Intertwining violin solos take flight
The Age
Tuesday March 30, 2010
AUSTRALIAN STRING QUARTET Flight; Melbourne Recital Centre, March 26 Clive O'Connell Reviewer WITH Haydn, the Australian String Quartet rarely falters. Opening its subscription series for 2010, the group gave a lucid, ardent account of the most popular in the composer's Op. 33 group, No. 3 in C Major, called The Bird for obvious reasons from the first bars onward. First violin Sophie Rowell set up an unfussed approach, well partnered by second violin Anne Horton in the work's startling scherzo, where the texture reduces to two intertwining solo lines. Before tackling the massive Brahms Piano Quintet, the ASQ gave a welcome airing to Australian Paul Stanhope's String Quartet No. 1 of 2008. Known to Melbourne's chamber music lovers for his inventive trio deconstruction of a Monteverdi madrigal, Dolcissimo Uscignolo, Stanhope wears his influences openly, notably in the score's central Lullaby, which is an attractive if lengthy cantilena, and a finale that engages in moderately jazzy rhythmic jerks, the whole construct a gift for these expert performers and giving welcome exposure to cellist Rachel Johnston. Joining the ASQ for the Brahms quintet, pianist Lucinda Collins made one of her all-too-rare Melbourne visits. Here is a thoroughly musical intellect at work, forming part of the ensemble rather than dominating it relentlessly: a temptation for less insightful interpreters. In sum, a level-headed and mature reading that maintained its muted passion throughout the composer's lengthy, rolling argument.
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