Concert Review: Isidore String Quartet, Anthony McGill – Beethoven, Brahms, and a James Lee III World Premiere

Johannes Brahms wrote only one clarinet quintet, and did so late in life and only after hearing a clarinetist who impressed him greatly, Richard Mühlfeld. By all accounts, Mühlfeld was quite something; he further inspired Brahms to write more music for the instrument. We’re fortunate today to have clarinet virtuosos who can give this timeless music its due and continue to explore its possibilities to keep it fresh.

Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic, is as ubiquitous these days as he is talented. The Isidore String Quartet, recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2023, is one of the brightest young quartets to emerge in the past few years. Together they delivered an inspiring performance on December 7, 2025 of the challenging Brahms Clarinet Quintet and of a new work by James Lee III. This opening event of the People’s Symphony Concerts Town Hall series also included the Isidore Quartet playing the Op. 18 No. 6 string quartet by Beethoven. It added up to one of the most satisfying chamber music performances I’ve experienced in NYC this year.

Beethoven, from the Isidore String Quartet

Any young string quartet has to prove its mettle with Beethoven. The Isidore’s performance showed neither hesitancy nor undue bravado, with sprightly playing and delicately nuanced rubatos in the opening movement. This is the last-numbered of what became known as Beethoven’s Early Quartets, and knowing that, a new listener might be excused in inferring simplicity. Far from it. The music shows a debt to Mozart and other predecessors, but it’s also distinctly Beethoven’s own, full of complex feeling. A poetic account of the second movement, burnished with warm, woodsy lyricism, created a dreamy mood that the musicians ably sustained through all the music’s dynamic oscillations.

The Scherzo poses challenges to the listener and, I’m sure, to the players. At times we can’t help wondering where exactly we are in the flow of fast, syncopated trios of eighth-notes. It’s always a trip.

The performance of the famous last movement impressed me most of all. The first section, marked Adagio and nicknamed “La Malinconia” (“Melancholy”), is more than a slow introduction to an Allegro, it’s a devastating swim through depression. This performance had more than that, though – it imbued this sombre music with a flicker of the macabre. Even the diminuendos, bowed with a superb touch, seemed to deny hope.

The Allegro arrived with an energy that felt almost carnivalesque in comparison. But the gaiety isn’t decisive. The melancholy recurs, is forced offstage, returns again, before a sped-up coda finishes things with a jitter of desperate high spirits. The musicians – violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violist Devin Moore, and cellist Joshua McClendon – conveyed the complexity with all the thoughtful musicality it demands and deserves.

Essential Gems from James Lee III

Anthony McGill joined the Isidore String Quartet for the world premiere of “Humanity’s Essential Gems” by James Lee III, whose music has been well represented on New York stages of late. More than the Brahms to come, this festive work spotlighted the clarinet, giving it the feeling of a chamber concerto.

Staccato rhythms accompanied bubbling clarinet figures at the start of a first section that developed into a small melting pot of boisterous flavors and colors. A slow section introduced interesting legato harmonic changes that supported fluttering clarinet hijinks.

A second section found strings fused into ascending chords, awaiting the entrance of the clarinet. McGill, who is not unfamiliar with Lee’s music, arrived with glistening swoops and flights of fancy, “singing” with the high-stepping clarity he routinely brings to upbeat music. The third section sizzled and scampered with syncopated triplets, finishing with an exciting coda.

Lee, or “James Lee Three” as he calls himself, continues to advance his mix of modernist vocabulary and accessible kinetics. “Humanity’s Essential Gems” was a fine partner, both sonically and in its title, for the Brahms.

Brahms with Anthony McGill

I was immediately absorbed in the first movement of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet. This meltingly good performance played as a beautiful excursion through Brahms’ unique palette of color and harmony. The Adagio flowed with a silky texture and plenty of space, giving prominence to McGill’s artistry of tone and expression. Time seemed to stop as the music flowed, now impassioned, now prayer-like, now dark, now – still dark, but with a guiding light.

Subtlety from all five musicians was on display in the third movement. The final movement evidenced McGill’s ability to fold his tone into the net of strings – I enjoyed the game of working to pick it out of the mix, as I often do with the viola when listening to a string quartet. Brahms’ leaping melodies were songful, indeed festive, harking back to Lee’s piece, but with splashes of shadow. The lovely clarinet-violin duo shone.

I’ve always like Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet. This performance raised it even higher in my accounting of the composer’s brilliance. It’s not programmed as often as some of Brahms’ other chamber music. I hope the Isidore String Quartet and Anthony McGill get more opportunities to join forces in future seasons to play Olympian repertoire like this.

See the Isidore String Quartet’s website for its schedule. Anthony McGill’s upcoming performances are on his website. The 126th season of the affordable People’s Symphony Concerts continues in NYC.