Fine Arts Quartet honors Wolfgang Laufer

The world of professional music doesn’t have a 21- gun salute or a missing man formation, but that didn’t stop the Fine Arts Quartet from paying a moving tribute to their late cellist Wednesday night.

Before the scheduled program began, first violin Ralph Evans took the microphone to announce the group’s tribute to longtime Wolfgang Laufer, who passed away on June 8. The Quartet, with returning guest cellist Ronald Thomas, dedicated Alexander Glazunov’s Interludium in molto antico to Laufer.

The Interludium features several brief cello solos. Each time, Thomas played an emotional motif, and each time, the violins and viola rejoined him in an increasingly heartfelt chorus. Evans had asked the audience not to applaud after the piece, and total silence followed its wispy, ethereal conclusion.

Schubert’s tempestuous Quartettsatz, the first and only movement of an unfinished quartet, followed. After creating a tragic silence with Interludium, the performers seemed to break loose in Schubert’s pleasing melodies. Violist Nicolò Eugelmi and second violinist Efim Boico brought some zest to the piece, and played off the exuberance that Evans gave to everything after the Glazunov. (When the first violinist is bouncing around and so excited he can barely keep his seat, both the performers and the crowd can get even more into the music.)

The Fine Arts chose existentialism for the penultimate act. Audis Sallinen left empty space in all the right places in the 16-movement Pieces of Mosaic. Sallinen’s mosaic evokes modern art, in that he never quite lets you see the whole picture at once. The melodies jump from violins to cello to viola and back, in short bursts instead of sustained passages.

Sallinen asked much of the cellist, and Thomas delivered. Often paired with Eugelmi in opposition to the violins, Thomas knew when to fade into the background and when to burst into the open.

Bassist Andrew Raciti was the fifth in Dvorak’s String Quintet in G. Raciti played with Thomas for much of the piece, but got some free rein in the last two movements and provided a solid, steady counterpoint to Evans’ exuberance. The finale saw Evans rev the group up and then quiet down with a masterful control, unleashing his own fire and then stoking the expectations for the next outburst. After threatening to whirl out of control at times, all the moving parts fell into place in one final, poignant moment.

This program, the third in the Fine Arts Quartet’s Summer Evenings of Music series,  took place at the UWM Zelazo Center. The fourth and final Summer Evening is set for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 29. Admission is free, but reservations are recommended. Call the UWM Peck School of the Arts box office, 414 229-4308.