Ying Quartet
PUSH Physical Theatre
Southern Theatre
Columbus, OH
March 26, 2022

Theofanidis: Valley of Detachment from Conference of the Birds
Haydn: Allegro di molto from String Quartet in A major, Op. 20 No. 6, Hob. III:36
Haydn: Allegro from String Quartet in A major, Op. 20 No. 6, Hob. III:36
Bartók: Andante from String Quartet No. 5, Sz. 102
Wolf: Italian Serenade
Tchaikovsky: Andante funebre from String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat minor, Op. 30
Mendelssohn: Andante espressivo from String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 44 No. 1
Schulhoff: Alla Czeca from Five Pieces for String Quartet
Schulhoff: Alla Tarantella from Five Pieces for String Quartet
Randall Thompson: Alleluia, Amen (arr. Ying Quartet)
Dvořák: Allegro ma non troppo from String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, American

At Chamber Music Columbus, the Ying Quartet teamed up with PUSH Physical Theatre – both ensembles of which are based in Rochester, New York – to breathe fresh air into the vaunted sting quartet recital. A wide-ranging sampling of the string quartet literature was intriguingly presented in tandem with physical theater, with each group of selections centered on a particular theme to invoke a narrative arc. At the heart of this creative collision was the art of storytelling, which as violist Philip Yang noted in his spoken remarks, lies central to who we are as human beings.

A movement from Christopher Theofanidis’ Conference of the Birds opened, with the gestures from the dance troupe mirroring the ebb and flow of the music. Two movements from Haydn followed; in this case, the elegance of the music was contrasted by the rather more risqué dance. The Andante from Bartók’s great Fifth Quartet took us into the realm of the surreal, a prime example of the Hungarian composer’s rarefied night music. Hugo Wolf’s lovely Italian Serenade was brought to life by a laugh-out-loud routine from PUSH, bringing humor and levity to what is usually a serious affair. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the doleful Andante funebre from Tchaikovsky’s Third Quartet – a tender wistfulness which served to depict the human cost of war.

Randall Thompson’s 1940 “Alleluia, Amen” – given in an arrangement by the Ying Quartet – served as a plaintive contrast to the gritty perpetuum mobile of the Schulhoff that preceded. The performance came to a close with the spacious opening movement of Dvořák’s American quartet. It’s a piece that resonates deeply with the Ying Quartet – just as the composer found solace and inspiration while spending a summer in the small town of Spillville, Iowa, the Ying Quartet found similar stimulus and connection during an extended residency in Jesup, Iowa in the 1990s. The performers gave Dvořák’s music with a natural fluency and affinity – lyrical, gracious, and generous. For this audience member, the highlight was certainly the quartet’s fine playing, but I applaud their efforts to push the boundaries of the way we experience chamber music, and seek connections from one artistic discipline to another.