Chamber Music Reviews : Substitute Violinist Is No Problem for Quartet

When a string quartet has to make do with a substitute member, carefully tuned balances and responses can go awry.

But when the Muir String Quartet’s second violinist, Bayla Keyes, went on maternity leave (she gave birth two weeks ago), the remaining Muirs (violinist Peter Zazofsky, violist Steven Ansell and cellist Michael Reynolds) had a lucky ace up their sleeves. They invited their former first violinist, Lucy Chapman Stoltzman, to make the tour--and at Ambassador Auditorium Wednesday night, she blended unobtrusively right back into the Muirs’ warm, tight sound.

Moreover, the quartet presented itself with a real challenge--the savagely biting Bartok Quartet No. 3, the toughest piece of the cycle. Bypassing the more obvious thrills of the patented Juilliard hell-for-leather approach, the Muirs chose to broaden the tempos and emphasize the work’s anguished lyrical content.

The terrifying portamentos were drawn out to their limits; the foursome seemed to relish these slippery glides in terms of pure sound.

The Haydn Quartet in D Major, Opus 76, No. 5, was treated to a smooth, fizzing performance, with compassionate, songful lines from Zazofsky, seamless transitions and visceral energy in the right places. While a few frayed edges in the ensemble could be heard in the Mendelssohn Quartet in E Minor, Opus 44, No. 2, the quartet still produced arching, sustained legatos and sufficient forward motion.