Borromeo String Quartet

[richidoo]

I saw this string quartet today:
http://www.borromeoquartet.org/

The program explicitly stated that they are the best string quartet in the world, or America or whatever. By the end of the concert I was firmly convinced they are not. They sounded like a very good college level ensemble, but not good enough to be included in the premier 'Master Series' of Raleigh Chamber Music Guild concert season which has hosted Pacifica Quartet, Jupiter Quartet, Ciompi Quartet and the Guarneri String Quartet coming up. All of which could legitimately be called the best, depending on personal style preference. I have not heard better than Jupiter, not even on recordings.

The leader had harsh uncontrolled tone, played out of tune, and lots of mistakes. It honestly sounded like a high school player, with lots of newly forged technical chops. The violist played very well, but tone was extremely soft and muffled. These two playing together created a tonal imbalance that made it difficult to relax and enjoy passages that feature the whole ensemble.

They played best together on the fast vivace stuff, but fell apart with timing and musical intent when the tempo came back down to normal. The musical selections were of low vibration relative to the entire string quartet canon. Charles Ives first string quartet which he wrote for his gig at the New Haven, CT  church?? who cares!? It was immature and boring, a pure intellectual indulgence. Robert Shumann 2nd Quartet? Not much better. There was no meat for the band or audience to bite into. It was typical snobby elitist classical music showboating.

The vibration dived even further when playing a piece by a local composer, college music educator with many badges of academic accomplishment which further enforced my belief that anyone can get a degree, and it doesn't matter what you learn doing it. Pride, conceit, base humor, blatant political comments, it was all there when he introduced his piece in its "world debut," (as if anyone will ever play it again.) I felt little respect from him that I had paid admission to attend his 15 minutes of fame. Dissonant, uninspired, poor immitation of Lohengrinesque tonality with a tenor singing a modernistic poem about the Brooklyn Bridge in quarter notes for a very long time. It was pitiful. But being an educator he will probably win a $10k grant to do another one just like it.

On a positive note the cellist was awesome and there were no stinky noisy people sitting near me. So overall, it was a great concert!