Shaker Dances

The Australian String Quartet is to be congratulated for presenting a program which included a contemporary Australian work as well as an intense piece by Shostakovich, yet proved accessible and absorbing. It was a performance that should have played to a crowded Recital Centre but, disappointingly, did not. However, the several hundred patrons managed to fill the hall with applause after each item. The first and last of these were string quintets – unusually, featuring an extra cello. The all-female ensemble chose to invite a man into the ranks: Shanghai-born Australian Li-Wei, whose playing blended seamlessly with theirs. The first item, Boccherini’s String Quintet no.6 in C Major op.30, had the visitor lead off with a strong statement that was to recur throughout the first movement, its descending scale soon echoed and reversed by the first violin. The second movement, a minuet, recalled a more familiar Boccherini, although it seemed to belong more to a country dance than an 18th century formal salon. Whether this foreshadowing of a less constrained style of playing was due to the ASQ or Boccherini himself was not obvious. After a movement (grave) that could be compared with a soulful Mozart, the final movement returned to the dance, with Li-Wei contributing much of the energy. The guest cellist was to return after interval for Glazunov’s String Quintet in A Major op.39, a work which sits happily in the late-Romantic repertoire (although the composer was still active in the 20th century). The piece was unintentionally amusing for the efforts of the players: swaying so much that they seemed in danger of unseating themselves in the first movement and resolutely tackling the punishing pizzicato of the second. Nevertheless there was much to admire in the work, and the finale was a great showcase for the ASQ and guest Li-Wei alike. The first of two works for the core ASQ ensemble was String Quartet no.7 in F sharp minor op.108 by Shostakovich, written in memory of the composer’s first wife, Nina. The work is so emotionally intense that it draws the listener in, to the extent that this reviewer could not even distinguish the various sections of the work and was surprised – and sorry – when the work ended. Consolation came after interval with Graeme Koehne’s Shaker Dances: String Quartet no.2. The cello led with a hymn-like theme, and the upper parts were gradually added until there was a rich harmony. The energetic, whirling dance paid tribute to the ‘divine joyfulness’ of Shaker culture, as the composer himself comments in the program notes. ‘Beauty and simplicity are serious objectives for an artist’, Koehne added. In this concert, the ASQ and guest artist Li-Wei certainly met those aspirations. Shaker Dances Australian String Quartet Melbourne Recital Centre March 21 National tour dates: Thursday 10, Adelaide Town Hall Monday 14, Perth Concert Hall Friday 18, City Recital Hall Angel Place, Sydney Monday 21, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre Tuesday 22, Conservatorium Theatre, South Bank, Brisbane www.asq.com.au