ACACIA QUARTET : ‘TESTAMENT’ @ INDEPENDENT THEATRE NORTH SYDNEY

Above: Acacia Quartet played the first two movements of  ‘A Sundried Quartet’ by Australian composer Alice Chance Photo Credit: Stephen Godbee. Featured Image : Acacia Quartet. Photo Credit : Chris Donaldson.

This concert of four works for string quartet was titled ‘Testament’, sharing its name with one of the central works in the programme. The event was a luminous display of the expressive capabilities of Acacia Quartet and each of the four innovative composers featured. Two well-known quartets from Mozart and Debussy bookended two recent works. This programme itself was testament to the diversity and warmth of Acacia’s interpretative skill.

Testament, the single movement lament from Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian was a moving part of this event. Heard directly after interval, the work’s subtle movement both along  individual lines and across the quartet was a highlight of this concert. Its successful blend and rendering of Mansurian’s gentle intimacies benefitted from Acacia Quartet’s expert ensemble playing and intelligent approach to creating accurate atmospheres.

Precision and making a range of choices for the measured delivery of colour contributed to a fresh creation of shapes for Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor Op 10. The independence of instruments in this work as required from Debussy’s  was successful here, especially the emergence of viola and cello from Acacia’s unified voice.

The sprawling  flow forward of gestures and thematic development in this work was in good hands here. Acacia’s typical attention to detail and clear conversation ensured Debussy’s intricate writing reached us with renewed verve.

The ebb and flow of this composer’s originality was recreated with engaging focus. Acacia’s neat delivery of Debussy’s inimitable approach to contour allowed us to follow a sustained elegance with  an edge-of-the-seat excitement to our appreciation.

The brand-new work for this Acacia concert was A Sundried Quartet, from local composer Alice Chance. This string quartet, still a work in progress, has been commissioned for Acacia Quartet from this creative’s unique and gifted imaginative voice.

In its current two opening movements, the work  explores the musical depiction of intense Australian heat and playing at the beach.  This refreshing composer added strikingly individual musical brush strokes at this point of the concert programme, in which the  evocative works showcased compositional innovation spanning more than three centuries of writing for string quartet.

Two compact and poignant atmospheres here were obviously meticulously crafted by Alice Chance in this work. They were well realised by Acacia Quartet’s players.  The snapshot of each movement’s scenario was a clear, consistent and joyous slice of summer life.

Whether making fresh use of string effects such as repeated sharp bowing slants melting through close intervals or pizzicato arcs in close counterpoint, this composer presented timbral and structural challenges to the quartet which were embraced wholeheartedly by the string players.

Acacia Quartet’s enthusiasm and aptitude for performing new music enabled them to boldly produce the  vivid shapes and suggestions of our environment providing pleasure or pain throughout these movements’ musical iterations. The delicate and clean vignettes spoke volumes-joyous ones at that, and we eagerly await the remainder of Chance’s inimitable work  presenting more earthy scenes to us in the future.

At the start of Acacia Quartet’s striking concert communication was Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ String Quartet. Led with innate communication prowess, care and charisma by violinist Lisa Stewart, this rendering enabled fine discourse from all players.

There was considerable flexibility, spontaneity and fresh highlighting of the structure supplied as we took sparkling delivery of Mozart’s perfect Haydnesque quartet form.

In keeping with the keen sharing of things unique and innovative over the concert afternoon, Mozart’s unusual slow introduction to this quartet set the tone for the moments of ground-breaking expression to follow.

Mozart’s personal sense of drama contributes to the opening of this quartet. The daring chromaticism for Mozart’s time and a hushed, asymmetrical voice leading was offered up with stunning  soft-dynamic suspense and mystery from the players.

Acacia Quartet in this way launched into the beginning of  the concert event with the intense and lush collective tone that audiences have come to treasure when hearing this team of musicians perform.

Acacia Quartet’s next concert is not to be missed. It features a new quartet by their frequent collaborator Lyle Chan, as well as a much-anticipated performance of Fratres by Arvo Pärt.