Piano Quartet In L’Istesso Tempo (1998)

The first chamber music involving strings and piano was played in Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall on Tuesday night. It also was the world premiere [of the] "Piano Quartet in L'istesso Tempo" by Giya Kancheli of the Republic of Georgia. Kancheli's quartet was commissioned for the Bridge Ensemble and it has been five years since the ensemble began the process. It was worth waiting for. The 26-minute quartet is all in one movement and all one basic beat, though there are many changes of idea and mood within it. I found it serene, the soul present and solemn, with occasional, brief outbursts of struggle. I [also] found a strand of optimism, created, perhaps, by the fragments quoted from Georgian folk songs, either in melody or rhythm. Kancheli built a collage here, with many phrases left abruptly hanging and many pauses; the music essentially soft and sparely designed, so every fine line could be followed as far as it went. The music was often tonal, always unhurried, with delicate threads and subtle colors, shot through with light. Yet despite its seeming fragments, the framework was always clear and sure, and the whole entirely contemporary. The music is deceptively simple, a refined understatement of powerful impact. It is so compelling that at the end, the performers sat as if frozen, their hands and bows still in mid-air. The audience paused, silent for the duration of a couple of long breaths, before the vociferous applause.