ARTS The Michigan Daily Wednesday, March 26, 1986 Page 5 New World: Old appeal By Debra Shreve IT has been said that a good string quartet player is the musician's musician, since the delicate art of quartet playing requires that each member displays the highest degree of individual excellence, as well as a sophisticated ability to fuse himself into the unity of the group. This latter phenomenon, the unity of the group, comes only when a particular set of four musicians has played and per- formed together over a period of time; they have become sensitive to one another's styles, and found a way to mold these individual styles into a dynamic whole. In their third season now with the same personnel - Curtis Macomber and Vahn Armstrong, violins; Robert Dan, viola; and Ross Harbaugh, cello - it was clear from Monday night's performance that the New World String Quarter has reached this level of maturity as a group. Performing to a sparse crowd in Rackham Auditorium, the New World String Quartet offered a program of standard quartet repetoire as the third and last concert for this season in their "quartet-in-residence" series at the University. After a day of giving master classes and coaching student quartets at the School of Music, the quartet settled down in the evening to perform works by Mozart, Verdi, and Beethoven. Opening the program with Mozart's Quartet in A Major (K.464), gave the quartet ample opportunity to excer- cise their new maturity, Mozart's works being always a merciless challenge to the harmonic balance of the group. Particularly in the Meneut- to movement, where brief motifs are passed around alternatively in unison, duets, and solos, all in a quick tempo, the quartet met the demands of the piece beautifully, never faltering musically or visually in their very pleasing interpretation. The Verdi Quartet in E Minor represented the more unusual category in string quartet repetoire. The only string quarter composed by this very popular opera composer, this is a late work, and quite delight- fully exhibits the composer's accom- plished operatic style. It seems, in fact, that Verdi managed to tran- smute the standard features of operatic drama into the string quartet medium, filling the work with the sticky-sweet romantic splendor of solo arias, often shifting abruptly into passages in which the four voices more upward together in a flam- boyantly passionate crescendo. The quartet carried all this off with just the right dose of melodrama, clearly enjoying themselves in the process. Probably the most complex and in- tense work on the program was the C Sharp Minor Quartet by Beethoven (opus 131). In this work, composed in 1826, ( a year before Beethoven's death), Beethoven ventured out of the standard four-movement quartet form and forged together a unified work of seven sections. The ex- periment, apparently, was successful, since Beethoven considered this his greatest quartet, and many now con- sider it one of the greatest by any composer. One can recognize many of Beethoven's moods in this piece: the urgent vigor of the Presto movement, the intense pathos of the Adagio, as well as frequent instan- ces of Beethovian humor, which the quartet executed with lively effec- tiveness. The quartet maintained their concentration throughout this long and difficult work, reaching several brief but exquisite moments, and achieving overall an excellent perfromance. It is not difficult to understand why this Grand Rapids-based group has been receiving national recognition and critical acclaim in the toughest arenas of chamber performance. Af- ter several troubled years, during which the New World underwent three successive changes in personnel (Ross Harbaugh is the only original member), it appears the New World Quartet has now discovered a com- bination of personalities and in- dividual musical excellence which they can mold into an outstanding unity. Company delivers stylish flair By Malia Frey T HE most unfortunate thing about Monday's Bella Lewitzky concert Was that not enough people were there to see it. The Los Angeles-based Bella Lewitzky Dance Company performed their first Ann Arbor concert to a barely half-full Power Center audien- ce. Nevertheless, it was an excellent show. Costumes by Rudi Gernreich made "Inscape" an intriguing piece. Designer Gernreich created fantastic headgear for one pair of dancers that connected them at the head. The result was hilarious. Dancers Ken- neth Talley and John Pennington, who wore the headpiece, fought from one end of the stage to the other trying to free themselves from their connec- tedness. Similar costumes dancers were connected from hip to knee, instead of at the head. Lewitzky's amusing choreography was expertly perfor- med by each enthusiatic duet. Audience and dancers alike laughed throughout the entire piece. During one segment of the piece, dancers wore unitards with one leg and one arm cut out. These costumes, along with intricate lighting patterns, made the dancers bodies seem strangely contorted while they danced to the sounds of crying babies, whispering voices and footsteps. Throughout Lewitzky's concert, her choreography focused on the sometimes emotional, but usually playful interaction between dancers. In "Continuum," and "Inscape" the focus was on duets. But in "Game Plan' the interaction was throughout the entire cast. The players in "Game Plan" danced to carefully constructed game rules which gover- ned entering and exiting the game. Players would call out one of five movement patterns which the dan- cers would perform until one dancer broke a rule. The endurance of the dancers was remarkable. They remained as en- thusiastic in this, Lewitzky's last piece, as they did in "Inscape," Lewitzky's first. Violinist Ruggiero Ricci will perform tonight at Rackham Auditorium. The performance will be at 8 p.m. Mr. Ricci is an Ann Arbor resident and teaches at U-M School of Music. i.,. Shov Mid POE SI w how you feel with ... higan Daily Personals 764-0557 A TED Major anthology now seeks poems: love, nature, haiku, song lyrics, reflective, free verse, religious - all types! Beginners are welcome! Our editors will reply within 7 days. Send ONE POEM ONLY, 21 lines or less, to: WORLD OF POETRY PRESS Dept. 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