Spectral Quartet performing “Enigma” at the Adler Planetarium, April 7, 2022.
Courtesy of Spektral Quartet
The Bell Museum became a galactic concert hall for a mesmeric performance that wove together classical repertoire with ambitious contemporary excursions in sound, all engulfed in immersive visuals projected onto the digital planetarium’s dome ceiling.
It was the last stint of performances for Chicago’s Spektral Quartet, who are disbanding as a group, though not before slinging out a few more recording projects. One has a St. Paul connection. They’re releasing “Behind the Wallpaper,” by Alex Temple, made in collaboration with singer and composer Julia Holter. That piece first launched in partnership with Liquid Music, which at the time was a program of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
“Spektral Quartet: Enigma: A 360° Experience” was presented on Friday and Saturday at the Bell Museum, which presented the work as part of its 150th anniversary, in partnership with the Walker Art Center and Schubert Club Mix, a program of the Schubert Club. From the Renaissance to the chilling avant-garde brilliance of Icelandic composer Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir’s 2019 piece, “Enigma,” the performance was one to remember.
Sitting in the small playing area at the front of the Falcon Heights planetarium, the four musicians — violinists Theo Espy and Clara Lyon, violist Doyle Armbrust and cellist Russell Rolen — were lit only with their music stand lights and the visuals projected on the ceiling. The first three works featured projections, designed by the Bell Museum’s Thaddeus LaCoursiere, which captured the vastness and beauty of the Earth and beyond.
First, they played “O Magnum Mysterium,” a work by Spanish 16th century composer Tomás Luis de Victoria, based on a Catholic chant used at Christmastime. The work has a humble beauty tinged with melancholy, with each of the four musicians taking on the melodic line that wove between the different instruments.
Then, as a giant moon rose to fill the night sky, the quartet played String Quartet No. 1, by Eliza Brown. The 1985 work began with scratching sounds heavy with anticipation.
With whispery harmonics and bows that barely touched the strings, the work had brief moments of the instruments playing full sound — often in sharp dissonance with each other.
The quartet then played String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 III. Andantino, doucement expressif, by Claude Debussy. The piece opened with a light and dance-like feeling, as LaCoursiere’s projections lingered over a snowy landscape, and the sun hid behind the mountains in the distance. Soon, drops of water appeared on the snow, as Debussy’s notes soared sumptuously. Toward the work’s moody conclusion, the projections panned out quickly until capturing the whole Earth suspended in the galaxy.
Sigurður Guðjónsson created the video that accompanied the last piece, “Enigma,” by Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir. Visually, Guðjónsson’s work emerged as primordial shapes that moved amorphously, and somewhat ominously.
Musically, “Enigma” began with grinding creaks, groans, then slides. The musicians made sounds from their instruments by brushing fingerboards ever so slightly with their bows. Þorvaldsdóttir’s composition became very rhythmic at times, and then would move into long sustained notes played together, creating a pleasing kind of tension.
Local sound engineer Grace Heatherington-Tilka designed the sound for the work, creating a subtle amplification that surrounded the planetarium. After the musicians stopped playing, a quiet reverberation lingered, leaving a kind of question mark at the conclusion. It was a haunting finish for the phenomenal ensemble.