Preview Eroica Quartet
An authentic performance by the string quartet
Preview: Eroica Quartet
The Eroica Quartet, bearing the same name as the radical, innovative Beethoven symphony of 1803, specialise in ‘authentic’ performance of an important part of the String Quartet literature. Now in its 16th year, the London-based Quartet - violinists Peter Hanson and Lucy Howard, violist Gustav Clarkson and cellist David Watkin - came together on the back of the period-instrument movement. Instead of following the orthodox approach of starting in the 18th century and working backwards, the Eroica saw the need to adapt their acquired scholarship by looking forwards and applying it to early 19th century works such as those by Beethoven and Mendelssohn.
Beethoven’s Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 was experimental enough for the composer to delay its publication for six years. Described as a piece “advanced in a hundred ways” its impassioned nature is far-removed from the lucid, cool-headed Viennese high-Classic style that characterises his early works for this instrumental combination. Titled by Beethoven as ‘Quartetto serioso’ - the only time he used this description - it compresses complex ideas into a small, concentrated structure. 200 years on, we can see here the embryonic seedlings that would bear fruit as his last-period style, but the composer afterwards abandoned the medium, leaving ideas for such crowning achievements as the last five String Quartets gestating for another 12 years.
Mendelssohn wrote 12 String Symphonies and the masterful Octet whilst still a teenager - he was a born writer for strings - and though his mature style was established early, there is little there of the emotional intensity shown in the Opus 80 String Quartet, his last completed work, written following the death of his beloved sister. It is marked by a striking turbulence contrasted by stoical serenity, a work, like Elijah or the Violin Concerto, belying the idea that Mendelssohn’s inspiration grew less the older he got.
The Eroica’s recital ends with the Second Quartet by Alexander Borodin, a part-time composer, but a full-time chemistry professor at St. Petersburg. Regulars at the Leeds International Concerts heard Sargent’s arrangement for string orchestra of this Quartet’s famous slow movement last month when it was given as an encore by Yuri Siminov and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Evidently, Borodin’s melodies appealed to Sargent like the rest of us. They seem so beautiful and perfect, with every last grace note placed in its proper place, the final touches like the tiniest diamonds finishing some exquisite imperial jewel.
21 November, Square Chapel, Halifax
Posted on Saturday 1st January 2000
TT
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