From The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Edgar Allan Poe's poems and short stories inspired a number of composers. The most famous were Sergei Rachmaninov, who wrote a choral symphony on "The Bells," and Claude Debussy, who left an unfinished opera on "The Fall of the House of Usher."

Maybe the most successful musical setting of Poe - certainly the spookiest - was by a friend of Debussy's, the violinist-composer Andre Caplet. His "Conte fantastique" (1909) is a condensed reading of Poe's "Masque of Red Death" with accompaniment by harp and string quartet.

The Shanghai Quartet, joined by harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, with actress Claire Bloom as the reader, performed Caplet's chilling treatment of Poe's tale of plague and fate as the climax of an all-French program last night in Camp Concert Hall of the University of Richmond's Modlin Center.

Bloom's reading could be called BBC standard - precise, detached, just shy of prim - with subtly breathy hints of the ominous. Her delivery was vivid enough to tell a story well, elegant enough to do justice to Poe's language, neutral enough not to get in the way of the real mood-setters of the piece, the musicians.

Caplet may not be a star of French impressionist music, but "Conte fantastique" is one of the stellar examples of the style's shimmering tone coloration, misty harmonic language, surging dynamism and precarious, shifting instrumental balances. It's often a spectacular display of individual technique and ensemble interplay.

The Shanghai and Kondonassis, who have played the Caplet previously with Bloom, made a stunning impression. The only shortcomings were a few passages in which music overbalanced narration. The harpist and quartet, joined by flutist Mary Boodell and clarinetist David Niethamer of the Richmond Symphony, made as rich (if not as long) an aural feast of Maurice Ravel's Introduction and Allegro. This miniature orchestration requires eloquent and assertive musicianship, as well as the keen ear for color needed in all impressionist scores.

This group proved to be as good as they come in this music. Kondonassis' ravishing harp cadenza was one of he many highlights.

The Shanghai - violinists Weigang Li and Yiwen Jiang, violist Honggang Li and cellist James Wilson - opened the program with Ravel's Quartet in F major. They have played this quartet repeatedly in and near Richmond over the past year, and it has been fascinating to hear them take the measure of its colors, sound effects, dynamics and phrasing.

Hearing an ensemble grow into mastery of a piece, rather than pass through town with a dazzling performance, is one of the underappreciated advantages of having a string quartet in residence.

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