Reflections from Norfolk

Norfolk Festival alumni,  the Ying Quartet,  joined the Festival  faculty for the week (with each member coaching a student ensemble) and topped off its residency with a performance in the Music Shed on Saturday, July 31.

Now in their second decade as a quartet, the Ying Quartet (Stephen Copes and Janet Ying - violins, Phillip Ying - viola, David Ying - cello) has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications in its tours across the United States and abroad. The Quartet performs in the world’s most important concert halls, from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. Its 2007 Telarc release of the three Tchaikovsky Quartets and the Souvenir de Florence (with James Dunham and Paul Katz) was nominated for a Grammy^® Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category. A collaboration with the Turtle Island Quartet, Four + 4 won a Grammy^® Award in 2005.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

I can hardly be here again in this magical and beautiful place without thinking back to my first visit to the Norfolk Festival. My quartet, fresh from study at the Eastman School of Music and about to pursue a professional career, participated in an intensive two-week seminar led by the Tokyo Quartet and focused on the Late Beethoven Quartets during the summer of 1992. It proved to be one of my most memorable and influential musical experiences.

The other young quartets who joined us for the seminar were the St. Lawrence, the Shanghai and the Fone (from Italy) Quartets. Including the Tokyo, the twenty of us—five quartets’ worth—spent nearly all our waking hours together those two weeks!

Our daily schedule started with breakfast. Each morning was spent in individual quartet rehearsal, and one of the Tokyo members would also coach us for an hour or so. Kikuei, second violinist of the Tokyo, would stop by our Greenhouse studio every morning, always with a smile on his face and always with wonderfully helpful ideas and suggestions.

After lunch, we all would head to the Music Shed for a masterclass where we would spend a couple of hours listening to each other play movements from the Late Beethoven Quartets and discussing in detail every aspect of this astounding repertoire. The members of the Tokyo– at that time Peter, Kikuei, Kazu, and Sadao–made a huge impression on all of us with the extent of their knowledge and their deep love and respect for this repertoire. After the masterclass, we would all of course run right back to our individual rehearsal studios to practice for the rest of the afternoon, fresh with ideas and inspiration from hearing each other perform.

In the evenings following dinner, we would continue to hang out together, sometimes at the local pub, sometimes in a highly competitive game of softball, sometimes driving to a nearby town for a movie. It turned out that one of the violinists of the Fone Quartet, Paolo, was an amazing chef, and he would often make pasta in the evenings in his little grey cottage. Needless to say, more and more of us started gathering there as soon as we smelled the cooking. This tradition became so popular that by the end of the two weeks, Paolo was invited to cook in the kitchen of the Whitehouse so that everyone could participate!

Throughout the seminar, I recall being especially amazed by the passion and honesty exemplified by the Tokyo about the music and about life as a string quartet. My quartet was assigned Op. 127, and I remember vividly a heated discussion between Peter and Kikuei about what tempo to take in the coda of the last movement to best express the meaning of the music. I also remember just as vividly an impromptu discussion that lasted nearly two hours one evening in the front room of Battell House where a couple of the members of the Tokyo spoke with the rest of us about the difficulties and frustrations of being a string quartet and of rehearsing with colleagues and resolving differences and building respect for each other. It was as candid, revealing, and incredibly encouraging talk as I’ve ever had.

Norfolk continues to be that same place of extraordinary musical intimacy and learning. It is a pleasure to be back this week among the faculty and to have the opportunity to work with the young string quartets and other Fellows who are studying here. I hope that they are making the same kinds of life-changing connections and discoveries that I have been privileged to experience at this Festival. The very first notes that my quartet played in the storied Music Shed were the maestoso opening chords of Op. 127. On the second half of our concert this summer is again the Op. 127, and I will be excited to hear those same chords reverberate through the Shed, resonating at once with the continuing tradition and echoing in the rich history of this place.