By Daniel Buckwalter
Delgani String Quartet has always been a beacon of stirring and graceful chamber music in its nine full years of performing, a breath of elegance and education playing classics and newer works with gusto. In recent years, locally, it’s been from the small stage in the sanctuary of Christian Science Church in Eugene.
Yet when it moves to the larger stage of Springfield’s Wildish Theater — as it has a handful of times through the years and did again on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 to begin its 10th season — the vibe changes somewhat for Delgani. Think refinement blossoming to exquisite fun.
Such was the case again for the program A World of Music, performed in front of two large and adoring audiences, including an impressive near-sellout crowd on Tuesday night.
The Oct. 1 staging of A World of Music was the fifth and final production of Delgani’s season-opening series of performances that started in Salem and wound its way through Corvallis and Portland until it reached Wildish Theater, and it was splendid in its simplicity.
Violinists Anthea Kreston and Jannie Wei, along with cellist Eric Alterman, were joined by guest violist Amanda Grimm, the principal violist of the Oregon Symphony, and they worked in collaboration with dancers from Eugene Ballet and choreography by Sara Stockwell.
Passages of 24 pieces were played, alternating between Delgani by itself and a quartet of four dancers: Erin Johnson, Nina Nicotera, Ethan Boresow and Sam Neale.
There was the lively, the whimsical and melodic as well as light romance and romance lost as portrayed by the dancers. There was Asian music as well as Western classical. There was even music by Ugandan composer Justinian Tamusuza that, at times, resembled music you might hear in an old Western movie. He has studied Western music, and it shows.
And — new to me, at least — was the throaty and haunting sounds of the didgeridoo, a wind instrument that has to be heard to be believed. It’s an instrument that, as guest musician Stephen Kent noted to the audience, invokes “the sound of Earth and the voice of God.”
It does, too. Kent performed on the long, narrow and hollow instrument with Delgani on the Australian composer Peter Schulthorpe’s String Quartet No. 12 (From Ubirr). It was the final piece before intermission, and Kent afterward fielded many questions on stage from curious audience members.
Delgani, though, along with the dancers, were the star performers, and A World of Music was a magnificent and fun way for Delgani String Quartet to launch its 10th season.
Editor’s note: To keep tabs on what’s coming up during the the Delgani String Quartet’s 2024-25 season, go online to delgani.org/
