Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Angel’s Share concerts in the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn made a brief three-night appearance to bring in the summer before performances return in September. It was a simple and succinct programme, the Ulysses Quartet playing Beethoven’s final string quartet, Op 132 in A-minor, without any of the imaginative staging that is often part of this series. But it was the finest realisation of its concept and purpose I have experienced there.This first day of summer was hot, the air dense, and the cool chamber of the catacombs seemed like a different universe. A single piece might have felt too little but, surrounded by remnants of past lives, Beethoven’s spirit awoke — apt for a work containing a movement entitled “Holy song of thanksgiving”, offered after the composer recovered from an illness so serious he thought it would kill him.At 15 minutes-plus, this long central movement is an arch that begins in resignation and resolves in a glow of recovery. It sits inside the larger arch of this five-movement work; what was so impressive about the Ulysses’ performance is how they played the entire piece with a clear, expressive unity and purpose.Violinists Christina Bouey and Rhiannon Banerdt, violist Peter Dudek and cellist Grace Ho had a robust, grainy old-world sound. All the fidelity to the score was there and their technique was excellent, even holding together intonation in the humidity of the catacombs. This instrumental skill made transparent the often thrilling details of their thinking and expression. The violins’ vibrant dialogue had a commanding stature, Dudek showed an enticing, dusky sound and Ho’s solo passages were full and singing. They bound the spiritual and intellectual expanse of the music with the geography and physical space of the catacombs.Everything was sculpted shapes and forward motion. The first movement grew to a palpable sense of urgency and pressure. In the shift between minuet and trio in the second, the quartet smoothly etched each changing pulse.The hymn was plain-spoken, the quartet’s playing declarative. It also offered a subtle and powerful larger perspective, with gradual changes in tone colour all pointing to a shining sweetness at the end. This was so subtle that one felt it long before realising it was happening.That expressive technique also showed through changes in instrumental and emotional tone from the first two movements to the final two. There was a complete transformation in character after the hymn. The little march was stately, and the return of ambiguous, agitated feelings in the final movement had an intellectual bite. The Ulysses recalled the urgency of the opening, but managed to move it from the heart to the mind. The piece felt like the thoughts of a person who still has much to do and is eager to do it.★★★★★deathofclassical.com
