"Amaryllis Quartet Ends Arkell Season On High Note"

By Colleen Johnston

For THE RECORD (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada)

“The Arkell Schoolhouse Gallery closed its 1997-98 concert series on Saturday (June 20, 1998) with a splendid evening featuring The Amaryllis Piano Quartet.

The Amaryllis Piano Quartet is made up of violinist Angela Cox-Daly, violist Tracy Poizner, ‘cellist Laura Jones, and pianist Andreas Thiel.   They performed both Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478, as well as Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25.  While both of these works share the same key, each makes different demands on the players.

The opening of the Mozart work is sharply carved, dark, and in the hands of the Amaryllis musicians and their ultra-crisp articulations, hinting at danger.  Even more interesting was how much invention Mozart lavished onto the lengthy development section, in which the Amaryllis players worked as a tightly prepared, beautifully blended ensemble.

The Andante was remarkable for the musicians’ rich, creamy unity and vast array of textural elements.  Thiel is a true team player, and his understatement was delightful, especially in sustaining the tensions of the second movement and bringing radiant and witty sonority to the final Rondo.

The Arkell Schoolhouse is a charming venue.  But open windows weren’t quite enough to relieve the heat, and all string players are to be commended for keeping well in tune in what were trying conditions.

The resplendent Piano Quartet of Brahms is a piece which, as you hear it’s wispy, fragile motivic cells build into heaving, roiling passion, you wonder why every composer didn’t write so well.  At the same time, you are aware that this music with its scientifically dissected cells, breadth of emotion, and cross-rhythm dovetail phrases (more often than not, defying the barline as we know it) is masterful and unmatched in the piano quartet repertory.

Happily, the live but clear acoustics of the Schoolhouse were excellent to display the Amaryllis’ musicians’ collective acumen and expression.  The full house of patrons received this performance with several ovations.”

September 24, 1997

"Conducted" by Jan Narveson

"Sunday afternoon: pianist Andreas Thiel's Brahms commemoration brought veteran soprano Lynn Blaser, plus an able threesome of KWS players (Angela Cox-Daly, Tracy Poizner, and Laura Jones, vln-vla-cello [also of the Amaryllis Piano Quartet]) to the WLU Recital Hall, and knit the solo piano items, songs,  and the Piano Quartet in G together via a very well-chosen narrative, beautifully read by Howard Dyck................

The Piano Quartet in G is a splendid piece, though amply demanding, and these artists had, it turns out, worked away at it since last summer.  They got good results, too: Thiel was very impressive throughout, notably in the delicate slow movements; the string players were at their best in the exultant passages, but were always capable.  And their hearts were in it, which counts a very great deal.