MUSICA VIVA PRESENTS AVI AVITAL & GIOCOSO STRING QUARTET @ CITY RECITAL HALL

Above: Giocoso String Quartet. (l to r) : Bas Jongen, cello, Sebastian Casleanu, violin, Martha Windhagauer, viola, Teofil Todica, violin. Featured image: mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital.

International guests Giocoso Quartet and mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital collaborated successfully in this Musica Viva national concert tour. Their unique and rarely heard string ensemble presented contemporary music effectively, and they were much appreciated by this Sydney audience. Separately they also delivered fresh interpretations of concert stage classics.

As a typical Musica Viva event, the concert also included a World Premiere of an Australian work as the result of a commission. The composition for mandolin and string quartet was by none other than popular Sydney-based composer Elena Kats-Chernin. It exploited the tone colours of the assembled string family members, with often prolonged spellbinding results.

The concert began with the multi award-winnng Giocoso Quartet on their own, displaying a superbly unified attack, warm tonal blend and exuberant approach to the spirit of the score. Opening with a nineteenth century string quartet, with no less than complex utterances from Robert Schumann, the Giocoso Quartet members’ playing was skilfully clear and contained satisfying momentum.

The String Quartet in A minor, Op 41 No 1 bristled with the Schumannesque dichotomy of delicate yearning as well as the exuberance of tracing the composer’s more soaring architecture. True to its name, this quartet played the two presto movements  with absolute joy. The slower, expressive movements were nicely measured and eloquent independence of line from each instrument was a feature first noticed here and consistent throughout the remainder of the programme, regardless of style.

The string players and mandolin exponent Avi Avital boldly transported us from the Romantic Period to current day in the premiere work, Orfeo, which followed. This five-movement piece for string quartet and mandolin outlined the emotional peaks and troughs for the male protagonist in he setting of Monteverdi’s first opera. Contentment, grief, bravery, and survival were amongst the sensations illuminated in the instrumentation’s colourful shifts. Quotes from the opera were enjoyably recognisable though never in their original shape for long.

The ensemble communicated well together, with the plucked and signature strumming of the mandolin fitting in well within the close texture. Avi Avital’s capable rendering of his instrument’s compass and emotion in this and any music he attempts was a silver lining in this attractive premiere performance.  Kats-Chernin’s familiar energy and ingenuity found a new hue with which to paint here, courtesy of the mandolin’s penetrating subtlety.

The wide variety of styles in this programme concluded with David Bruce’s Cymbeline for mandolin and string quartet, composed for Avi Avital in 2013. The expansiveness of soundscapes across time frames within one day required in this work were once again brilliantly conveyed. As in the Kats-Chernin work, colours and atmospheres produced ranged from the delicate and veiled to brassy and bold. We were alternatively thrilled by meditative moments and a more energetic palette and pace.

Before being exposed to Bruce’s innovative work, Avi Avital wowed us with a multi-layered  version of Bach’s Chaconne from Partita  No 2 in D minor BWV 1004. Heard in many guises throughout history, the Chaconne was gifted to us here beautifully nuanced, with gently undulating bravura in  passage work plus intimate part work which rang out in the Angel Place acoustic. There was never a feeling that Bach’s invention was being hurried or developed for virtuosic display alone rather than a deep tribute to the music and the Baroque master.

Avi Avital has recorded and performed Bach’s music at length for his instrument. His mandolin performances and approach to Bach is respectful. It  shows that Bach’s counterpoint succeeds across several mediums when a quality musician unravels its complexity and has communication of the music as a firm priority over other distractions of live performance.

The Musica Viva [Facebook] national tour of Giocoso Quartet [Facebook] and Avi Avital  [Facebook] concludes with a concert on Monday April 9 at City Recital Hall. It is dedicated to the memory of former Musica Viva president, Ken Tribe.