Mozart, Janacek, Beethoven: Marmen String Quartet; Upper Chapel, Sheffield – 24/3/23

Mozart String Quartet no 16 K428; Janacek String Quartet no 2 (Intimate Letters); Beethoven String Quarter Op 59 no 2 (Razoumovsky): Marmen Quartet

The quartet was founded in 2013 by Johannes Marmen and Ricky Gore, violinists at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2019 they won the Grand Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, and in the same year they won joint First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, where they were also awarded the Haydn and Canadian Commission prizes.

This was a hugely enjoyable concert of works which I have not heard live before. In each case, hearing the work live offered a special opportunity to concentrate and listen intently in a way that’s not always easy to do listening at home. There was also a real sense of rapport with the audience – the Marmen Quartet were mentored in their early stages by Peter Cropper, the founder of Music in the Round, and the audience welcomed them enthusiastically…..and with justification. I liked the way in which the sound world of the quartet varied from work to work – hugely passionate in the Janacek but also with the ‘Cunning Little Vixen-like sounds of the natural world beautifully evoked in the slow movement, more restrained in the Mozart, and with a fierce energy in the Beethoven. At times I thought there was a slight hesitancy about some of the voices, and an occasional lack of balance, but that could just be where I was sitting and my relative unfamiliarity with these works.

The strangest in many ways was the Mozart, with elements of the ‘galant’ style abounding, but at the same time some extraordinary harmonies at the beginning of the work, and dark twists and turns in the substantial first movement.

But I also loved the refreshing unpredictability of the Janacek, and this was a real find for me – I have a recording but have never listened to it properly. The Beethoven I know better and this was a good, maybe not overly ‘spiritual’ reading – the beautiful arpeggio passages in the slow movement seemed slightly matter-of-fact, for instance.

But all in all I am very glad I made the effort to go to this, despite heavy rain and, on my part, a wracking cough (happily subdued during the concert)