The return of the Amernet Quartet

A snow warning Tuesday night didn't keep hundreds of fans from coming out to see the Amernet String Quartet in Corbett Auditorium at CCM. (Most impressive: the long student line at the box office.) The ensemble, formerly in residence at Northern Kentucky University and CCM, now holds a residency at Florida International University in Miami.

For their debut with Chamber Music Cincinnati, they brought a superb and varied program, which included local soprano Audrey Luna in Schoenberg's Quartet No. 2.

Schoenberg's Quartet No. 2 in F-sharp Minor of 1907-08 is one of his first forays into atonality, but its sonorities often lean to post-romanticism. What is most striking is the use of soprano voice in the third and fourth movements, settings of evocative German-language poems by Stefan George, translated as "Litany" and "Rapture: I feel the air of other planets."

The players -- Misha Vitenson, Marcia Littley de Arias, Michael Klotz and Javier Arias -- were at home in Schoenberg, despite the music's chromatic, angular themes. They projected intensity in the angst-ridden first movement, that ended on a note of unexpected serenity. The second movement, "Sehr rasch," which includes an improbable quote from "Ach du lieber Augustin," was disjunct, agitated and fragmented, yet the ensemble showed amazing unity of attack and mood.

The effect of Luna's vocal color against sometimes-austere string counterpoint was arresting. Luna, a faculty member at Miami University, delivered a riveting performance and projected beauty of sound despite the challenges of the vocal line. The finale was an otherworldly combination of strings creating a spectacular canvas with high harmonics and swirling figures, while the singer's evocation was rapturous.

Also on the program: Haydn's Quartet in G Minor, Op. 74, No. 3, "The Rider," and Beethoven's Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132. The Beethoven, especially, was rich-toned and expressive. The heart of the work, "Heiliger Dankgesang," was sublime for the organ-like sonority and purity of tone achieved by the players.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: By the way, one of the nice things Chamber Music Cincinnati does is to provide free snacks to concertgoers at intermission. This time it was cookies and coffee, courtesy of The Rohs Street Cafe on W. McMillan. It's a nice touch, and gives people a chance to socialize...

The Chamber Orchestra does a free reception after each concert and CSO has a free dinner buffet on Thursdays.

DO YOU THINK WE NEED FOOD AT CONCERTS, OR NOT?