Evening star., 1937-03-10
Varied List
Of Quartets
Heard Here
Coolidge Players Give
Beethoven Number
and Novelties.
BY ALICE EVERSMAN.

~HE last week of the series OF
chamber music concerts being
given at the Library of Con-
Il gress by the Coolidge Quartet
began yesterday with the usual Tues
day afternoon appearance. AS has
been the practice of this group in ar
ranging its programs, two novelties
were offset by work from the pen
of one of the master craftsmen of this
particular branch of composition. To
Beethoven's Quartet in A, Op. 18, No.
s." was added that of Pierre Vachon,
a man of nearly 40 years o. age when
Beethoven was born, and the Quar-
tet No. in A, Op. 49," by Serge Taniev
which was substituted for the same
composers quartet No. in B fiat,
Op. 49," originally programmed.
In addition to their musical worth,
the three quartets offered an interest
ing study in contrast that reached
back into the nationality and men,
tality of the composers and the time
in which they lived. Pierre Vachon, a
Frenchman and viohnist, achieved
chamber music. A product of an epoch
when ceremonious manners were an
art, embellished with graceful super
fatalities, his music reflects his en-
vironment. It's three movements are
similar in character, stately at times
and tinged with formality. The bright
est moments are attained through the
IF al oil III
and enriched.
RubenStein'S Pupil.
Taneiev, outstanding pupil of Ru-
benstein, was concert pianist of solid
reputation whose secondary fame
rested upon his ability as teacher.
AS composer, he was acclaimed for
his knowledge, he WAS refinement Of
his style. In the quartet played yes
terday one found, in addition to these
fundamentals, the qualities of emo
tionalism and fantasy And in these
elements he revealed his race. The
first movement contained that har-
monization that so clearly indicates
the Russians love of the Imaginative
and which, in its tonal construction.
conJures up the many pleasant, cher
1shed remembranceS of childhood's s
beliefs.
AS expertly and smoothly written
as is this movement and the two con-
cluding ones, the composer rose to an
entirely different plane in the pas
slonate utterances of the adagio es-
presslvo. So strong and gripping
were these passages, and so domi-
mated by intensity of feeling, that he
resembled his friend and master
Tschaikowsky, in the unveiling of his
soul. If the greater part of this
quartet was noteworthy for its skillful
construction, in this movement he left
a real contribution to musical litera-
ture
Beethoven in ExEberant Mood.
Introducing these two known
works was the delightful fifth quartet
Of the six Beethoven dedicated to
Prince LobkoWitz. In reality the first
composed in this series, it reflects the
master in his most exuberant mood.
There Is lightness throughout that
gives vision t. a real joie de vivre,
delighting in delicate airiness at one
moment, in a touch of the burlesque
at another as in the accents of the
menuetto, in such an overwhelming
desire for joyous song, as in the third
movement, finally ending in riot OF
1ancifulness in the concluding allegro.
This Is Beethoven, delighting In his
work, In the new adventure in COM
position which his first quartets rep
resent. And into the spirit OF the