Ensemble 360: Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Beethoven. Upper Chapel, Sheffield, 28/1/23

Stravinsky Three Pieces for String Quartet;  Shostakovich String Quartet No.3 Op.73; Beethoven String Quartet Op.135, performed by Ensemble 360

This was a very good concert. When I arrived at the Upper Chapel, rather early at 6.30pm, I was amazed to see a queue forming outside the chapel. The house was completely full – this really was  back to the pre-pandemic days for an audience that could be forgiven for being still wary of large crowded gatherings.

The Stravinsky piece was almost defiantly a not-string-quartet – three contrasting pieces, without dialogue or much in the way of subtle harmonic blends – each instrument does its own thing. The  work dates from 1915  – the first movement is in Rite of Spring mode, the second more Petrushka, and the third is grey, mysterious and troubled

The Shostakovich piece was apparently one of his favourites, and was composed around the same time as the 9^th Symphony. It begins with a similar almost Haydn-esque tune. The first movement is jaunty, the second bitingly sarcastic, the third sounding somewhat similar to the scherzo of the 10^th symphony. The last two movements are a bleak slow piece and a final grey 10 minutes or so that possibly shines a little light on the way forward (it reminded me a bit of the last movement of the 8^th Symphony). The work was well received at first but then fell foul of Zhdanov in 1948 – ‘modernist and false music.’ This performance seemed to me to be good, though sometimes it felt that the 1^st first violin had a lighter quieter tone that didn’t quite gel with his colleagues – however that could just be an issue of where I was sitting (or could be that his colleagues were too loud!). The handling of the final few bars I thought was very well done – maybe the mordant bits were a bit lacking in character earlier, I’m not sure.

The Beethoven quartet was prefaced by an excellent introduction to the work by Rachel Roberts, the viola player, in simple plain language, giving us some sense of the emotional trajectory of the work and how that might relate to Beethoven’s life at the time. I wish more artists would do this – it does help in engaging the audience. I felt I was listening more intensely as a result and because that was so I found this more enjoyable than other live performances of this work I’ve heard over the years. There was a bounce and a lightness to the playing that was appropriate for the work, but also heft and strength in the opening to the finale. A fine performance. Coincidentally I was reading on the day of the concert a book by Arnold Steinhardt about his time with the Guarneri string quartet. He quotes a conversation in the book with a doctor talking about Op 135 – it’s like the Kubler-Ross definition of the progress the terminally ill make, the doctor said. First movement and part of the second movement, – questioning; the violent middle part of the 2nd movement, anger; the third, mourning; the fourth, final acceptance. That seems right to me……..