BY ZOE BARKER
Penny Quartet
Australian National Academy of Music, 2 August
ANAM alumni ensemble the Penny Quartet impressed a responsive audience at its old school, announcing itself as a young string quartet with much talent and a diverse program.
Haydn’s String Quartet in B minor, Op. 33 No. 1 opened the program, with the Penny Quartet exhibiting clean ensemble skills in the often-exposed classical work. Madeleine Jevons performed the demanding first violin line with a brilliant, sparkling tone in the upper registers along with technical precision, whilst Jack Ward’s reliable playing provided a solid foundation for the group.
The other two works in the program, by near contemporaries Benjamin Britten and Peter Sculthorpe, demonstrated an affinity with more recently composed music. Both works, written within six years of each other, were expertly performed and gave rise to some truly magical moments.
Peter Sculthorpe’s String Quartet No. 8 was composed in 1969 and is something of a mid-career work, demonstrating the composer’s well-documented early interest in Asian music and a growing influence of Australian themes. Written in five movements, with the first, middle and last featuring extended cello solos, the work switches between mysterious and brooding lyricism and agitated passages demanding unusual playing techniques from all four players. Jack Ward’s rich tone during the solo movements drew out the emotional intensity of the work, and the quartet’s playing of the rhythmically driven second and fourth movements showcased a high level of musical understanding and trust between the players. The quartet was never overwhelmed by extended passages of unique timbrel effects, and successfully drew out musical lines and ideas from the at-times-frenetic score.
To close the program, the Penny Quartet performed Britten’s String Quartet No. 3, the last major work completed by the composer before his death. Dating from 1975, the work features some extraordinary writing for as well as great emotional depth. Britten explores all possible relationships between the members of a quartet in the opening movement, Duets. Immediately establishing the fine performance which was to come, Jevons and violist Anthony Chataway opened with a duet in which their tones were perfectly matched and balanced, showing off their high levels of chamber musicianship. The third movement, Solo, was a highlight of the concert. Playing first violin, Amy Brookman dazzled in her performance of the restrained yet emotionally wrought solo, suspended weightlessly above a sparse accompaniment. A darkly comical Burlesque followed, which hinted at some of the parodic writing of Shostakovich – a friend of Britten’s whose passing is said to have influenced the composition of this work. The final movement, Recitative and Passacaglia demonstrated Britten’s masterful reworking of older forms, and the Penny Quartet shone in the plaintive passacaglia which ended the piece. In their repetition of the patterns, the quartet managed to continually dial back the energy yet keep a high level of intensity until the last note in the cello finally died away.
Image supplied.
