The world of classical music is regarded by some as being populated with stuffed shirts. Pompous. Formal. Dull. Superior.
And if there is any genre in classical music that represents the height of such a reputation, it has to be the string quartet. I was told early in my time on the board of the Valley Concert Society never to book a string quartet. “Our audience doesn’t like them.”
The Butter Quartet put the lie to that depiction last Friday evening. They were fun from the very beginning.
Their agent promised me that one or two would be available for the pre-concert talk. They were all ready and eager to come.
Their answer to my first question was filled with laughter as they related how they decided on their name—a name that portrays their love of humour every time it is spoken.
The serious side of their field—their study and research—was narrated with passion and enthusiasm.
There was a bounce in their step as they came out onto the stage for their performance. (Okay, they were young, I know. But still, you could just feel their energy.)
They revelled in the humour that they found in the music of Haydn and made sure to highlight it as they sawed on their instruments. The cellist was seriously sawing at times. I worried for his instrument.
Even when they were intensely focused on a demanding passage, there was nothing grim about it. These people knew how to work hard and how to have fun—two facets of the same discipline that had claimed their lifelong commitment.
Neither could you characterize the audience as stuffed shirts. We clapped at the right times and the wrong times, and it didn’t matter. We showed our appreciation, and it fed their energy.
The musicians made a point of telling me how much they enjoyed our building and our audience. Last Friday was their best concert experience to that point in their tour of North America. I tell you this not as something extraordinary but as something that I have heard numerous times from visiting performers. You are a great audience and are rewarded with the best that the artists have to offer you.
One of my favourite moments came after most of you had left. There was a group of music students in the audience, string players. The quartet came out to the foyer and spent more than a quarter hour with them, talking to them, listening to their experiences, and laughing with them.
No stuffed shirts anywhere. Just people sharing their love for music and the joy that it brings.
John Wiebe - President
The Valley Concert Society