Amber Quartet finds their groove

Mendelssohn's Op 80 is one of his few "autobiographical" works, which is a moving musical response to the grief he felt at the death of his sister Fanny in 1847. It was the last major piece he completed when his health deteriorated. He died two months after writing the piece. The music work did not appear in print until after the composer's death.

"When we first learned the music piece, we felt overwhelmed by its energy. It's a very different music piece compared to Mendelssohn's other works. We tried to understand the composer, whose life was about to end. It was beyond music," recalls Yang, adding that he read lots of books on psychology back then, hoping to figure out the most proper way to interpret the music piece. One of the books that Yang read was Staring at the Sun, by master psychotherapist Irvin Yalom.

"The music piece told us how Mendelssohn was confronting and coping with death. It was thought-provoking," Yang says.

"We performed the music piece in Singapore in 2017, the year I returned to Amber Quartet. Thus, it's a very meaningful piece to me personally," says Ma Weijia, one of the two second violinist of Amber Quartet. Ma met cellist Yang and violinist Ning when they studied at the middle school affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music in 2004. In 2005, they formed the Amber Quartet.

Ma joined the China NCPA Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, in 2011. From 2013-15, he pursued his study at Hochschule fur Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden in Germany.

The quartet also features violist Qi Wang, who, along with Yang, Ning and Su Yajing, another second violinist of Amber Quartet, traveled to Spain to study from 2013 to 2015.

As they recall, it was very "stressful" yet "rewarding" experience in Spain. They practiced for about 10 hours every day and faced pressure from their peers and themselves.

One day, during rehearsal, Qi made a mistake in his performance which became a breaking point. When the other members pointed out his mistake, Qi was so angry that he threw his bow away. Accidentally, the bow hit Ning on her head. After giving Qi an angry look, Ning broke Qi's bow into two pieces.

"We often compare a string quartet to a four-person marriage. We face many challenges to keep us going together as a quartet, such as the rigors of touring, the demands of constant practice, heated negotiations about programming and interpretation," says Yang, who talked with Qi for hours to calm him down and convince him about going on doing rehearsals. Ning went back home and relieved pressure through cooking, especially chopping. Su was scared and cried.

"Luckily, we share common goals that would sustain us musically into the future," says Yang.

In 2013, Amber Quartet was awarded three prizes at the Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition, in Melbourne, Australia: the Grand Prize, the String Quartet Division prize and the prize for best interpretation of a contemporary work — Chinese composer Zhang Zhao's String Quartet No 1, Totem. It was the first time that a Chinese string quartet won the international competition.

"We went through various competitions throughout our career, ever since we started learning music. It's normal to win awards. After the applause, we move forward," says Qi, also a teacher at the Central Conservatory of Music.