Page 93 - The Strad (February 2020)

CONCERTS

,8-9ধ!2 ';A£!øV complementary answers was supplied by the
2<&+-2+ ;,' 1<9-$ ;3 Anglo-Irish members of the Carducci Quartet
9<#£-1' ,'-+,;9
as part of Conway Hall’s reliably excellent Sunday-
evening series. e musicians seemed right at home
in the Celtic Mendelssohn vibe of Moeran’s
posthumously discovered early String Quartet
in E “at major, artlessly in“ecting the second
movement’s big ‘Irish’ romantic tune and then
playing into the jig section without recourse to
tourist-brochure cliché.
With a grand total of 22 years together on the
clock, the Carducci Quartet brings to the stage four
distinct personalities rather than a seamless unit akin
to the Hagen Quartet. Violist Eoin Schmidt-Martin
and cellist Emma Denton took the spotlight from
the opening of Borodin’s Second Quartet, lingering
as daringly crafted out of silence. Lars Vogt was just enough over the slow ‘Kismet’ section of the
Tetzla ’s equal as an arbiter of pristine early second movement and again emphasising the
Classical style. Mendelssohnian qualities of writing that hardly
e two newer works further showcased the requires lavish resources of tone to sing with Russian
violinist’s intensity of expression. Amid the e ects soul in every bar.
and extended techniques of Lutosławski’s Partita, e conclusion to be drawn from the Carducci’s
Tetzla searched for both an inherent lyricism and fresh and lively account of Dvořák’s ‘American’
a statement of intent, culminating in a propulsive Quartet was that Romantic nationalism in music
Presto movement. In ‘Öd und traurig’ (‘Empty and speaks for itself. e notes of melancholy were
Sad’), the ˆrst of György Kurtág’s Tre pezzi op.14e, touched on gently by Matthew Denton’s leadership of
he was comfortable barely colouring the piano’s the Lento, and Czech/US values of teamwork and
resonances. e pppp last piece, ‘Aus der Ferne’ optimism held sway in the clean Midwestern air of
(at times almost unbearably fragile), “oated as if the scherzo. e ˆnale’s inner voicing brought more
blown, not bowed. If Franck’s Violin Sonata came sunshine than clouds to lift the spirits on a chill
as a disappointment from both players in stylistic November evening.
terms – sounding neither French nor German- PETER QUANTRILL
French – it was perhaps because the bar elsewhere
had been set celestially high.
EDWARD BHESANIA T
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KINGS PLACE 20 NOVEMBER 2019

CARDUCCI QUARTET Kings Place’s year-long Venus Unwrapped series,
CONWAY HALL 17 NOVEMBER 2019 devoted to women composers, threw up all sorts of
lesser-spotted gems over the course of 2019. Happily,
TOP PHOTO GIORGIA BERTAZZI. BOTTOM PHOTO ANDY HOLDSWORTH PHOTOGRAPHY
What makes music ‘national’ in character, beyond though, the American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer
the use of local idioms and melodies? A trio of Caroline Shaw is increasingly not a ˆgure who ticks the

The Carducci Quartet
'?6£38' 2!ধ32!£-91 -2 1<9-$

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