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SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
Haydn: String Quartet in A, Op. 20/6
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E flat, Op. 44/3
Berg: Lyric Suite
This was a lovely evening of music lovingly performed by the young Doric
Quartet. The Doric has already made some recordings that have garnered
critical praise: Haydn Quartets on the Wigmore Hall's own label, plus
Korngold on Chandos (
reviewed by Rob Barnett on this site last year). The youthful zest of
their performances on this particular evening was a joy.
The Haydn Quartet (1772) began with a scherzo-like movement
performed at great speed but with lots of delicious detail. Particularly
memorable was the Doric's use of pianissimo to generate an atmosphere of
hushed expectancy. There was a somewhat rough sound at higher dynamic
levels that I kept on kindly thinking was "authentic" but to this day I
remain unsure as to whether that was the intent. The Adagio's simple
accompaniment figures seemed all the more effective here, set against a
lovely cantabile for the main line (the first violin part, played by Alex
Redington, is almost concertante in nature and was delivered with
confidence). The lovely, muted Trio of the third movement was another
highlight, while the finale, replete with fugal writing, was rightfully
exuberant.
Mendelssohn's string quartets still don't get the recognition they surely
deserve. The E flat, Op. 44/3 of 1838 once more had a
raw sound, giving a surprisingly savage edge to the fortes. There
is a fairly relentless energy to the first movement that the Doric Quartet
kept up to good effect, and again, textural clarity was of upheld
throughout. The scampering Scherzo was filled with delightful staccato
articulation, while the Adagio no troppo was marked by an air of grieving
. This was the most glorious movement of them all in the present
performance, despite the nimbly articulated finale.
Berg's wonderful but dauntingly difficult Lyric Suite (1925-6), a
score that is replete with musical cryptograms, was a challenge the Doric
rose to magnificently. They showed a great awareness of the importance of
gesture in this music (the sighs of the first movement, for example) along
with wonderful delineation of thematic strands. Delicacy was present in
the Andante amoroso, while in the Allegro misterioso it was the technical
achievements that impressed, with col legno scamperings and capricious
pizzicati. Most memorable, though, were the skeletal, dismembered sounds
of the Adagio appassionato (although here the climax could have been more
vehement) and the spectral sounds of the otherworldly Presto delirando.
The final Largo desolato was magnificently barren. A superb performance of
a most demanding piece.
Colin Clarke