Passionate and feisty Ariel Quartet returns to the Vancouver Playhouse on October 29

Friends of Chamber Music concert features well-loved works by Ravel and Beethoven, alongside a contemporary piece by Israeli composer Matan Porat

By Jessica Werb

The Ariel Quartet.

Friends of Chamber Music presents the Ariel Quartet at the Vancouver Playhouse on October 29 at 7:30 pm

ADOLESCENCE ISN’T generally a time when people settle into their lifelong pursuits—never mind getting homework turned in on time. But 26 years ago, while their peers were experimenting with goth makeup and writing bad poetry, violinists Alexandra Kazovsky and Gershon Gerchikov, cellist Amit Even-Tov, and violist Jan Grüning were already in the early stages of their chamber music careers, forming the Ariel Quartet while studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel.

Describing themselves as blending American, Israeli, and German string traditions, their performances have been hailed for their youthful energy, emotional intensity, and technical prowess. Or, as the Washington Post raved in 2015, “setting ear-melting tenderness against seething passion with a deft and precise touch.” 

Five years after their Friends of Chamber Music premiere, their return looks set to deliver plenty of fireworks, with Maurice Ravel’s evocative (and only) String Quartet in F Major, Ludwig van Beethoven’s dazzling String Quartet in C Major, Opus 59, No. 3 “Razumovsky”, and a commissioned work by Israeli composer Matan Porat, Four Ladino Songs for String Quartet, infused with Judeo-Spanish folksong.

In other words: a big grab bag musical treats, just in time for Hallowe’en.  

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