United Kingdom Edinburgh Worldwide Competition 2024 [7]: Chiaroscuro Quartet (12.08), Maxim Emelyanychev (piano and Principals of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (13.8). Queen’s Corridor, Edinburgh, 12 & 13.8.2024. (SRT)
There was a time when ‘genuine’ taking part in tended to imply harsh sounds and astringent textures. Not any extra. These two live shows demonstrated interval efficiency model at its finest, with transparency and readability but additionally beautiful ranges of heat.
Take the Chiaroscuro Quartet, for instance, a textbook instance of how trendy quartets play the excessive classical repertoire in that model, taking part in on intestine strings with nineteenth-century bows. Watching them on Monday morning, nonetheless, you discover the vibrato. Not like a lot of interval ensembles, they’re liberal with their use of it, they usually have been completely satisfied to embrace it to present color and vigour to the opening actions of the 2 Haydn quartets they performed. That, mixed with their selection of strings and bows, gave the sound an oaky richness that you simply wouldn’t often anticipate from a interval quartet, and there was often a singing high quality to the melodies, significantly from Alina Ibragimova on the primary violin. It helped that they weren’t afraid to deploy extremes of dynamics, leaping from pianissimo to fortissimo in a heartbeat to intensify Haydn’s frequent musical jokes.
But once they needed to, they stripped the vibrato proper again. The lack of vibrato made the minuet of Op.33 No.4 sound much more dainty as a result of the sound appeared so stripped again, and it elevated the craving depth of the sluggish motion of Beethoven’s first Razumovsky quartet, earlier than melting into the attractive main key episode.
In brief, the Chiaroscuros don’t deploy a blanket rule, and that’s what makes them such a pleasure to hearken to. It’s by no means fully clear what’s across the nook, be it within the lopsided Scherzo of Haydn’s No.5, or the deflated frenzy of No.4’s Finale, which made the viewers break right into a giggle. And Beethoven’s second motion sounded greater than ever like a dialog, every performer feeding the opposite one a line in order that they got here throughout as ending each other’s sentences.
In contrast, it’s nonetheless a little bit of rarity for the string gamers of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to play on intestine strings – they’re higher recognized for enjoying trendy devices in a interval model – however it’s turning into extra frequent for sure repertoire, and the string principals who performed of their Tuesday morning live performance did use intestine strings to placing impact. It meant that the opening motion of Mozart’s G minor Piano Quintet was much more pressing and stormy than normal, although it didn’t cease them from sweetening the sound with the utmost delicacy for the attractive sluggish motion, or the cheerful finale. Additionally they did a terrific job in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.12, right here organized for single strings. Solely sometimes did you miss the chuckle of the winds; in each different respect this was a superbly balanced efficiency, and nobody who heard the dreamy sluggish motion may complain about intestine strings sounding harsh.
The witty continuo taking part in of Maxim Emelyanychev, their Principal Conductor, was maybe the best factor concerning the orchestra’s competition efficiency of Così fan tutte on the weekend, and if his taking part in was higher behaved this morning then it nonetheless introduced a tangy sparkle to the whole lot, not least within the full of life Haydn Fantasia that he thew in to start out the second half. Solely in moments of the beautiful Kegelstatt Trio did the steadiness sound barely out of sync, Maximiliano Martín’s clarinet dominating the sound a little bit an excessive amount of, which is tough to keep away from when his instrument is of course louder than both the fortepiano or the viola. All had settled superbly by the point of the ultimate Rondeaux, nonetheless, with flecks of light-hearted humour thrown in to enliven the feel.
Simon Thompson
The Edinburgh Worldwide Competition runs at venues throughout town till Sunday twenty fifth August. Click on right here for additional particulars.
12.8.2024 – Chiaroscuro Quartet, Queen’s Corridor.
Haydn – String Quartets, Opp.33 Nos. 4 & 5
Beethoven – String Quartet, Op.59 No.1 ‘Razumovsky’
13.8.2024 – Principals of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Maxim Emelyanychev (fortepiano, 13.08), Queen’s Corridor.
Mozart – Piano Quartet in G minor; Piano Trio in E-flat ‘Kegelstatt’; Piano Concerto No.12, K414
