Saturday 23 September 2017

LONDON HAYDN QUARTET / Review



LONDON HAYDN QUARTET
Victoria Concert Hall
Thursday (21 September 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 September 2017 with the title "Sublime sounds of the 1780s".

The year 1789 held special significance to the London Haydn Quartet's concert, part of its residency at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. All three works performed, two string quartets by Joseph Haydn and the Clarinet Quintet by Mozart, were composed in that year or thereabouts.

However there were vastly opposing fortunes for the highly prolific composers. Haydn's fame was  rising after being released from indentured duties at the Esterhazy court, while Mozart was underemployed and in poor health. Yet rather different aspects of musical genius were yielded, brought to life by this excellent ensemble.

The London Haydn Quartet performs on period instruments and play from 18th century editions of the scores, thus attempting to recreate sounds and performing styles of the period. Modern ears will probably never know what the composers experienced, but if it was anything close to what was heard this evening, it would have been totally exquisite.


Playing on gut strings, there was not going to be volume in excess, but rather a refined and pure sound that projected very well through the large hall. Very little vibrato was used, but the string sound was neither thin nor dessicated. Gentle and intimate would be more apt descriptions.

In the opening of Haydn's Quartet in D major (Op.64 No.5), first violinist Catherine Manson's line floated and soared above the accompaniment provided by second violinist Michael Gurevich, violist John Crockatt and cellist Jonathan Manson. That this quartet was nicknamed “The Lark” was no surprise. 

The ensuing movements displayed a sense of nobility in the formal Adagio, implicit humour for the Minuet and a finale of all-out virtuosity. “A story, a song, a dance and a party”, as described by an early commentator, summed its disparate moods and countenances, which were brilliantly realised.


A longer work was the Quartet in E major (Op.54 No.3), with its more introspective and moderately paced opening movement. The slow movement provided ornamental flourishes on Manson's violin, affirming her role as leader, while syncopations and dotted rhythms livened up the rustic Minuet. Humour came to the fore in its mercurial finale with its stop-and-start search for the closing cadence, a favourite compositional device of Haydn's. 


The quartet was joined by clarinettist Eric Hoeprich in Mozart's late Clarinet Quintet in A major (K.581). Hoeprich also performed on an instrument specific for its time – the basset clarinet – which has a wider range than the conventional clarinet and capable of reaching lower notes. Its larger size, bent appearance and eccentrically placed bell made it a visual oddity.


Its sound was heavenly, possessed with mellowness and clarity which blended beautifully with the strings. Its agility was evident in the Minuet and closing Theme And Variations, but it was the autumnal Larghetto slow movement where long-breathed lines transcended the sublime. So long and appreciative was the applause after the work that the entire movement was repeated. No encore has felt this well-deserved.   

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