Muir Quartet plays exquisitely

MUIR STRING QUARTET, St. Mary's Church, Park City, Thursday.

PARK CITY — The Muir Quartet elicits high expectations from its audiences, and on Thursday night, every expectation was met.

As part of the inaugural Deer Valley Music Festival of the Utah Symphony and Opera, this guest chamber group treated the audience with an elegant performance.

The program began with Erwin Schulhoff's Five Pieces for String Quartet. Immediately appealing, this charming work by a relatively little-known composer started the evening off on a delightful note. At least a few audience members were visibly pleased by both the selection and performance, and could be spotted with smiles of pleasure on their faces.

As they played, the personality of the Muir Quartet also became apparent. A group that clearly values perfection in unity and musicality, it has a beautifully polished style that surely appeals to the most discriminating listener. In fact, the group came across as the Faberge egg of the music world: refined, elegant, exquisite. (A side note on this piece: ushers let latecomers in between movements, which seemed to disrupt the musical flow.)

Following the Schulhoff work, the quartet transitioned from the charm of bright colors and harmonies to the completely different world of Maurice Ravel. The immediate shift in mood and style drew listeners in to the softer, more subtle colors of this composer as they wove a delicate, very French tapestry.

The third movement, Tres lent, in particular, was a connoisseur's delight. They were so completely musically tuned into each other, and the music was so transparent, so gauzy, that it was as if the phrases melted into the air. The quartet provided a nice contrast to this in the last movement with its explosions of energy and sound.

Beethoven's String Quartet no. 8 in E minor wrapped up the program in the second half, another impeccable, polished performance (although it began on a not-so-polished, humorous note when cellist Michael Reynolds had to leave the stage to retrieve his forgotten music).

Perhaps the only drawback to this is if you prefer Beethoven served up stormy and a little rough around the edges; it didn't have a lot of that aspect of his musical personality to it.

The second movement, Molto adagio, would be hard to beat for sheer beauty. Between this and the Ravel, it seems the group has quite an affinity for the slow movements.

The aural experience was enhanced by the beautiful St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, a new venue for Utah Symphony/Opera-sponsored concerts, used this year for chamber-music offerings. Although adding a chamber-music component to the Utah Symphony's music festival seems like a great way to round out a menu of musically diverse offerings, it is interesting to note that these guest chamber concerts are the only ones that don't involve the symphony or opera.

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E-mail: rcline@desnews.com