In Conversation with the Cong Quartet

VM: The quartet was formed in 2015 at Indiana University while you were all there. From the past five years of experience, what are some of the important habits to form, things to develop, as you are gelling as a quartet?

CQ: It is important to practise your own part thoroughly before coming to rehearsals. It is difficult to play together if you don’t prepare your own part beforehand. A lot of people like to use the word ‘jamming’, which we find unappealing because ensemble practice should be regarded as a professional engagement.

Group rehearsal is not only about learning your own part but also those of the other players. But we find that even that should be done in your own time outside of rehearsal. Rehearsal time is a space which allows for experimenting with each other in terms of what works best as an ensemble. Intonation, tempo or character are some of the things that we try to coordinate.

We also focus a lot on discussing who should take the lead in different moments in the music. Another fun thing when rehearsing is that the first violin doesn’t always have the leading voice, or for most of the time the driving force of the music isn’t the melody. So each part of the quartet is equally important and we will have our own moments to lead the flow of the music.

And, throughout the five years, we think we understand each other’s tendency and approaches better. For instance, matching intonation is a big part of quartet playing. During our first or second year, there was a Mendelssohn piece that we played where we had found it difficult to play scale passages in unison or in parallel. Each of us has a slightly different tuning tendency. One of us tended to play more in equal temperament as he was a pianist before, while some others played in a just intonation.

As a chamber group, each player doesn’t bring just 25% to the quartet to make a whole, but each brings 100% of himself to the ensemble.

VM: Do you listen to recordings as references?

CQ: We wouldn’t only listen to recordings of the pieces that we are working on. We would listen to other works by the same composer of that piece. For example, Haydn had written numerous string quartets and if we were playing quartet Op. 76 no. 2 we would listen to the other five in the same opus. We would listen for the dynamic between members of the other chamber groups as well as observing how other string quartets approach the music of that composer.

VM: Do you listen together to yourselves?

CQ: Some of us do and some of us don’t. We have a habit of recording our rehearsals. In the early stages, such as when we were in the US and were living together, we would listen to the recordings of our rehearsals together because we had more time. However, now we aren’t quite able to do that except during quarantine.

We would still listen to recordings of our rehearsals or coaching to pick out places for discussion. When we spent too much time in just one section and got stuck, we would listen to the recording and it actually sounded fine by the third or fourth listening. By doing that, we would know when to move on to the next section when we encounter the same situation next time.

Relying on recordings to evaluate our performance could be both a good thing and a bad thing. The recording is not always a true reflection. Sometimes when you record at a close distance it sounds clear, but when you are ten metres away it becomes blurry. The recorder can pick up the tiniest sound which you did not intend to project so you have to be very careful and take into account the qualities of the environment.

Listening back to recording is helpful for reliving the rehearsal experience and for evaluating our interpretation choices, but not for determining whether our performance has met a certain standard.

VM: Do you guys agree on the tempo before starting to rehearse?

CQ: As a quartet, we would agree on a particular tempo. But, at the same time, we always experiment playing the same piece in different tempi. Sometimes if we perform at a very reverberant venue, we need to take down the tempo for the sake of clarity; if we perform somewhere that allows for a more direct sound, we might want to play faster. And the tempo is also affected by our mood on the day of rehearsal. If we are tired, we might play at a slower tempo. It is not a bad thing because often we would find new inspiration in the tempo of the piece under these circumstances.

VM: Are there any other things that you find effective?

CQ: We are very fortunate to have known a lot of quartets who played on the recordings personally, so we are able to ask them questions. For example, with the Shanghai Quartet, when we find something interesting about their interpretation choices such as fingering, we would send them an email or, more conveniently now, a message.

VM: Do you guys argue? Tell us a time when you guys really fought over something and the subsequent conflict resolution.

CQ: Yes – about what to wear! We don’t like wearing all black.

Disagreements on a musical level are inevitable. Of course, there is no right or wrong: we can do our own thing if it doesn’t cause any conflict. It is often difficult to assimilate comments from other members of the ensemble because they haven’t played our part and we have to try to make sense of what they meant and incorporate that into our own playing.

We have heard from our tutors who also play in ensembles that, as a group, they may have played a piece over and over multiple times but were still unable to achieve a satisfactory version. On the extreme, some groups may not play together any more or even talk to each other. However, when there is friction amongst the ensemble, they would still have to play together harmoniously and professionally when performing.

VM: Do you think the quartet has evolved since 2015? How do you think this has affected the sound?

CQ: What I think has evolved the most during these past five years is the communication language we use both within the group and with ourselves. For example, like we mentioned about note accuracy, we have developed a system to achieve that, and we would use that in our practice sessions.

We have different sounds individually. When there are changes in members of the quartet, the sound would inevitably be different. When we perform with a new member in the quartet, there would be a different kind of atmosphere. It is not evident during rehearsals, especially as we sit in the same place every time, but we would know from feedback from the audience.

For example, when we performed for the first time after having spent three months in the Netherlands, our regular audiences told us that we sounded very different.

The biggest difference between rehearsals and performance is that everything seems to stay pretty much the same during rehearsals but, at a live performance, adrenaline can affect each player. That’s when the group really gets to know the new player’s habits.

In technical terms, we were told to play nearer the bridge by a tutor during our time in Europe. This may not sound very different when only one person is playing, but when all four of us are playing this way together, the effect would be amplified.

VM: In terms of repertoire, does the quartet have any preferences? Or are you are still exploring most of the standard repertoire?

CQ: We haven’t yet agreed on a particular composer which all of us like – we need time to discover which composer has the most influence on us. One of our tutors from the Borodin Quartet told us that Shostakovich has a large influence on them, but not every piece by the composer interests us.

For us as a quartet, we mostly play to prepare for competitions so our repertoire is determined by the competition requirements. We would like to explore works by composers such as Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart with whom everyone is familiar.

We would also look at contemporary works by American and European composers. Some of these works may already be performed over and over numerous times abroad so we would like to bring these pieces to Hong Kong. We would choose those that are suitable for string quartet in terms of the sound effect of course.

We try to choose local works which represent our culture, which would make our performance more unique. But, for us, works by composers like Beethoven really speak for us in terms of the message we want to convey through our playing.

When we are young, we appreciate music such as works by Beethoven because they sound pleasing but, as we grow older, we become more interested in exploring how to turn our thoughts into music. We use this kind of skill more when making contemporary music. We did a project using multimedia to express a philosophical issue and to create a voice in society and to turn this idea into music. A good piece of work allows you to understand the relationship between the message and the sound and we’d like to use this skill with composition of classical pieces.

For instance, in our lecture recitals, a lot of the works have been heard countless times but, when we discuss and try to understand the historical background of the pieces, you will find that what you play represents something or has some kind of significance and that brings something different to the piece.

If we choose works by some composers to play as a cycle, we can consider whether we can relate to his thoughts when composing the piece. For example, the things that some composers write are a puzzle: would that be something that we’d like to explore? For example, war can be a theme. But we haven’t decided on what to focus on, such as which composer to play as a cycle, but we are interested in doing something like this.

VM: Did you have a teacher for the quartet at the beginning? How influential is it in forming the quartet at that time?

CQ: Brandon Vamos, cellist of Pacifica Quartet in Indiana, was our first tutor. We are familiar with the other members of the Pacifica Quartet too. They are good role models and are very down to earth. They taught us how to interact as a quartet and demonstrated to us what this career path is like. There are two to three quartets who trained under them who went on to have professional careers or to other schools as ensemble-in-residence. Chamber music was not very popular in Hong Kong at the time.

VM: Do you remember the most enjoyable moment – when it was like, ‘I am so lucky to be part of this group?’

CQ: Performing is always enjoyable. Although we often have disagreements musically, we enjoy playing together and we would always find a solution.

Having the chance to travel together is also a bonus. We remember the time when we went to Iceland for a music festival and the long daytime meant that we could do a lot.

VM: I suppose you have fans… do you interact with them? How? Have they ever inspired you?

CQ: We would communicate with them through private message on Instagram. They would post videos on Instagram and tag us. We have fans of all ages such as our friends and classmates whom we may not be familiar with but we find that they always come to our concerts. There are also high school students and even seniors. They like our music and not necessarily us as individuals. Some people at first come to listen to our concerts to see who we are, then they get hooked on to our music.