Free concert in a sub-basement

Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra are in the midst of a series of free community chamber concerts. Last weekend a string quartet performed at Beverly's Larcom Theatre, and today they repeated the same program in Cambridge. The venue was the 200-seat blondwood lecture hall in the sub-basement of the new main library. The gently raked seating had good sight lines and made for a comfortable hour of up-close music appreciation.

The players were Victor Romanul and Jason Horowitz on violins, Michael Zaretsky on viola and Blaise Déjardin on cello. Their program dovetailed with items heard in recent concerts of the full orchestra. Carl Nielsen's String Quartet No 4 in F had a Nordic flavor in the third movement, with skipping folk rhythms and a few fiddling slides. The musicians were having fun, and it was equally fun to listen to. 

The violinists swapped first and second chairs for Franz Schubert's String Quartet in A minor, D804. The second movement quoted the main theme from the incidental music to Rosamunde, which the BSO played two weeks ago. It must be an engaging change of pace for these orchestral musicians to work as a chamber ensemble, but there was a sense that this was a pick-up quartet sight reading their parts. They seemed more attuned to the sheet music than each other; there was little of the eye contact that would indicate shared familiarity with the material. There were quick corrections of missed notes, the cello had a tendency to play flat, and they could have milked more expression out of the final movement of the Schubert without going overboard.

Still, I got my money's worth, and there was even a coffee and dessert reception afterwards. The coming weekends will feature a string quintet playing in Medford, Lowell, East Boston and Dedham. Go to BSO.org for locations and to reserve your free ticket.