Rosamunde String Quartet
First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH
March 3, 2024

Haydn: String Quartet in C major, Op. 20 No. 2, Hob. III:32
Puts: Credo
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132

Something of a supergroup amongst string quartets, the Rosamunde is comprised of current or former members of the Berlin, New York, and Los Angeles philharmonics, affording these players an opportunity to supplement their orchestral responsibilities by indulging in their love of chamber music. Their Sunday afternoon program at Cincinnati’s Linton Chamber Music offered two major classical period quartets sandwiching a more recent expression in the medium.

Dubbed the “father of the sting quartet,” Haydn virtually invented the form – and it was the set of six that comprise the watershed opus 20 in particular that earned him the title. Collectively known as the Sun Quartets owing to an early edition’s cover illustration, the Rosamunde selected the second quartet, in the sunny key of C major. A rather mellow beginning was had with the first violin absent from the opening few bars, and there was a particularly robust part for cello – Haydn was at his most lyrical here. A slow movement was stern and solemn, perhaps a look back towards the Baroque stylistically, but the latter section was truly radiant – and fittingly timed with the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the church’s stained glass windows.

A minuet followed without pause, much more restrained than typical for the composer, and a trio contrasted in the minor. Though less of a hallmark of Haydn’s later quartets, half of opus 20 concludes with a fugue. The four-voice fugue that closed the present example evidenced the Rosamunde’s incisive clarity and taut communication.

A 2007 work by Kevin Puts took the string quartet to the present day. On commission from the Miró Quartet, Puts was tasked with writing a work to capture the “lighter side of America,” a requirement he found quite a challenge given the backdrop of wars in the Middle East and mass shootings back home. The resulting Credo painted short vignettes which inspired feelings of hope in some fashion.

The Violin Guru of Kantonah brought to life an instrument maker in the titular New York town. Improvisatory in character, it seemed to gingerly experiment with the different possibilities of the instruments, and a cross-section of excerpts from the violin repertoire surfaced in the first violin. Infrastructure was inspired by the bridges and highways the composer passed taking the path along the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. Guttural and motoric, it depicted the marvels of industry with vigor.

Intermezzo: Learning to Dance recollected when Puts observed a mother teaching her daughter how to dance, its nostalgic lyricism capturing a sweet moment. The Pittsburgh tableau was reprised with the vigor turned up one more notch before the closing Credo, the heart of the piece. Puts purveyed a resonant lyricism, grappling and questioning for answers, ultimately finding a peaceful if inconclusive resolution.

Beethoven’s monumental opus 132 completed the program. Somewhat in the manner of where the Puts left off, Beethoven’s penultimate quartet began searching and musing, with the opening movement finding its footing in material that the Rosamunde gave with a rich sonority, a wide-ranging essay that culminated in a blistering coda. The crux of the work came in the central Heiliger Dankgesang, unfolding as a deeply-felt hymn. In his spoken remarks, violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley suggested a connective thread between the Puts and Beethoven in that both find hope in difficult times (in Beethoven’s case, in the wake of recovering from serious illness). At times the mood was simply ecstatic, an expression of joy all too uncommon for the tragic composer. The brief march that followed was rather quotidian by comparison, bringing matters back down to the earthly, and providing a moment of levity before the pathos-laden finale.