By Daniel Buckwalter
The jolt came on Aug. 6 when Kimberlee Uwate announced on the Delgani String Quartet website and the ensemble’s Instagram account that she was stepping down after nine seasons to deal with health struggles related to long COVID.
That jolt became a sad reality ten days later when Delgani String Quartet sent a flier to its subscribers via snail mail and only violinists Anthea Kreston and Jannie Wei as well as cellist Eric Alterman were pictured. There was a hole in that picture, to be sure.
Delgani String Quartet has filled that hole in the short term with top-rate violists for its 10th season — the latest of whom, Mara Gearman of the Seattle Symphony, was magnificent on Oct. 29 as Delgani wrapped up the Eugene leg of this season’s second concert, titled The Heart of Invention, before an appreciative audience at First Church of Christ, Scientist. The performances now move to Corvallis, Portland and Salem.
This program is a treasure, and if you weren’t able to see it in person in Eugene, you can find it online on Delgani’s website stream, at delgani.org.
It opens with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Contrapunctus, arranged by Stefano Scodanibbio. Haunting no matter what arrangement, Scodanibbio’s version has a film noir feel to it. You can almost see yourself walking the docks on a foggy night.
Vítězslav Novák’s Quartet No. 2 in D Major follows. The Czech composer, whose work I had never heard before, penned a lively two-movement piece that ends with fluid grace.
It is the program’s third and final piece — Robert Schumann’s Quartet in A Minor — that had me thinking of Uwate. It’s a beautiful four-movement piece that gives a star turn to each of the performers, and Gearman was outstanding.
So, too, was Amanda Grimm in Delgani’s season opener in September and so, too, will future violists Kayla Cabrera, Kenji Bunch and Arnaud Ghillebaert to round out the season.
Long term, the Delgani name is firmly entrenched in Oregon, so Wyatt True, Delgani’s executive director, should have a vast pool of qualified players to choose from to replace Uwate.
Still, I find myself missing Uwate on stage, beyond her notable talent. I miss her spirit and the fact that either before performances or during intermission, she would wander throughout the audience to say hello to people. She seemed to know everyone.
Uwate did a tremendous amount of outreach to bring “family” into the “Delgani family,” and I, as well as the Delgani family, wish her a full and speedy recovery.
