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The “Ad Libitum” Quartet performed at the Romanian Athenaeum
On Wednesday evening,
The artists showed through works by Mozart,
Schubert, Haydn, Puccini or Mahler that chamber music was conceived and
inspired for pleasant evenings, in times when the idea of a stressful life had
not been invented and when people used to have time – to quote a Romanian
writer. On the other hand, chamber music is very hard to perform because one is
uncovered and the audience can hear absolutely everything the artist is doing.
And the audience could indeed hear very well what the members of the “Ad
Libitum” Quartet had to offer: moments of calmness and of romantic impetus,
communication and perfect timing between the members, with perfectly
synchronized take-overs, a firm sound, soft on the whole and with no pauses at
all.
They received many applause, only after
well-known pieces like Dansul țărănesc by Constantin Dimitrescu, Haydn’s
Serenade, a transcription of the Adagietto in Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 – also a
hit but of a different type. The performance offered endless visions of a
solitary spirit, which was represented in the softest possible way as if the
performers had had all their instruments on mute, of incredibly intense seconds
and a most profound sound, which did not emerge out of the high nuances, but
out of the depth of the performance and the implication of the musicians.
Translated by Sînziana Mihalache and Andreea Velicu
MA Students, MTTLC, Bucharest University