Shanghai Quartet performs in Norfolk

NORFOLK — On Friday evening, Aug. 1, the Shanghai Quartet came to Norfolk’s Yale School of Art to perform at the Music Shed, drawing a large crowd of all ages of Norfolk residents and visitors.

The performance was a part of Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, which occurs for six weeks every summer.

The Shanghai Quartet was formed in 1983 in China, featuring only string instruments, and in those 40 years it has toured internationally as one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. The current group members are violinists Weigang Li and Angelo Xiang Yu, violist Honggang Li, and cellist Sihao He.

Before the performance began, Festival Director Melvin Chen introduced the quartet. He explained, unfortunately, that Angelo Xiang Yu would not be appearing due to a medical issue. This meant the program had to be changed last minute, but Chen assured the audience that it would still be “an exciting and fun program.”

Exciting it was when W. Li, H. Li, He and guest pianist Matan Porat, who also performed the next day for the festival’s Night at the Cinema show, took the stage to play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Quartet K. 478 in G minor.

The second part of the program was a duet between violinist W. Li and Festival Director Chen himself on the piano. They played Johannes Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108.

After the brief intermission was the last piece of the program, Brahms’ String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18, performed by the three members of the quartet and three guests: violinist Lingyu Dong, violist Davin Mar, and cellist Lila Holyoke.

The strength and passion with which these musicians play is like witnessing a professional athlete. Their ability to change direction and intensity within a moment certainly echos the program’s explanation that the group “weaves together an emotional journey through the human experience using the medium of string quartet, by composers whose personal and cultural experiences shaped the music.”