The second concert by the Portland String Quartet in the 2015-2016 season took place at Woodfords Congregational Church on Sunday and was preceded by a talk by Will Hertz.

The quartet’s comprised of violinists Dean Stein and Ronald Lantz, violist Julia Smith and cellist Patrick Owen, who replaced the recently retired Paul Ross. The program given was the musical equivalent of an Olympic event and included the following: String Quartet Op.33, No. 3 (The Birds) by Franz Joseph Haydn, the String Quartet No. 2 by Ernest Bloch and the String Quartet, Op. 132 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Haydn quartet is nicknamed “The Birds” because of many bird-like effects heard in the work. For its time, it was a daring and innovative composition. This quartet could easily been the featured work in many another quartet program. The ensemble, intonation and expressive playing by the group was evident from the start and it received a lovely performance. (OK, perhaps lovely doesn’t do it justice, but the group put out at least as much as Haydn put into it.)

The second work, the second quartet by Bloch presented a side of him not familiar to listeners who associate

Bloch with such other works with Hebraic character by that master as his Rhapsody for Cello (Schelomo), his Baal Shem Tov Suite for Violin, his two concerti grossi or his Sacred Service. He served as director of the Cleveland Institute of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and from l939 until l952 he taught at the University of California at Berkeley. His five string quartets (recorded by the PSQ) suggest to me that he was as much influenced by some of his students (Roger Sessions and Elliott Carter) as they may have been influenced by him.

The performance of this quartet was rhythmically alive, secure in ensemble and musically accurate. The featured work of the concert was the Beethoven quartet. Quartets numbered opus 127, 130 and 132 are considered among the greatest compositions in the quartet literature. He did not start on these quartets until two years after completing his ninth symphony.

Among the five movements in this quartet, the third movement is subtitled “Song of Thanksgiving to Almighty God on recovering from an illness.” It seemed to me that Beethoven was composing music for a gifted quartet of angels who would be performing this music for the deity. We did not have a quartet of angels on hand, but we did have an ensemble of mere mortals who played like angels. The music is sublime and even other-worldly and received an incredibly expressively evocative reading. As for the concluding movement, I declare that I have never heard any more passionate playing than this group gave Sunday. They are singly and collectively a virtuoso group. They listen to each other, know their own parts as well as their neighbors’ parts. If there are any technical problems in the music (and there are plenty) it is as if they did not exist. There may be other quartets as good as the Portland String Quartet, and there may be other quartets that perform this particular one differently,

But it is my opinion that no quartet could play it any more musically than the Portland String Quartet did Sunday. I have praised this group many times previously and no doubt I will have reason to do so in the future. But, by golly, they outdid themselves at this concert. To paraphrase Dickens, “God bless them, each and every one.” Their next concert will be April 24, again at Woodfords.

– Dr. Gold is a composer/conductor, a retired educator and an arts reviewer for the Journal Tribune.