The Joseph Joachim Quartet, founded by the great Geiger himself, is still going strong. In its latest incarnation its members are all faculty at the Universität der Künste in Berlin: violinists Viviane Hagner and Latica Honda-Rosenberg, violist Hartmut Rohde, and cellist Jens Peter Maintz. On May 29 at the UdK Joseph-Joachim-Konzertsaal they presented an ingenious program of 2+4 : 2+4 (Mozart + Ravel) – by which I mean they played a Mozart Quartet (the incredible late quartet in B flat, K.589) and the formidable Ravel Violin-Cello Duo in the first half, and the gorgeous Mozart Violin-Viola Duo in B-flat and Ravel's unique Quartet in the second. Symmetrical programming. Equal division of labor. Genius.
All four members are extremely accomplished players. They gave polished performances with plenty of style and natural, unforced musicality -- an absolute pleasure to listen to. The second and fourth movements of the Ravel quartet were taken at hair-raising speed but without necessitating technical compromises. These four play well together, and it was hardly believable that it was their first performance as a quartet. That said, I was not the only person in the audience who noticed that amidst excellence, there was one star who really shone: the cellist. I first saw Mainz as a chamber musician partnering with Janine Jansen at the Kammermusiksaal. She is a top-level soloist and he entirely held his own in such august company. I’m excited to see the current configuration of the Joachim Quartet again – maybe they will even play music by Brahms, Joachim’s erstwhile "BFF."
Maintz played Dvorak's String Quintet, op. 77, at the Spectrum Concert on 03.01.2010 with Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn (violin), Rohde, and Stacey Watton (bass). Also on the program: Bartok's Contrasts, a piano work by Robert Helps, and Schumann's Piano Quartet, op. 47. I remember running into Bogenbauer Wohlleber at this concert...
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