Haydn – String Quartet in G minor Op. 20 No. 3; Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 1 in C Op. 49’; Mendelssohn – String Quartet No. 3 in D Op. 44 No. 1
I had had an excellent afternoon walking for 3 hours on the South Downs near Lewes with an old friend, and this concert was the perfect end to the day, a really well played and well thought through string quartet concert. The emotional trajectory in the choice of pieces was clear – from very unsettled and quite odd Haydn through the seemingly and superficially graceful ease of the Shostakovitch, with a lot going on under the surface, to the genuinely sunny Mendelssohn. The stand out performance was the Mendelssohn – this quartet is becoming another London bus and I had heard it only two weeks earlier at the Stoller Hall. This was a much, much better played performance – the first violin offering both more sweetness and variation of expression but also with more fire and energy when needed, and all 4 players were producing a much more varied sound – in terms of tone and dynamics – than the Manchester one. There was a big difference! The Haydn was very strange – coming from his Sturm und Drang period, it had none of the ‘gentility’ and charm/wit you might associate with Haydn, The finale came to an abrupt halt that was inconclusive rather than jokey, the first movement stopped and started, went off in unexpected directions and unsettled me. The Shostakovitch seemed elegantly played – but with edge and real propulsive energy in the finale.
I am looking forward to their Haydn and Brahms tomorrow lunchtime – this sounds like a very strong group of players
John's musical journey 