In “Morning Dew” spattered plucks alternated with radiant, flashing bow strokes. Swelling slowly to a sudden climax, the music cut off sharply, then began again. In “Nightfalls,” the first of its four movements, high, keening tendrils on the violins stretched over dusky, yawning chords from the viola and cello. “The Four Quarters,” a new string quartet by the British composer Thomas Adès heard in its premiere, emerged from a penumbral twilight left in Debussy’s wake to describe a day’s progress. Still, his technique could not be faulted, and in the final bars he mustered a suitable languor. Galway’s transformation from merry piper to erotic Pan was less than complete in a brisk account of Debussy’s unaccompanied “Syrinx,” which initially lacked an optimal sense of mystery.
Galway’s vivacity during their exchanges in the final Rondo, and the violinist Eugene Drucker responded in kind throughout. Galway’s sound had its familiar exuberance and mirth in the opening and closing movements in between he spun his most supple tone over gentle string pizzicatos in the beguiling Adagio. 285), music fashioned for a skilled amateur but amenable to professionals. The program opened with a poised, spirited account of Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D (K. What might have been a bipolar collaboration instead showed disparate parts blended into a complementary whole. Likewise the flutist James Galway, for all his popular appeal and crossover success, is eminently capable of turning in a high-minded, strait-laced performance. Serious though they may be, the members of the Emerson String Quartet are clearly not above having a bit of fun, as parts of the concert the group presented at Carnegie Hall on Saturday evening made clear.
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