Attacca Quartet closes Evergreen Music Series

The Attacca Quartet played for an intimate audience at The Johns Hopkins Evergreen Museum & Library on Saturday, Apr. 21, wowing attendees with their performance of Leo?? Jan??cek's "Intimate Letters."
The praise- and prize-ridden chamber group, which hails from Julliard, performed three pieces that were the d??nouement of this year's Music at Evergreen series: Joseph Haydn's String Quartet No. 67 in F major, Op. 77, No. 2, "Lobkowitz," Jan??cek's String Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters," and Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132. Each piece was written at the end of its composer's life, setting the tone of closure.
The Music at Evergreen series is sponsored by the Evergreen House Foundation as part of an effort to continue Alice Warder Garrett's tradition of supporting and hosting contemporary musicians and artists in her home. The chamber concert series has existed since 1952, bringing more than 200 young artists to the Garretts's doorstep over the past 60 years.
The four young musicians of Attacca Quartet took their places on the small stage and immediately began the Haydn piece, which began monotonously but picked up color as the movements progressed.
Violinist Amy Schroeder's grace is immediately apparent, as is cellist Andrew Yee's dedication to the performance aspect of his art. Emotion moves from the staff lines straight to his fingers and face, showing itself in his varied expressions and bouts of air-vibrato.
The group, which formed in 2003 at the Julliard School, consists of violinists Schroeder and Keiko Tokunaga, violist Luke Fleming and cellist Andrew Yee.
They made their professional debut just five years ago in 2007, and they have quickly made a name for themselves at international festivals, concerts and competitions.
After the Haydn, the Attacca Quartet spoke up. Yee addressed the crowd - "Hello, everybody" - and then introduced the next piece, Jan??cek's "Intimate Letters."
"I'm going to tell you the story of this quartet as [Jan??cek] told it to us through his writing," Yee said.
"When people talk about Jan??cek, they usually focus on the fact that when he got a little older, he was infatuated with a younger woman," he said, then paused. "Which was a little creepy."
"I'm going to tell you a different story."
With clips from "Intimate Letters" as the soundtrack, Yee began to retell the last 20 years of Jan??cek's life.
At 63, Jan??cek vacationed in a small village near his home - a melodic line from viola set the scene - where he saw a young woman, sitting on the grass. Her name was Kamila, and she was 25.
He fell in love at once - a frenzied tremolo emerged from the group - and, the more time they spent together, the more his love for her grew. Cue crescendo.
The string quartet's attempt to renew the marriage of music and storytelling can only be applauded; it helps bridge the composer and the listener in a way that benefits both.
Yee related a sweet love story instead of the overplayed old-man-pines-for-young-woman retelling.
Jan??cek sent over 700 letters to Kamila over the next 11 years, expressing his love for her over and over again.
"You know, we dream about paradise, about heaven, and we never get to it. So I dream about you and I know that you're the unattainable sky . . . You are entire in my soul; so it's enough for me to want you always," Jan??cek writes in a letter from 1924.
He understood that their relationship could never be realized or consummated, and wrote the third movement of "Intimate Letters" as a lullaby dedicated to their impossible unborn child.
The Attacca Quartet's performance of "Intimate Letters" was the undeniable star of the show.
The violist received well-deserved attention, and the four instruments played with harmonics. Other layering effects made it seem as though the group was in a rapid state of mitosis, transforming into a chamber orchestra and then a symphony, before a sudden collapse back into the body of a small string quartet.
The concert concluded with Beethoven's String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, one of the last pieces he ever composed. Because it was written at the end of his life, Beethoven's health problems and struggles are mirrored in the emotional mood and timbre of the work.
The piece gifted a solo to Schroeder and was a victorious finish to the concert.