Review: Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
By: D.S. Crafts

The Miro String Quartet then brought to the stage Dvorak’s most famous and beloved string quartet, the “American” in F major. This proved to be a highly sentimental performance, much against the grain of what has come to be contemporary performance practice, though very likely far closer to the way the work would have been performed in Dvorak’s time. The slow Lento in particular, one of the composer’s finest moments, was replete with rubato, dramatic dynamic shading and sensual affectation. In some music circles these terms would be tantamount to automatic pejoratives. I offer them here purely as descriptions.

This interpretation was carried off with complete sincerity and, given the three curtain calls, was obviously persuasive.
The Finale with its rhythmically infectious syncopations is far more Bohemian than American, but the spirit remains very much organic to the work as a whole. First violinist Daniel Ching carried himself with poise and professionalism, despite an unruly page of music which would not stay turned.