Beethoven String Quartet No. 16 in F, Op. 135; Britten String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94; Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D810, ‘Death and the Maiden’
This was an interesting programme of ‘late’ (not so much the case with Schubert) string quartets. Though I have heard the Beethoven on a number of occasions over the last few years, I have never heard the Britten or Schubert live before (though I do seem to remember a Robert North ballet using the music which I saw maybe ?10 years ago somewhere
The Sacconi Quartet seemed to me to get off to a rather tentative start in the Beethoven – the first movement of Op135 sounded as though they hadn’t quite got the dynamics right and they sounded sometimes too quiet and slightly fuzzy. Things had improved by the slow movement, which was very moving, and they were more assertive than other quartets I’ve heard performing this live in the ‘question and answer’ section at the beginning of the last movement. They conveyed well the sense of humanity that comes over particularly in the last movement.
Their performance of the Britten quartet (not helped by lots of coughing and spluttering from the audience at the beginning) was riveting and I was vey glad to hear this work live for the first time. (I do think there is a direct correlation between audience boredom and coughing – the last movement was received in total silence – appropriately, as it is very moving
The Schubert performance I enjoyed, particularly the slow movement, but I did wonder whether the last movement was just a bit too long………
John's musical journey 