The San Francisco call., 1910-04-18
.FLONZALEY QUARTET
< SOUL OF MUSIC
urand and Impressive Concert
Holds Appreciative Audience
in Rapt Attention
By WALTER ANTHONY

II any one wants to witness the ex-
hioition Of the spirit Of music as mani
fest where the muse really strays. let
MIN, by all means, hear the Flonzaley
quartet. For close communion with the
spiritual 4" of music these four
strange appearing foreigners have
Travelled far and labored spiendidly.
Lhey have reached their goal, too. as
nearly as the merely human can Their
playing is a revelation. They are a
quartet wherein the finest secrets of
me orchestra are whispered. They are,
lhoeeo, the essence, the impalpable
SOui OF the orchestra The skeleton of
music disappears and the flesh van
lSnes' there are no drums nor sounding
hrass; there remain only those four in
SLumentS which constitute the central
TACT OF an orchestra-the violin. second
Nloiln, viola and Violoncello. With
these they suggest everything that the
orehestra can say and they whisper
Shlngs too fine and rare for the idiom
OF any orchestra TO articulate.
AUDIENCE APPRECIATIVE
There was an audience yesterday aft
ernoon Of sufficient size to suggest. II
not TO prove. our musical regeneration
and reassuring. no doubt. 10 Manager
ia -illr WHO DleS-SOlle 2 eIifQeS
az terrible odds-on our appreciation OF
the finest OF music. The Garrick never
held more appreciatiVe audience nor
one more representative Of the best OF
san F'ranciscO's music lovers. An un-
usual number Of professional musi-
clans, composers and eXecutants was on
hand. first to criIicise and then TO won
der and applaud.
Whether the Flonzaley quartet is the
finest aggregation Of chamber music
players IN the world is more a matter
for the publicity bureau to maintain
than for critics and public to discuss
II is sure, however, that no finer quar-
tet has ever drawn the intimate music
OF the masters from their fiddles here
IN this town. It would require an over
cultured, hypercritical being. indeed. "a
pick flaws in their well nigh perfect
work. We are told that for nine years
none Of them has bothered himself with
giving a single lesson. played in an or
chestra or a solo. They have devoted
themselves as individuals to making a
perfect quartet and as a quartet to the
development of their individual tech
mic, 10 the end that all four play like
one and that one a composite of all
four.
HARMONY Is PERFECT
IL is almost uncanny-the degree 10
which they have succeeded in this am
bitiOn. one would swear that there is
only one player on the stage. The eye
bellies the thought and you notice that
however much they play like one, each
is an entity as different from the other
as the cello is different from the viola
or the viola from the violin. Yet it is
amazing TO observe how one player
takes the lead during a brief portion OF
- phrase. only TO retire in favor of an
other whose tone wells up and the
fountain Of harmony splashes a new
beauty under the quite clairvoyant
vision Of these players, who 1 almost
would say. discover hidden wonders in
- their compositions. the existence
whereof the very composers did not
dream. Now the cello rides above the
harmOuies and the subordination of the
other three is as instinctively granted
as merited courtesy is shown to beauty
? always; then the viola cuts through
the four part harmony and a cadence
is made clear as limpid water; then the
first violin scars upward and then all
become merged in a single body OF
tone. the balance Of which is perfect
beyond the power Of mere words to de-
scribe.
QUAINT LIVING BEAUTY
Is this a rhapsody I wish It could
give some adequate idea of the
seraphic beauty Of the work of this
quartet At the close of each number
or at the conclusion of each movement
played yesterday afternoon, an inar-
. ticulate sigh could be heard over the
room such as is uttered only in the
presence Of the wonderful and the per-
feet
They played Mozarts quartet in c
major; Leclair TAine's sonata for vio-
lin. first violin and cello, which Incl
dentally, was novelty of quaint but
living beauty, and Schumanns quartet
in A minor. opus a, No. 1.
50 remarkably were all these fine
things done that selection between
them is almost impossible. The adagio
movement of the Schumann number and
the closing movement of the same
quartet with its tripping scherzo theme
were 10 my ears the finest.
They viii play again next Friday
night at the Novelty theater. To miss
their music viii be to suffer a loss quite
frreparable. II is not often that we out
here get glimpses Of the blue Of heaven
as exposed in the realm Of music. What
-- the FlOnzaleys will show you will re-
. main a perfect memory. an inspira tion
+; and q corrective of the merely banal
the sensational and the vicious.