Review: Balourdet Quartet performs Nielsen and Schubert at Ackland Art Museum

UNC-Chapel Hill’s Ackland Art Museum lacks an auditorium, which makes it the perfect host for a string quartet. The young Balourdet Quartet performed there Sunday evening in a tiny rectangular room or closet off of the museum’s lobby. The group is performing several times this season with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, having become the orchestra’s resident quartet in 2023.

Local classical music enthusiasts must not miss their final solo appearance, same venue, in May: as far as I know, the Triangle area does not host any other professional touring quartet performance in a true chamber music venue—I mean a very small one—this season. No music fan of any type should miss it. A loud string quartet concert in a small space physically compels you to pay attention like no other musical performance.

The concert was introduced by the COT’s director and chief conductor, Niccolo Muti, whose enthusiasm and musical savvy is always appreciated. At most concerts, he excitedly proclaims, “I bet no one here has heard this piece live before!” In this case, that piece was Nielsen’s first string quartet (note the performers in this video!).

I have not attended a string quartet performance since before the pandemic. As usual, I listened to the Nielsen piece several times before the concert, specifically the recording by the famous Danish String Quartet, and while I enjoyed it, I wasn’t sure how I ranked it relative to the repertoire. But appropriately, my worthless opinions disappeared from my mind as soon the Balourdet launched into opening movement. I had been looking forward to the concert all week, but still I was not prepared for the intensity of sound that a talented and ambitious young quartet can produce. In the hands of these virtuosos, string instruments are members of the percussion family. The entire audience, most with glasses of free prosecco in hand, seemed as shocked into reverence as I was. Every passage that called for speed and volume was performed with a speed and volume that you would not think possible; at times the second violinist Angela Bae was in physical danger from the energetic movements of first violinist Justin DeFilippis. I enjoy the rare case (not done here) where the second violinist sits on the far right of the ensemble, which brings some kind of sonic balance to the whole—but at this concert the highlight of the Nielsen was instead the wealth of detail we heard from violist Benjamin Zannoni, who sat on the right.

The exposition repeat of the first movement was skipped, so in all we were treated to about 25 minutes of pure, exhausting fun, after the finale of which the few dozen listeners exploded with enthusiasm (I was too cautious to literally shout my approval, but I wish I had!). It must have been particularly exhausting to the Balourdet itself given the hot temperature of the tiny room. I felt a little anxious for them needing to come back after the break and play twice as much Schubert! For my part, I prepared for the second half of the concert by imagining I was Robert Schumann’s critic-character Eusebius, with all his endearing eagerness to hear something fresh and new after Beethoven, about to hear the Schubert piece for the first time.

DeFilippis introduced the Schubert G Major quartet after intermission, commenting on its shifting angelic and demonic tremolos. But while the epic piece unfolded, I started to feel like the angelic was missing. Every time Schubert called for fiery virtuosity, the Balourdet delivered, but I did not think they did justice to Schubert’s melodies. Their tempo was fast, which I will never complain about, and as with most excellent young quartets, they were rightly choosy about applying vibrato, so the elements were there for me to be melted away hearing one of my favorite pieces live. But over time I began to dread the entrance of the first violin, and I started to be less impressed by the crashing overwhelming loudness, simply because there was never enough contrast with more delicate passages. The brilliant Elias Quartet, totally capable of the fireworks of the Balourdet Quartet, also explored the very different performance practices of the early 19th Century while developing their sound. It would be completely ridiculous for me to make any suggestion of how the Balourdet Quartet should develop its sound—I am not a musician at all!—but I can at least register my impression that something musical was left behind in the continuous impressive violence of the performance, and it was not just the piece’s length or its long roundabout finale that left the audience just very slightly less enthusiastic at the concert’s ending.

But no one doubted for a second that they had spent their Sunday evening in the best possible way; let’s hope the COT continues this “UpClose” series here into the distant future.

The Classical Concert Map today features primarily orchestral music, but if you would like to help expand it to encompass the amazing variety of chamber music performed all the time in the US, email us at loft4map@gmail.com or reply in the comments!