.

The Lento e molto cantabile third movement was played poignantly, full of ruminations and accented by much pizzicato. In the dramatic fourth movement. Ms. Freivogel’s played an assertive melody that was then passed to Mr. Freivogel’s superb violin line. A fugal section and measures resembling birdsong led to a triumphant, joyfully lyrical conclusion. The Jasper sonorities throughout were gorgeous, with precise attacks and subtle voicing. Mr. Gonzalez’s viola sound was especially warm.

A standing ovation followed and the composer and performers met with their appreciative audience.