Modigliani Quartet changes its classical styles, but never its antique instruments

According to Philippe Bernhard, first violinist with the Modigliani Quartet, the program he and his Parisian colleagues are touring is absolutely typical. That shouldn’t stop it from being extraordinary, though.

“We try to pick one hour and a half of music, so most of the time that’s the duration of three big quartets,” he explains in heavily accented but fluent English, on the line from his agents’ New York City offices. “And we try to show three different images of our group.”

Those three aspects cover the classical, Romantic, and Impressionistic eras, with Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in G Major, Op. 77, No. 1 exemplifying the first of those three. “Haydn is the father of the genre of the string quartet,” says Bernhard. “He’s like a road map. We can’t get lost, because we have Haydn.”

From there, the Modigliani Quartet—named for the Italian artist after the nascent group toured a major retrospective of his work—will progress to Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F Major, Op. 80. In part, that’s because 2009 marks the 300th anniversary of the German composer’s birth, but Bernhard notes that this is an unusually potent piece of music.

“Mendelssohn was always considered a very polite composer,” he says. “But the Opus 80 is an exception. He composed it just after the death of his sister Fanny, who was perhaps the most important person in his life, and he decided to throw away everything he had considered important, like education, politeness, everything. He just wrote a piece that was very hard and very special.”

There are good reasons why the quartet will also perform Maurice Ravel’s Quartet in F Major when the Vancouver Recital Society presents it at West Vancouver’s Kay Meek Centre on Sunday (November 15). In addition to being a gorgeous piece of writing, it underscores the group’s pride in its French heritage. “When you go to a foreign country, you are also there to give the music of your country,” notes Bernhard. “It’s something we have a special relationship with; it’s like it’s in our blood.”

National pride also extends to the instruments that Bernhard, second violinist Loïc Rio, violist Laurent Marfaing, and cellist François Kieffer play. Nicknamed “the Evangelists”, these remarkable fiddles were created by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume as a set, in 1863; purchased in virtually unplayed condition by master luthier Etienne Vatelot a century later; and are now on long-term loan to the Modiglianis.

“There is a beautiful parallel between our story and these four instruments, because we decided, in a way, that we would never change people,” says Bernhard. “So to play four instruments that were made together and that have remained together, that’s a very beautiful encouragement for us. In a way, we want to be like them!”