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20 October 2009
This final concert in Chamber Music New Zealand’s 2009 season was a brilliant ending to the year, capped by General Manager Euan Murdoch’s announcement of celebratory programmes for 2010, CMNZ’s 60th anniversary. The first half belonged to the St Lawrence Quartet, from Canada. The Quartet in F was the last Haydn completed and though it’s not as familiar as some of the others of the 1790s, it is highly original in character, and revealed qualities in this remarkable performance that even Haydn might have been surprised by. I suspect that the tonal variety, the pungent expressiveness and the compulsive momentum might have been unusual around 1800. But today, such extremely vivid and highly nuanced interpretations are essential for musicians who want to distinguish themselves from the rank and file. Certainly, Haydn invites such performance through his pains to avoid the expected, the cliché, the routine; the composer’s wit and intelligence found ideal interpreters as these players brought it to life so arrestingly. The String Quartet by John Adams, written for the St Lawrence Quartet, and first performed in New York in January, shows a flair that will surely inspire other similar commissions. One is impressed by the fecundity of his invention, its profusion and variety, and by Adams’s structural skill in manipulating it, within a shape that followed the traditions, more or less, of extended works of this kind. And one was even more overwhelmed by the exuberance and phenomenal brilliance of the performance that will set a benchmark hard to equal. The New Zealand String Quartet joined the Canadians for a performance of Mendelssohn’s Octet, possibly the most astonishing creation by any composer in his teens. The arrangement of the parts meant that the St Lawrence Quartet rather dominated the performance; especially their first violinist, Geoff Nuttall, both through his flawless virtuosity and endlessly varied playing, and his total physical involvement, especially the legs. The other members of the St Lawrence Quartet and the New Zealanders displayed comparable mastery if less physical flamboyance, in a riveting performance whose visual aspect may well have enhanced the aural impact. The fast movements were spectacular in their ever-changing rhythmic and dynamic expressiveness, the slow movement imbued with a rich and profound sobriety; it was a revelatory experience, reinforcing the octet’s place as a singular masterpiece.