Coffee Concerts

By Richard Amey, written for The Worthing Herald and published with the author’s permission

ANYONE believing that string quartet musicians are of the dourer slices of the classical music personality pie chart will have stood corrected by the opening work of Strings Attached’s new season of Coffee Concerts at Brighton’s Dome on Sunday.

With the father of the string quartet, Haydn, heading its repertoire, displaying no sense of humour threatens your artistic credibility. The opening work on Sunday morning in the Corn Exchange was the sixth and final quartet of Haydn’s Opus 60 publication and The Castalian Quartet’s projection of the particular humour on its final page simply had me laughing.

How can any composer be complete without the ability to convey humour — over and beyond mere wit? Thus it follows for string quartet ensembles. And the likelihood of being made to chuckle delights string quartet audiences. Haydn is fun as well as all this other great attributes and even though new first violinist Daniel Pioro was making only his fourth appearance with Castalians, no newcomer needs to learn the humour of Haydn.

Found in the excellent accompanying Coffee Concert companion programme, Brighton violinist, violist and quartet player Chris Darwin’s programme notes also make the reader smile broadly. Significant?

Pioro is trying out after the departure of Canadian, Sadie Fields, and 2^nd violin Daniel Llewellyn Roberts reports a consequent change in their sound from romantically tinged to a more open one.

The Castalian Quartet made its Wigmore Hall debut in January. The personality of French violist Charlotte Bonneton caught the eye and ear as the epitomy of a young quartet alive and unified in its alertness to nuance and subtleness of touch, as much as to rhythm and texture. While Bonneton brings visually a sense of excitement and anticipation, cellist Rebecca Herman’s lighter touch, not just in her pizzicato, gives the Castalians a spring and an airiness.

With complete confidence, the Quartet stepped from their final exhuberance in the Eb of the Haydn to the F minor of Beethoven’s Opus 95 —the immensely condensed ‘Quartett Serioso’ which is one of the greatest string quartets in the entire repertoire. It’s music speaking of worry, disturbance and fright, with fleeting and possibly false consolation. At this time, Beethoven was moving knowingly into his final years of deaf isolation and cosmic contemplation while unable to hear and partake in the full discourse the world outside.

If the Castelians’ reading lacked the vehemence and explosiveness one associates with great performances of this piece, then that lies probably around the corner when Pioro becomes fully embedded.

Dvorak’s Opus 61 in C major, written 70 years later, rounded off the morning and latterly put Pioro through his paces. We moved from post-Napoleon Vienna to 1880s Bohemia with a flow of Slavonic melody and rhythm, apparently freeing us from the angst of the pre-interval Beethoven. And as large an audience as seen at a Dome Coffee Concert since the move from Hove’s Old Market, went off happily enriched, to enjoy a reception in the Founders Room.

The stage structure being already set for the current Comedy Festival prevented this concert being staged in the round but that will return for the next Coffee Concert, by the Endymion Ensemble on October 28. “I feel far more involved in the performance when it’s in the round,” commented one audience member, undoubtedly speaking for the majority.

This new season is not just string quartets. The Endymions will play the two woodwind instrument crowns of the repertoire, the Clarinet Quintets of Mozart (K581) and Brahms (Opus 115). The Aquinas Piano Trio follow on November 18 with Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn and Dvorak.

Richard Amey

Review of the Strings Attached Annual Concert, to launch the for 2012/13 series of Coffee Concerts. Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, Sunday 7 October 2012.

What joy to be walking down to the Dome on a sunny Sunday morning for the start of a new series of coffee concerts. And especially to be going to hear the Castalian Quartet who played so wonderfully at the Brighton Festival in May. The atmosphere in the lobby was more like a party than a concert (but with coffee not wine) but the news was mixed: the leader of the Castalian was away, her place taken by a deputy. How could that possibly work? It takes years for a quartet to gel and develop its own way of playing. And they were to tackle some demanding pieces including Beethoven’s opus 95, the last quartet of his middle period and nearer to a late quartet in mood.

They started with a Haydn – the last of the Tost quartets – and all doubts were removed: impeccable ensemble, passionate but delicate playing from all, but especially the stand-in leader, Daniel Pioro. They played as though they had been together for years. The other surprise was the viola player, Charlotte Bonneton. She sits in the place usually taken by the cellist. Because they were not playing in the round but on a conventional stage this put her opposite the first violinist, and closer to the audience than usual for the viola. As a result, we heard the viola part as never before. It helps that she has a big instrument and makes a big sound. It also helps that she holds her instrument high and plays with a dramatic style. But placing her up front did help her to bring out the viola part. And this was achieved without losing any of the cellist’s contribution: she’s too good a player to be sidelined anyway and the sonority of the cello sound would never be lost despite being placed further back.

Next they played the Beethoven, starting at a tremendous pace. At first I thought it was too fast – I couldn’t keep up with all those curious little figures in the inner parts – but once I caught up I was won over. This first movement is furious and painful and their playing hammered at your soul. The second movement is a much calmer affair, starting with a slow descending scale for solo cello. Every note was crafted with exquisite tenderness. The last two movements are furious again – I was asking myself how they who are so young can have suffered enough to know how to play like this. It sounds soppy when I write it but that’s the effect Beethoven has on you.

Then, unlike last year, we had an interval and could wander out into the gardens to recover before the Dvorak opus 61. It’s a tuneful whimsical piece that I found hard to adjust to after the Beethoven but they were so tuneful and whimsical with it that it was won round.

As before, Chris Darwin’s programme notes are the best ever and free, despite being almost worth the price of the ticket themselves. And the drinks party afterwards was a treat – we were all congratulating each other on being there, and then Andrew Comben congratulated us all further by saying that Strings Attached may seem only to be supporting the coffee concerts but in fact the organisation has a much wider effect in promoting chamber music in Brighton and Hove. Now I’m home and can’t get those opening bars of the Beethoven out of my head. I need someone to make me laugh – and who should be at the Dome tonight but Jenny Eclair…

Andrew Polmear

 

Note: Chris Darwin’s Programme Notes will be available on this website well before each concert, and are found by clicking on the work in the concert list on the Coffee Concert page.

Fifty years ago, when I first started playing string quartets, we all wanted to play like the Amadeus. Then, as new quartets came on to the scene, we came to value the new interpretations that each brought with them. Now we have heard the most well known works, like Mozart’s “Dissonance” quartet, played in so many different ways that we no longer expect to be offered something totally new. And yet we were by the Kuss Quartet on the stage of the Dome Concert Hall on Sunday March 18^th. They play with a delicacy and elegancy that is quite their own and yet somehow they combine it with phrasing so expressive that you listen open-mouthed. It is like a conjuring trick; how can they convey such passion while playing in such an understated way? The answer, in the “Dissonance” Quartet, was that they remained faithful to the classical spirit of Mozart’s writing. They play quietly. they seem to allow plenty of space while playing no slower than anyone else and they bring out the meaning of every note and phrase. I was left with the image of a well-pruned apple tree. For those who are not gardeners, the principle of apple tree pruning is that you thin out the branches until you can stand under it and throw your hat up through the middle. That image captures something of the light and clarity that the Kuss’ way of playing lets into the music. All four players do it, but outstanding is the leader Jana Kuss, who has a sweetness of tone and lightness of touch to make you weep.

After the Mozart came a brilliant bit of programming: the Three Pieces for String Quartet of Stravinsky, one angular, one humorous and one tender. The whole thing only lasted 7 minutes but they were worthwhile in their own right and calmed us down after the excitement of the Mozart.

Then Tchaikovsky’s first String Quartet: would they have the power and the lyricism to sustain this work of high Romanticism? They did, and they did it with the same sweetness and expressiveness that is clearly their style. They showed that power doesn’t require volume or harshness; it just needs intensity. The muted andante cantabile is said to have made Tolstoy weep when he heard it and you could see why.

Finally, Chris Darwin’s programme notes were as clear and informative as they have been throughout the season. Who else would have been able to show so clearly how the opening four bars of the Mozart provide source material for the whole quartet; or how the Stravinsky and the “Ministry of Silly Walks” are connected through the music hall performer “Little Tich”?

 

Andrew Polmear

Reviewed by Andrew Polmear

What a joy to have the blinds up in the Corn Exchange on Sunday morning, 19th February, and the winter sun streaming through those great south-facing windows. It wasn’t such a joy for the players, the Endellion quartet, because they couldn’t sit in the round without one player being blinded, so they had to adopt a more conventional semi-circle, facing north. I found myself watching their backs or sides; though once they started playing I didn’t mind what I was watching.

The Endellion have been together for 32 years and it shows. Their ensemble was impeccable, their instruments sounded as though made to play together, and each player knew how to come through with a solo at just the right volume. It was especially enjoyable to hear Garfield Jackson’s viola soaring above the others – not easy on a viola – in those moments in the Mendelssohn when the viola has the tune.

They began with Haydn’s Opus 71 No.3, a big bold piece packed with invention in every part. They played it with tremendous gusto and feeling, where a younger quartet might have gone for the more elegant, more exquisite approach that is common today. The Endellion’s interpretation worked because they combined the power with such beautiful phrasing and such intelligent understanding of the work . Chris Darwin’s programme notes captured one such moment of magic: “but then a typical Haydn masterstroke: the cello drops out and the upper strings twitter away very staccato and pianissimo at the tops of their registers like a charm of goldfinches”. The moment came, the upper strings twittered, and it was hard not to laugh with joy at something so wonderful.

Mendelssohn’s quartet Opus 44 No.2 gives the lie to those who maintain that Mendelssohn wrote pretty but superficial music. It’s passionate and complex and I’ve never heard it played better than this. Each player was expressive but never at the expense of the ensemble playing. The fast movements were played really fast but their technique was so sure that they conveyed the hectic excitement of the music without any sense that they were in danger of coming apart. At the end of it the leader, Andrew Watkinson, looked exhausted, with justification; they had put everything they had into their playing. My only regret: they moved too quickly from the Haydn to the Mendelssohn and were in and out of the hall within an hour. Playing only two pieces should have given them time to pause and talk about what the music means to them, or what instruments they are playing on, or even a story about what happened on their way to Brighton that morning. It would have given us time to get over the Haydn and move forward nearly 50 years to the Mendelssohn. And it would have given us more of a feeling for them as people. Performers often make the mistake of thinking they are there just to play the music. In fact they are there to interact with us, the audience, through the music. It’s intimate and personal and hearing their voices and understanding their feelings about a piece are part of that.

 

The Guardian Guide for 17 to 23 December 2011 not only chooses the Elias Quartet in the Corn Exchange on Sunday morning, 18th December for its Listings Guide.   But it highlights it at the top of the page, above all other classical music events in the South as the Pick of the Week.