Monday night in Walter Hall Toronto Summer Music continued with a concert by the new Orford Quartet (Jonathan Crow and Andrew Wan – violins, Sharon Wei – viola, Brian Manker – cello).  I was there primarily to hear the première of Ian Cusson’s Dreams which was bookended on the programme by “Death and the Maiden” themed quartets in D minor by Mozart and Schubert.

Dreams consists of three movements; each inspired by a vignette from Akira Kurosawa’s 1990 film Yume (Dreams).  The first movement “Sunshine Through the Rain” concerns a boy who ignores his morther’s advice not to spy on a kitsune (fox) wedding.  It has a mysterious feel; it’s tonality insecure and unsettling.  I was thinking Pelléas et Mélisande.  I loved it.  The second and third movements both have dance elements.  In “The Peach Orchard” dolls who represent the spirit of felled peach trees dance for a little boy whose family once owned the orchard and in “Village of the Watermills” the funeral procession of an old lady turns into a rambunctious celebration of her life with echoes vaguely reminiscent of a New Orleans jazz funeral.  Good stuff, especially the first movement.

Preceding Dreams we had Mozart’s String Quartet No. 15, K421.  This has a rather lovely melody in the second movement and a very interesting minuet in the third.  In the latter the first violin plays a beautiful high melody while the other players play pizzicato dance rhythms with the viola sometimes breaking off in a kind of “call and response” with the first violin.  It was a nice example of a how the members of a very good chamber ensemble riff off each other.

The final piece on the programme was the famous Schubert String Quartet No.14, D.810 “Death and the Maiden” which reworks some of the material from the even more famous famous lied.  This all comes in a theme and variations in the second movement but there’s actually rather more to the piece notably a short but playful scherzo third movement and a super fast and virtuosic finale.  First rate playing throughout as one would expect.  All in all a very satisfying evening.

Photo credit: Lucky Tang