The new-look ASQ performed last Thursday in Melbourne for the first time in 2016, with nary a glitch and radiating positive energy from the word go. This was reassuring as the ASQ has certainly been through a rough time in the past few years with personnel changes and various dramas, none of which have aided a sense of communal music-making. I hope those days are behind what should be Australia’s flagship string quartet.
Joining violist Stephen King and cellist Sharon Draper are the two new violinists, Dale Barltrop and Francesca Hiew, both coming via the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Evident on Thursday night was a genuine and genial joy in the music-making, both newcomers clearly thrilled to be sharing the stage.
A relatively young and very friendly Melbourne audience welcomed the new group with warmth and not a little expectation. Beethoven’s String Quartet in B flat major Op.18 No.6 was hardly a gutsy choice, even so, highlighting the promise and depth of the ensemble. Impressive in this work was the fine sense of elan and a certain thoughtfulness which might have eluded less savvy players. The opening Allegro con brio then was confident and sparkling, offset by more gravitas in the second movement Adagio. Despite some intonation smudges in unison passages, this was highly enjoyable for all without sinking into an indulgent vibrato-fest.
Characterising the night in my opinion was the restraint and beauty of tone shown by leader Dale Barltrop. He can let it rip when needs be, but his discipline enhanced the classical form of the Beethoven. Boasting an envious instrument as part of the quartet’s matched set of Guadagninis, Barltop’s playing sings with ebullience and is well-matched by the other players. As a cellist I would carefully reconsider the use of a riser box by superb cellist Sharon Draper, who no doubt had to be brought higher to match the upper strings who all stood. This box did nothing for the bass sound, which was muddy in those passages which needed more articulation, and (upon closing my eyes at times) tended towards a double bass timbre.
Matthew Hindson’s new String Quartet No.4 showcased a brilliant collaborator in Claire Edwardes whose stage-presence and sunny personality was a perfect inclusion by the ASQ for this important concert. The opening movement, visceral and with some Shostakovichian quotes, lent itself to the vibraphone which surprisingly injected more nervous energy. The second movement was a highlight, a throbbing vibraphone sparking off sympathetic harmonics and Ur-tones from the strings.
Edwardes was also the musical glue in three John Adams excerpts from his Alleged Dances, a romp of a piece – from ostinati and sirens in the opener Judah to Ocean (apparently an homage to Adams’ streetcar ride through San Francisco). Bringing some Tupperware with her, Edwardes’ arrangement replaced prepared piano tape with percussion, the effect being appropriate and energising. Likewise the Habanera “a lament for a season without baseball “, got two thumbs up from me, and deftly swung into the toe-tapping Rag the Bone.
Perhaps more shy than expected, Schumann’s 1st string quartet allowed some Romantic qualities to finish the night. Perhaps lacking in a certain individual idealism, this reading was convincing from ensemble unit – a notable “hunt” character in the Scherzo showed-off exacting articulation from the violins, whilst the 4th movement drone was a welcome salve from previous Schumannian repetition.
The picture is of a new member of the quartet, violinist Dale Barltrop .
