CONCERTS

Your monthly critical round-up of performances, recordings and publications

THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS

Our pick of the new releases

Beethoven to treasure from a stellar threesome PAGE 87

Laura van der Heijden: a British cello concerto album to cherish PAGE 88

Sebastian Bohren excels in a Vasks premiere PAGE 90

New York

Mesmerising Schubert from the Danish Quartet and Johannes Rostamo (second right)

FADI KHEIR

JERUSALEM QUARTET

92NY 16 APRIL 2024

As a friend who adores string quartets has repeatedly said, Haydn quartets require a high degree of precision in intonation, and in the Quartet in E flat major op.76 no.6, the Jerusalem Quartet proved her thesis correct. Particularly in the skeletally exposed upper registers, the ensemble’s deft reading showed skill and judgement, as the foursome sent the ticklish passages flying into the ether. But the group’s tuning expertise also appeared in the richly resonant chords that came in between. The final movement, taken at a torrential pace, only cemented the delight that resulted from the high-wire acrobatics.

For Brahms’s Third Quartet the group relaxed into a more luxurious richness, with violist Ori Kam on particularly fine form in the slow movement as his colleagues deferred to him in muted splendour. In contrast to the sparkle of the Haydn, the foursome opted for a juicier, plusher approach that made perfect sense.

When considering Shostakovich’s quartets, no.2 is rife with quietude, as well as being the longest of the 15, except for the last one. Yes, forceful bow strokes rained down and the composer’s dissonances registered with piercing accuracy, but the overall sense was more genial and gentle than usual. We love the Shostakovich that stings, but we also love the one that finds profundity in peacefulness and grace.

BRUCE HODGES

DANISH QUARTET, JOHANNES ROSTAMO (CELLO)

ZANKEL HALL, CARNEGIE HALL 18 APRIL 2024

The inimitable Danish Quartet was joined by Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo for a night of exquisite music-making at Carnegie Hall. The opening Allegro of Schubert’s magnificent C major String Quintet was mesmerising from the first chord – its energy, bow speed and vibrato all immaculately matched among the players. This movement was a study in unhurried elegance – every note, every phrase given with care and attention. The start to the Adagio was bravely quiet, while the F minor middle section was appropriately formidable. Joy and humour characterised the Scherzo, which was followed by a stately Trio. In the finale, delicate arpeggios contrasted with moments of rusticity to magical effect.

Thomas Adès’s Wreath (for Franz Schubert) received its New York premiere, a work that uses bowed inner voices while first violin and cello are pizzicato. The piece is constructed in such a way that each part reacts to another one, creating an almost meditative movement as the phrases ebb and flow, with no two bars replicating exactly the same harmonies or rhythms. Despite its complex structure, the Danish Quartet created a sound world that felt almost simple – and simply beautiful. The programme concluded with an arrangement of ‘Die Nebensonnen’ from Winterreise, played with exquisite beauty and generosity of sound, followed by an encore by Carl Nielsen – an arrangement of the melancholy song Underlige Aftenlufte performed with the same transcendent beauty that epitomised the entire evening.

LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

To browse through more than a decade of The Strad’s recording reviews, visit www.thestrad.com/reviews

Philadelphia

QUATUOR ÉBÈNE

PERELMAN THEATER 6 APRIL 2024

It’s not often that a group seems slightly rattled by audience noise, but in the second half of the concert, shortly after Quatuor Ébène began Schubert’s vast G major Quartet D887, a stray sound in the Perelman Theater audience caused its first violinist to stop abruptly, toss a few impatient words towards the left side of the hall, and then start again. Not to make light of the disruption, but – given the quality of the playing – it would be hard not to take a small bit of pleasure from hearing a portion of the work twice. It is high praise when an ensemble can regroup so effectively after a disruption, and ultimately the Ébène’s artistry, not to mention the composer’s majesty, shone forth.

Thankfully, the first half proceeded without incident, starting with Haydn’s String Quartet in G minor op.20 no.3, given appropriate gravitas in the opening movement and the Menuetto. But if the work is less ticklish than some of the composer’s other quartets, the players managed to boost the effervescence by the sheer will of their tone and expert timing.

For Bartók’s Third String Quartet, a 15-minute coiled spring of a piece, the foursome gave each of the composer’s rare minerals its own focus and microscopic attention. Aside from marvelling at the sheer calibre of the playing, we were made aware of the research and discussion that underpinned the actual performance – the result bringing many in the audience to their feet in admiration.

BRUCE HODGES

YO-YO MA (CELLO) KATHRYN STOTT (PIANO)

VERIZON HALL 12 APRIL 2024

In the classical music world, few artists can sell out a 2,500-seat hall, but cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott (right) did that easily, with demand adding an extra two dozen or so seats on stage at Verizon Hall. From the opening set – bookended by Fauré’s Berceuse and Papillon, with Dvořák, Assad and Nadia Boulanger in between – the cellist demonstrated the impossibly seductive tone of his 1733 Montagnana, one of three instruments in his arsenal.

For some of us, the Shostakovich Cello Sonata might have been the spiritual heart of the evening, with its interior monologue again benefiting from sheer tonal beauty. But for many in the packed house, Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel was the centrepiece: an icon of simplicity, given an extraterrestrial gloss with photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope projected on a giant overhead screen, courtesy of the artist John Syzonenko.

MARK MANN

To close we had Franck’s Violin Sonata in its familiar arrangement for cello by Jules Delsart, which continued the evening’s mellow cast. If the occasion overall had a more subdued air than usual, there was an additional whiff of nostalgia: Ma explaining in his notes that Stott will be retiring from the concert stage this year, ending their four-decade collaboration.

Encores were all but mandatory, and the duo obliged with an appropriately reverent account of Bloch’s Prayer and ending with Cristal by César Camargo Mariano, sending the crowd home on a high of jazzy adrenalin.

BRUCE HODGES

London

QUATUOR DANEL

WIGMORE HALL 19 MARCH 2024

Quatuor Danel offered an intense Russian programme at this Wigmore Hall concert, starting with Shostakovich’s Fourth Quartet. The full sound of the opening gave way to intimate, delicate dialogues, and in the second-movement Andantino leader Marc Danel produced a great dramatic arc in his opening soliloquy over deadpan inner voices. The busy third movement was uneasy, propulsive and full of little surges, and in the finale the Jewish themes had an uneasy restlessness to them.

Mieczysław Weinberg’s Fourth Quartet followed, played with constant high energy and clarity of texture. There was vehemence in the macabre, unsettling Moderato assai, with an abundance of aggressive acciaccaturas and cellist Yovan Markovitch giving the high-lying lines a bleak beauty. In the third movement, with its curious marking of Largo marciale, second violinist Gilles Millet and violist Vlad Bogdanas were severe but expressive.

In Shostakovich’s Fifth Quartet the players combined insouciant charm with fierce urgency in the opening Allegretto and trance-like playing in the Andantino, its long lines seeming to be held in stasis as slow melodies came and went. The more genial moments were given with a light touch, which morphed into emphatic muscularity as the music demanded.

TIM HOMFRAY

NOVUS QUARTET

WIGMORE HALL 14 APRIL 2024

In this Sunday-morning concert the Novus Quartet performed Mozart’s E flat major Quartet K428 with great contrasts of delicacy, rich tone and constant dynamic variation. In the steady-paced second movement the musicians found further contrasts: between vibrato-free fragility and full, warm sound, the dynamics in constant flux, and with little hiatuses at the cadences. After the forthright optimism of the Menuetto the Trio occupied a very different, more melancholy landscape. The finale scurried along on a tide of energy and stabbing accents.

Intensity personified from Quatuor Danel

The Ravel quartet, for which the violinists swapped places, was full of shifting moods and colours, with a wealth of scintillating details, a mix of precision and expressive rubato. Between the vivid, busy outer sections of the second-movement Assez vif, there was gossamer lightness in the central Lent. The playing in the third movement was exquisite, with exceptional matching of tone and immaculate ensemble. The final few bars unfolded as a profound meditation, from which the finale exploded in a kind of emotional turmoil, with its many subtle shifts of tempo woven into a scintillating musical story.

TIM HOMFRAY

ENGEGÅRD QUARTET

CONWAY HALL 21 APRIL 2024

Mozart’s ‘Prussian’ Quartets are not as frequently programmed as they might (or should) be, and this fine Norwegian ensemble has set down an exemplary modern recording of them (for Lawo). In the event, however, anticipation had to yield to reality in K589, because leader Arvid Engegård seemed out of sorts and not disposed to mesh with his colleagues. Some brittle tone and rigid rhythms persisted in Bartók’s Third Quartet, though muscular confidence and collective musicianship won out, with violist Juliet Jopling forming a bridge of contact between the others.

In footballing terms, half-time oranges and a pep-talk must have raised their game, and the Engegård played much more as a team in the second half. Having commissioned A Tale of Lead and Light from fellow Norwegian Maja Ratkje in 2011, the quartet persuasively staged her taut drama, based on motifs from Beethoven’s ‘Rasumovsky’ no.1, in which carefree play is overtaken by anxiety and then catastrophe.

The gestural vocabulary of Ratkje’s clouded tonal harmony feels familiar from Schoenberg and Ligeti, but the course of events is compelling enough. Likewise, the taut 20-minute span of Fanny Mendelssohn’s Quartet in E flat major packs in some vividly Beethovenian ideas, which struggle to define themselves against the backdrop of her brother’s quartet writing. A halting pathos to the Romanze, however, strikingly anticipates Felix’s tribute to the memory of his sister in his own F minor Quartet, and the Engegård coloured it with the kind of Mozartian ambivalence of sunshine and showers which would have been welcome in the opening work.

PETER QUANTRILL

Joyful musicianship from Maria Włoszczowska and friends

PHOTOS WIGMORE HALLTRUST 2024

MARIA WŁOSZCZOWSKA, TIM CRAWFORD (VIOLINS) TIMOTHY RIDOUT, TING-RU LAI (VIOLAS) TIM POSNER (CELLO)

WIGMORE HALL 23 APRIL 2024

There was a gleeful opening to Mozart’s B flat String Quintet K174, with dynamic playing from Maria Włoszczowska and colourful touches of vibrato. It was a joyous performance, made clear by all the smiles from the performers. The violinists sculpted the opening theme of the Adagio with exquisite sensitivity. Following the bucolic good humour of the Menuetto and Trio, with touches of comedic exaggerated phrasing, the players chased their tails with gusto in the scalic dialogues of the finale.

We were then transported into the very different world of Schoenberg’s late String Trio, played by all the Tims: violinist Crawford, violist Ridout and cellist Posner. After the manic muscularity of the opening, they skilfully wove together Schoenberg’s disjointed fragments, with their catalogue of string effects and extreme technical demands, drawing from the music moments of great delicacy and emotional heat.

Ridout took the soloist’s role in the viola quintet version of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet. He was consistently excellent, fluid and robust, with poised beauty at the opening of the Adagio and expressive nuances in the recitative. Posner, meanwhile, gave a beautifully flowing account of the first variation in the finale.

TIM HOMFRAY

VERONA QUARTET

CONWAY HALL 28 APRIL 2024

The Verona Quartet’s recordings of Szymanowski, Janáček and Ligeti hardly prepared me for the rich carpet of tone which this Cleveland-based ensemble unfurled for Mendelssohn’s op.12 Quartet. The impression of retro-romanticism arose partly from the compact seating, partly the Conway Hall’s gorgeous wood-panelled acoustic, but the full vibrato came as quite a surprise – a welcome one – in the 20-year-old Mendelssohn’s homage to late Beethoven.

At any rate, no modern orchestra would address Mendelssohn, or Beethoven, with such opulent sonority. Yet any stylistic qualms were swept aside by the quartet’s second-half performance of op.132. Rather than Beethoven the alienated visionary, the Verona underlined the work’s deep and songful wisdom in a profoundly centred interpretation. Leader Jonathan Ong’s place as first among very much equals nevertheless marks out the Verona as a 21st-century ensemble, and the confessional space of the ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’ evoked not a church or a therapy session but an overdue unburdening to an old friend.

In between came the Fourth Quartet of Grażyna Bacewicz. The surface polish, both of Bacewicz’s style and the Verona’s ensemble, lent an unexpected Hollywood glamour to her Szymanowski-inherited strain of French lyricism. Her quartet writing shares with Haydn and Bartók a resistance to being defined by this or that mood, but the forms are more elusive, the themes not quite memorable enough to stick. Given performances as rhythmically supple and thoroughly integrated as this one, however, and Bacewicz’s Fourth stands every chance of entering the repertoire.

PETER QUANTRILL