(Above: The Delgani String Quartet; left to right, Anthea Kreston, Jannie Wei, Eric Alterman, and Kimberlee Uwate; photo by Paul Carter for Eugene Scene)

By Randi Bjornstad

The title of the final concert in the Delgani String Quartet’s 2022-23 season, Shadow and Light, was chosen to “showcase the vibrant color and dynamic contrast of the string quartet,” the quartet said in announcing the program.

That means opening the concert with In the Shadow of the Mountain, Jennifer Higdon’s 2020 composition.

The program continues with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet, named for a disorientingly slow opening, which has been described this way: with ominous quiet Cs in the cello, joined successively by the viola on A♭ moving to a G), the second  violin (on E♭), and the first violin (on A), thus creating the “dissonance” itself and narrowly avoiding a greater one. This lack of harmony and fixed key continues throughout the slow introduction before resolving into the bright C major of the Allegro section of the first movement, which is in sonata form.

Officially named the String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465, the quartet is followed by Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major, completed in 1903 when he was just 28 years old, possibly influenced by Claude Debussy’s one and only String Quartet, which he had completed 10 years earlier, at age 31.

The five-concert series featuring these works begins in Portland on May 11, followed by performances in Corvallis on May 12 and Salem on May 13. Two Eugene performances — available virtually as well as in person — close out the season on May 14 and 16.

Delgani String Quartet: Shadow and Light

When and where:

  • Portland — 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 11, at the Portland State University Lincoln Recital Hall, Room 75 (basement level), 1620 SW Park Ave.
  • Corvallis — 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 12,  at First Presbyterian Church, 114 SW 8th St.
  • Salem — 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 13, at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, 5090 Center St. NE
  • Eugene — 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 14, at First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1390 Pearl St. (also live-streamed at www.delgani.org/live/)
  • Eugene — 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 16, at First Church of Christ Scientist, 1390 Pearl St. (also live-streamed at www.delgani.org/live/)

Tickets: $28 for adults, $5 for students, free for children ages 12 years and younger; available online at delgani.org