The Guarneri String Quartet (Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violins, Michael Tree, viola, David Soyer, cello) was formed at the Marlboro Music Festival 37 years ago and has since retained all its original members - an achievement unique among existing string quartets. However, time is catching up with the group: David Soyer is retiring because the traveling has become too strenuous for him. He is being replaced by his own student, Peter Wiley, who was for many years the cellist of the Beaux Arts Trio.
On 9 May, the Quartet gave a concert at Carnegie Hall that marked both Soyer's last appearance and Wiley's first in New York, as second cellist in a wonderful performance of Schubert's C-major Quintet. The program, which also featured Beethoven's Quartet op. 130 (one of the Guarneri's staples), was a fittingly gracious gesture, bidding farewell to the departing player and welcoming his successor. A capacity audience responded with warm affection and enthusiasm.
Changing personnel in a string quartet is always difficult; doing it for the first time after 37 years together is almost traumatic. In a conversation with andante contributor Edith Eisler, violinist Arnold Steinhardt and violist Michael Tree offered a glimpse of some of the problems inherent in the process.
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ARNOLD STEINHARDT: Naturally, this is an exciting, emotional time for us. We have all frequently performed with others - it's a breath of fresh air. One shouldn't play the same things with the same people all the time - but we had a rule never to play quartets with anyone else, so sitting down with another cellist is a bit like defying a Biblical "Thou shalt not."
MICHAEL TREE: Some good, loyal friends seemed to think that we had no right to change personnel and were quite shocked, as if a marriage they'd always considered perfect were ending in divorce. But in our case, there was no question of dissatisfaction or unhappiness; David only complained about the traveling, and who could blame him? He has the biggest instrument to shlepp.
STEINHARDT: David gave us his blessing to go on with another cellist if we wanted to, and Peter was the logical choice: we've known him since he was a boy, before he began to study with David.
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TREE: At first, he was a bit reluctant to accept
our invitation: he felt it would be very difficult to step into his teacher's
shoes.
STEINHARDT: But we have the same background - Curtis, Marlboro - and we all feel we're on the same musical wavelength. We've often worked with him and love and admire his playing.
TREE: I was present at his first concert with the Beaux Arts Trio: they'd asked me to join them for the Schumann Piano Quartet.
STEINHARDT: He's a very experienced chamber music player and a wonderful cellist, but when you come right down to it, you really don't know exactly what the quartet will sound like with a new member, or what the personal chemistry will be; there's always that big question mark. But after playing 25 concerts with Peter, we are not only relieved but delighted; it's been a great pleasure. Of course, he is different from David, so the Quartet sounds somewhat different in certain ways.
EE: Can you describe what's different?
STEINHARDT: Well, our dynamic range has changed slightly. Peter is a hefty player, he can make a gorgeous, big sound; but I think we pay a little more attention to the lower end of the dynamic scale now, and examine more gradations of soft as opposed to medium and loud.
TREE: I find myself using different bowings and fingerings to fit into the overall sonority; I no longer feel as inclined to play on the upper strings simply to cut through, but go into the upper positions on the lower strings, which produces a darker sound. But certain habits become ingrained almost in your musculature: you pick up the instrument and play a passage the way you've played it for 37 years, and suddenly you find - no, that's much too loud, or not loud enough, or why change bows here just from force of habit? Another thing that's changed is our method of rehearsing. Though of course new ideas come up, one forms a certain style, or approach, in 37 years, and tends to do things in somewhat the same way.
STEINHARDT: You naturally assume, for example, that a cello phrase will be played in a certain way. Well, Peter plays it differently, so everything is turned on its head and we are forced to re-examine all our assumptions, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically: tempos, dynamics, phrasings - everything.
TREE: Peter is very painstaking and analytical, and to his great credit, and our occasional discomfort, wants to introduce ideas that we hadn't necessarily put into effect.
STEINHARDT: Then there's the way we play together. Without realizing it, we often followed David's specific body language. There's one place where I knew exactly when I had to play with him from the way he put his third finger on the string. Peter doesn't put his third finger down that way, so suddenly I'm in trouble; we have to discuss it and I have to learn his body language. It's fun to learn to decipher not only his playing, but also the way he moves, the clues he gives just before he plays.
TREE: It's a challenge and a bit of a shock, in some respects like playing in a new group.
EE: Wouldn't it be easier for the new player to adjust to the old members of the group rather than the other way around?
TREE: Now you're being logical, but logic isn't always decisive in these matters. Peter has enough to think about and we are very happy to make the adjustments.
EE: How does one rehearse to accommodate these changes?
STEINHARDT: Very carefully and for a very long time; we've had many, many rehearsals. We've also been very careful about what pieces and how many we play at the beginning. We hope to do less music but perform it better, so we're traveling with only two programs this year, and will add to them gradually.
EE: How did you choose the music?
STEINHARDT: We wanted to pick pieces that we thought we had a reasonable chance of doing well. Perhaps we wanted to pick easy pieces, but in fact there are no easy pieces, and the ones we chose certainly aren't. We made a list and asked Peter which were comfortable for him, because we wanted to give him a chance to move into this situation as easily as possible.
EE: How does one rehearse basic things, like intonation?
TREE: With difficulty.
STEINHARDT: Mostly by trial and error. When you get to a problem spot, you stop and take it apart, and if one way doesn't work, you try another. I always feel practicing intonation, in quartets and in general, is as dreary as scrubbing the floor: unpleasant, but you have to keep doing it because the floor never stays clean.
TREE: I think in most quartets, each player becomes the policeman of a certain area; Peter is a stickler for intonation, he doesn't let us get away with anything and he's usually right.
STEINHARDT: But he's extremely accommodating; he's not trying to impose his own voice. The way he plays comes naturally out of his body, his mind, his heart, and it's different from David's.
TREE: To add to the confusion, we've been playing with both cellists this year, in and around New York with David and on tour with Peter. We might have to use one set of bowings one day and a different one the next. It could become really comical and that makes the transition easier; everybody takes it in good humor. And David isn't leaving because he's giving up playing; on the contrary, he loves to play and is playing beautifully. He'll go to Marlboro for the summer to teach, and people are delighted to invite him to play with them.
STEINHARDT: Fortunately we still share professorships at the University of Maryland with him, and we'll see him at Marlboro. We've been very lucky: we didn't have to go through an auditioning process for this change, we knew we wanted Peter and he was happy to accept.
EE: Suppose it hadn't worked out with him?
STEINHARDT: Basta - we would have gone our separate ways. But I think we're all very grateful for the career we've had. Despite all the missed planes and the hardships of traveling, being allowed to spend our lives making glorious music with our chosen partners is an incredible gift. And now there's the added miracle of being able to go on. But even if it had ended - how many people have had a 37-year job that they adore?
© andante Corp. June 2001. All rights reserved.
