Other Links
Editorial Board
- UK Editors
- Roger Jones and John Quinn
Editors for The Americas - Bruce Hodges and Jonathan Spencer Jones
European Editors - Bettina Mara and Jens F Laurson
Consulting Editor - Bill Kenny
Assistant Webmaster -Stan Metzger
Founder - Len Mullenger
Google Site Search
SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
Webern: Six Bagatelles Op. 9
Mozart: String Quartet in D minor K 421
Beethoven: String Quartet in F Op. 59 No. 1 'Razumovsky'
Formed in 2002 the Arcanto Quartet has made its mark on the international
concert scene, receiving glowing reviews both of their recitals and of the
CDs they have made. Tonight's programme was well conceived as it included
Mozart's only minor key work in the group of six quartets dedicated to Haydn
he wrote in 1783, preceded by Webern's Six Bagatelles. Both works,
although emanating from totally different historical contexts, are notable
for their chromatic innovations and economy of form. Of course, economy of
form is taken to its extreme in the Webern work. The Six Bagatelles
are quite remarkable in their range of harmonic daring, traversing all
twelve notes of the chromatic spectrum; but also in their staggering
contrast with each other, and the extraordinary quartet textures they
encompass - the outer movements played with muted bowing. And the sudden
outburst of dissonance at the end of the second Bagatelle had
something of a shock effect. All this, plus some some amazingly elliptical,
prismatic transitions, was delivered with amazing empathy and alacrity.
In K 421 the opening Allegro moderato sounded both natural
and flowing, but also registering the darker minor key undertones of the
music, starting with the falling octave of the main theme. The plunge into
the harmonic clashes of the development section were given an added sense of
disturbed urgency and textural clarity by being played at the correct tempo.
The sustained D minor recaptitulation proceeded in contrast to, but with,
the same chromatic drive, as the preceding development section. All the
repeats in this movement were observed, including the repeat of the
development section. The composer indicated these repeats and I think it is
right, as in most current performance practice, to observe them. Curiously,
the repeat of the development section in the final movement was omitted. The
F major andante gained from being sustained as a real andante with
movement, and with all the contrasting and sharp chromatic statements making
their full effect. This chromatic intensity was carried over into the
canonic harmonic clashes of the Menuetto. The finale's variations in the
6/8 meter of a siciliano, with the contrasting moments of intimate sadness,
were beautifully realised.
As with the Mozart, the Beethoven Op. 59 No. 1, gained
enormously from being played virtually as written. The opening F major theme
flowed with a lyricism that unfolded naturally without ever sounding
contrived, and with an absolute minimum of rubato. But when rubato was
employed it was done with great subtlety, as in the cellos' deceptively
tentative lead-in to the extended development section, a development section
which here stands in for the exposition repeat. All the rhythmic shifts and
contrasts in the B flat scherzo were miraculously integrated with
the second theme's F minor. And in more than most recent performances I have
heard, the rounds of melodic figurations juxtaposed on solo instruments
anticipated a stylistic innovation which would fully develop in the late
quartets. The 'magnificently sombre' F minor Adagio was beautifully
contoured. It was certainly an Adagio molto, but it never dragged,
the Arcantos never forgetting that Beethoven's slow movements are never slow
in the later 'Romantic' sense. In the initial paragraphs here I would have
welcomed a little more sotto voce, but the ornamented development
section sounded wonderful in its harmonic opulence. The brilliant
cadenza-like lead-in to the exuberant finale from the slow movement's coda
had all the inevitability of Beethoven's later transitions. The finale's
Russian tune was given a compelling buoyancy tonight - as was energetic
coda, the themes of which develop from the fanfare-like the motive
originally stated in the Theme Russe.
Geoff Diggines