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Paul Watkins, a renowned cellist and affable presence in his own right, replaced Finckel.ĭrucker and Setzer are the two original members, forming the group in 1976, with Dutton joining a year later and Finckel in 1979. 22 is the Boston stop of their farewell tour, sans Finckel, who left in 2013 to take on myriad other projects, most of them with his wife, pianist Wu Han. (Photo, Jordan Jennings)Īll great things come to an end, alas. The Emerson String Quartet in cellist David Finckel's final Boston appearance - Philip Setzer, Eugene Drucker, Finckel, and Lawrence Dutton. Time and gravity march on even as the music remains masterful. Their hair has gone grayer (or gone missing) since Woodstock and they've sat back down since deciding at the turn of the millennium that their tone was better standing up. Much of the sparkle was provided by Finckel, who leaned into his cello like Roger Federer leaning into a forehand, darting a smile toward one of his mates here or a raised eyebrow there.Īnd to quote Bela Lugosi, “What music they make.” I’ve been going to almost all their Celebrity Series of Boston concerts since then and many of their Tanglewood concerts as well. What’s more, the quartet - violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel - were actually having fun. Here were four guys who not only played with grace and passion but who seemed to be having a spirited conversation with each other through their instruments, with Ludwig van as interlocutor. The hip Kronos Quartet went too much in the other direction, devolving into the I’m-too-sexy-for-my-shirt kitsch of Jimi Hendrix’ “Purple Haze.”īut sometime in the late ‘80s, a friend asked if I wanted to see the Emerson String Quartet perform an all-Beethoven concert in Woodstock, New York, I had a better time there than I did at the Woodstock rock and mud festival in the ‘60s.

Not that I hadn’t dabbled previously, but seeing the renowned Juilliard String Quartet seemed like a cerebral almost church-like exercise.

It might be a stretch to call them the Beatles of classical music, but if the Liverpudlians gave me a deeper appreciation of blues and R&B-based music, the Emersonians opened my eyes to the elegant soulfulness of string quartets. The Emerson String Quartet are calling it quits, their last Boston gig coming Jan. The Fab Four of classical music are to be no more.

String quartet japan atom heart mother cover