Above : Composer Brett Dean, whose String Quartet No. 3 : Hidden Agendas was premiered during this tour for Musica Viva. Featured image: Doric String Quartet members Alex Redington (violin), Helene Clement (viola), Ying Xue (violin) and John Myerscough (cello).
Doric String Quartet from the UK has just completed an extensive concert and educational tour of the country, playing Haydn, Beethoven and a new work by Brett Dean. These works were effective in highlighting this ensemble’s polished dramatic skill. The programme constantly displayed their abilities as musicians to communicate atmosphere along bold independent trajectories as well as via their unified quartet voice.
Classic Haydnesque contour and character began this concert, which was the penultimate date in the national tour. The two works to follow in the programme grew in scope and expressive breadth. They included an exciting premiere of a work from 2019.
Haydn’s String Quartet Op 33 No 2, known as ‘The Joke’ was presented with keen contrasts. This composer’s unique classical era turn of phrase bristled within an authentic period intimacy here.
The scherzo second movement was especially joyous in delivery of its brusque energy. The finale following on from the elegant poise of the slow movement manipulated Haydn’s pausing and ‘joke’ aspects with a pleasing amount of spontaneity and freshness.
A virtuosic independence of instrumental line and comfortable flexibility of balance in this quartet’s performance was thrilling to watch. Haydn’s scoring in this work to exploit all four instruments equally helped showcase this skill. It was also a feature in the drama of the concert’s final Schubert work, String Quartet No 15 in D major D 887 .
A pleasing example of the above was heard in exquisite instances where a solo instrument was accompanied extremely delicately by the slick unified trio of Doric’s other three players. This sympathetic and expertly controlled package accompanied the solo line at an extremely soft dynamic level with glassy combined tone. Clarity and great emphasis of the single lines by Schubert and Haydn resulted in these moments.
A commanding highlight of this concert was the premiere of an Australian work, typical to the Musica Viva format for International Concert Series events. Here, the innovation of Brett Dean’s String Quartet No 3 : Hidden Agendas used immensely powerful string gestures and challenging new string techniques to achieve the required mood. These were embraced and delivered with great success by Doric String Quartet members.
Workshopping this new quartet in the UK with Doric members, the composer expressed the extra-musical elements and commentary clearly upon them. The clear pre-performance summary given by cellist John Myerscough demonstrated the firm understanding of the composer’s agenda and choice of challenging new music methods to communicate it in music.
The hectic collision of modern politics, media and social media is a main concern shaped musically in the work’s five contrasting movements. These give rise to daring extremes and relentless energy in the faster movements. These contain some frantic sequences of rapid-fire gesturing with individual lines of similar contour for all instruments.
Such moments are to suggest arguments, harsh social media comment and decision makers at verbal loggerheads. Deans writing and coaching of the player produce quite breathtaking sections of string and string quartet writing as the topic of dubious political debate is explored with cynicism.
Especially novel was the work’s fourth movement, ‘Self-Censorship’, with strings directed to play with rosin-less strings and bows. The unique resulting sound demonstrated much effort (or political discussion) for reduced result.
Through the use of this rare technique, an interesting air of ‘all is not what it seems’ political fraying and subterfuge, or the “Hidden Agendas” alluded to in the title, is cleverly achieved. Parts of this work led by Myerscough’s cello line were once again special moments of lyricism in this concert.
Schubert’s substantial and sprawling String Quartet No 15 D 887, concluded this event with much drama and stunning strong voice from Doric String Quartet. This group of consummate interpreters offered us Schubert’s lengthy, complex narrative with consistent sharp contrasts in an accessible and fascinating style.
It was a precise and purely thrilling display of Schubert’s intimate brilliance to end a strong programme. In this way the concert ended by displaying both the genius of Schubert’s dramatic power and yet again Doric String Quartet’s signature directness of approach and scintillating technical prowess.