By Daniel Buckwalter
When in doubt about programming to end a season of sterling play, just call on your loyal subscribers for recommendations. They know what they want to hear.
That’s what Delgani String Quartet did for a pair of performances May 11 and 13 to end the Eugene portion of their 10th season in the sanctuary at Eugene’s First Church of Christ, Scientist, and it will continue this weekend with performances in Corvallis, Portland and Salem to formally end the season.
The “Audience Choice” program leaned heavily on a pair of composing titans and their magnificent works — Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 — as well as a short opening piece by Portland-based composer Caroline Shaw.
It was a relaxed, celebratory finale to the season, even if the music was emotionally layered and often technically challenging, but Delgani — violinists Anthea Kreston and Jannie Wei, cellist Eric Alterman and guest violist Arnaud Ghillebaert — was up to the task, and at the May 13 performance received a well-deserved standing ovation.
Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 topped the subscriber votes and was played before intermission. Composed in 1960 while on a trip to Dresden, Germany, Shostakovich led a life wired in angst inside the old Soviet Union. Colleagues and friends were arrested and some were executed. Shostakovich feared all of that for himself as well.
String Quartet No. 8 is a reflection of that anxiety and foreboding. Melancholy stretches at the outset are interrupted by flashes of ferocious violence and followed by mysterious and haunting passages. The piece, four movements in all, closes with softness and, as it began, with a melancholy feel.
Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7, composed in 1808, is a more vibrant piece that Kreston, in introductory remarks about it following intermission, likened to a sound track of a Jane Austen novel. Kreston is especially taken with the third of the four movements, and it is a lovely stretch of music that is a pleasure to absorb.
Sharon Schuman
Before the Tuesday night concert, Wyatt True, Delgani String Quartet’s executive director, dedicated the performance to the late Sharon Schuman, the deeply respected violinist and very active community member who, as True noted, was also Delgani’s first-ever board member.
Editor’s note: Sharon Schuman died on April 23, 2025, when an out-of-control car left Amazon Parkway in Eugene, crossed into the park and struck her on the pedestrian trail during her morning run. She was 79 years old.
