Concert review: Musicians from Marlboro

In his introduction to this ‘Musicians from Marlboro’ concert – the last of three this season – Philadelphia Chamber Music Society’s tireless artistic director Miles Cohen described the tiny Vermont community as one of the world’s most magical destinations for chamber music. One of the reasons it wields outsized influence is the emphasis on substantial study and rehearsal time, a philosophy that can’t be underlined enough.

That time was immediately evident in Haydn’s ‘Fifths’ Quartet op.76 no.2, with sleek tone and phrasing from violinists Claire Bourg and Leonard Fu, Cara Pogossian on viola and cellist Marie Bitlloch. Careful gradations in dynamic levels created tension and drama from the start, while clean entries and attention to rests only emphasised the importance of patience. In the Andante, simplicity reigned, and we could all see the broad grins from Bourg’s colleagues when she executed impeccable upward scales. The Menuet’s slight swagger and rusticity brought even more smiles, as did a light hand in the finale.

The aforementioned rehearsal time – four or five weeks, in this case – made the delicacies of Mozart’s String Quartet in D major K575 spring to life with apparent effortlessness. Again, that ease showed the players’ faces.

As an imaginative break between the two quartets, soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and pianist Sahun Sam Hong offered Helmut Lachenmann’s Got Lost (2008); he had coached the two musicians for five or six weeks in 2023 as Marlboro’s composer-in-residence. At about 25 minutes, its unconventional vocal techniques (the pianist vocalises as well) made for a gripping interlude.

BRUCE HODGES