BY THOMAS MISSON
Works by Perotin, Shostakovich, and Beethoven
Huon Quartet
Kettering Community Hall, 10 April
Not deterred by the gusty weather outside, the Kettering Community Hall was packed for the Huon Quartet’s first regional concert of the year.
The first piece was an arrangement from the quartet of Perotin’s Viderant Omnes, which had a light, Celtic feel to it despite its weighty, religious origins. There were no unnecessary effusive, romantic gestures from the quartet in this restrained work, letting the sound speak for itself. The intonation, shaping and dynamics were tidy in this opening. There were some lovely duos in the middle of this piece, exposing some nice musical chemistry from the quartet.
Shostakovich’s String Quartet no. 7 was a fantastic choice of repertoire. Of light and jocular character, the first motif of the first movement was somewhat anthropomorphic – almost as if the first phrase eloquently spun a clever taunt to which the second phrase could muster no more than three repeated notes as a retort. The secondary waltz theme, using much of the opening material and the gentle coda, was delivered with rhythmic precision – straightforward with no romantic excess.
An elegiac exhalation wound itself over an arpeggio figure in the second movement. There were unexpected surprises like glissandi, adding brighter hues to this thoroughly pessimistic middle movement. This was perhaps the neatest effort from the quartet for the afternoon and was presented with great lyricism.
The finale begans in a furious canonic musical dialogue with flashes of what came before in the second movement, spinning maliciously towards bitey, Bartokian dissonances. During these rapid entries and re-entries, there were a few lapses in the evenness of the running semiquavers knocking the pulse out of whack. The section that followed featured rapid exchanges between a foreboding undercurrent of cello melody and screeching of indulgently boorish dissonances.
The climax of the work was a restatement of the opening material before the action was brought to a shuddering halt to make way for the coda; a ghostly waltz with occasional glimpses of musical humour. Overall, the Shostakovich had very good characterisation of the important motif, and colour and the feeling of structure and dynamics were well communicated but with some ensemble and intonation hiccups along the way.
Beethoven’s String Quartet no. 7 is a long, difficult and forward-thinking work. The animated first movement was rhythmically and dynamically well controlled but in the uppermost reaches of the instruments, where solo sections were soft and exposed, intonation became an issue. The second movement was tidy and professional with an easy lightness to its playful nature.
The third movement Adagio was deeply serious and very romantic. There was a really special moment here where the violin and cello mirrored each other while the remaining instruments played broken chords between them. Even so, I felt like it could have had more impact with some more small breath marks here and there to highlight the changes of harmony.
The Russian theme in the finale still sounded fresh in its Beethovian context. This movement is very virtuosic and the Huon Quartet was up to the task most of the time, even if the upper reaches of the instruments once more exposed some intonation issues in the thick, rapid and difficult passage-work.
Overall, the programme was balanced historically and emotionally, and the ensemble playing was tightly-knit. Unfortunately, there were some consistent niggling intonation issues. The playing was very good, and there were few moments where I felt comprehensively sucked into the musical drama.
Image supplied.
