"Quartet excel in works of maturity"

The Alberni String

Quartet, Concord College

Shropshire Star, 20 Oct 2006

As part of the Shropshire Music Trust's excellent season, the Alberni Quartet played a fine concert at Concord College.  Second violinist Peter Pople provided excellent programme notes, introduced each piece of music and gave us a brief history of the instruments played by himself and his colleagues.

The programme consisted of Haydn's Quartet in D minor Op. 76 No.2, Walton's only String Quartet in A minor dating from 1947 and Beethoven's Quartet in F major Op. 59, the first of 3 quartets dedicated to Count Rasumovsky.  All were works of their composers' maturity, making great demands on the musicians - demands which were fully met.

Haydn's Quartet came from the end of his working life and shows a wealth of ideas which lead to the quartet writing of Beethoven, arguably the greatest composer in this medium.  Here, as throughout the concert, the playing of The Alberni Quartet was magnificent.

Cellist David Smith played with a smooth, controlled tone and impeccable musicianship as evident in Haydn and Beethoven as in the Walton Quartet.  His warm sound was well matched by viola player Matthew Souter - in fact, during the Walton the spirit of jazz was never far away, with Smith's cello sounding like a jazz bass player.

The dark, husky tones, produced by the quartet almost sounded like a saxophone section.  The Beethoven was perhaps the highlight of the programme, with its deeply spiritual feeling as well as a historical realisation that writing for string quartet was moving on to a new level.

All four musicians - Pople, Smith, Souter and first violinist. Karin Leishman - made this the soulful work it is. It was the perfect end to a remarkable concert.

Andrew Fetch

Last Updated : 02/11/2006