Famous String Quartet Made Its Own Audiences

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27993, 13 June 1956, Page 6

Famous String Quartet Made Its Own Audiences

When the LaSalle String Quartet set out full of youthful enthusiasm to give concerts in the Western States of America, the four musicians found to their dismay that there were no audiences for their music.

Undaunted by a complete lack of support they decided to create audiences. The leader, Mr Walter Levin, had the idea of giving informal lec-ture-recitals to clubs, societies and other organisations, explaining the form of chamber music, its appeal, and the purpose for which it was written, and illustrating his talks with music by the group. “By this informal approach we soon found adults ready and willing to listen to quartet music because it had been introduced simply to them,” MiLevin said in Christchurch yesterday. For the lecture-recitals the quartet aimed at interesting young audiences —the younger the better—as a potential core of adult audiences for chamber music in the concert halls of the United States and other parts of the world. Eventually they started children's recitals down to kindergarten level.

In this field the young string musicians of this American quartet are pioneers, and their ideas for fostering interest in their art are spreading through America.

Chamber music, the most intimate form of all music, is the ideal medium for introducing classical music. The old idea that it is the most difficult to understand and only for the most sophisticated taste is wrong; it is now enjoyed by people of all ages, including those without a great deal of musical knowledge. Mr Levin said.

Intricate Form This is a form of music composed primarily for the enjoyment of the player rather than the audience; it was composed for people who played ‘hemselves in the drawing rooms of their own homes, and was therefore an extremely intricate form addressed to those “in the know,” he said. Because they were writing for musicians, composers always did their best when creating chamber music, and that is why some of the finest music written by composers of the Western world was found in quartet literature, he said.

In a string combination each instrument plays one voice, and everything is reduced to the utmost minifhTi/Vf® ff ,V e t test variety within that limitation. he said. ‘‘A string quartet must develop a sense of balrnncf ai ?i d ten ] I no - Each player must constantly undergo a process of self-

criticism because there is no outsider, such as a conductor, to correct his faults. Each member of the group must listen to what the others are playing as well as what he is playing himself.

“Nothing is of any value unless it is in relation to the whole. The in-< dividual is only one part of the combination. and he does not count unless he is producing something towards the whole effecj,” he said. Mr Levin believes that a quartet has a mission, quite apart from giving concerts, an educational duty which many musicians neglect. “After all, the audience is the result of what it is taught and what it is offered,” he said. “Because we have had to give 20 concerts in 30 days while in New Zealand there has been no time for adult lecture-recitals or young audience concerts, but if we come back to New Zealand we hope to give them next time.”

The quartet did manage to fit in three studio recitals for school children. and these, were recorded. Mr Levin noticed that the younger the children were in these audiences the better they responded to the carefully selected music. The adolescents, as the world over, were more inhibited and less spontaneous. Children at Concerts “The number of school children in our concert audiences has been amazing, and they are such well-behaved children too,” he said. New Zealand audiences throughout the tour have surprised the visitors for size and sophistication. It was very obvious that most of the patrons had had a great deal of experience in listening to chamber music. At a concert in Hastings nearly 600 attended, and this would have been a large audience for chamber music even in New York, he said. Mr Levin and Mr Henrv Meyer are the violinists in the. quartet. Mr Peter Kamnitzer plays the viola, and Mr. Jack Kirstein the 'cello. Now quartet-in-residence at the Col-lege-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, the group was the first foursome to major in quartet music at the Juilliard School of Music. New York. While at the Juilliard School the quartet spent three years touring the East Coast of the United States, then alter graduation was appointed to the faculty of Colorado College. Colorado ? s duartet-in-residence in -949. While there it originated its lecture recitals and “young audience” concerts.