Review: Endellion String Quartet at West Road Concert Hall
The celebrated string quartet was at West Road Concert Hall on Wednesday evening (November 21)to give the second of its 40th anniversary concerts, featuring quartets by Haydn, Bartók and Smetana.
It is a privilege for local residents to be able to become systematically acquainted with, and be expertly guided through, this immense body of musical literature, performed year after year by the Endellion String Quartet, now in its 27th season at Cambridge.
The concert began with Haydn’s Op. 76 No.1 in G major, composed during arguably his greatest creative period. From its tuneful opening Allegro, through the folky elements of the lively Presto to the light-hearted finale, the quartet demonstrates Haydn’s complete grasp of the genre. He did after all compose, amazingly, well over 80 string quartets, and the Endellions’ approach was spirited and engaging throughout the short composition.
Cellist David Waterman in his introductory remarks to Bartók’s No. 2 op.17 said that this was perhaps the most expressive of his 6 string quartets. They are probably the 20th century’s greatest series of works in this genre, and the 3 movements of the second were, according to Bartók’s friend Kodály, representative of 3 distinct phases of the composer’s life.
The extreme melancholy of the opening movement gives way to an impassioned interval, itself followed by a gently swaying and lyrical section, ending with a few bars for solo cello as the music fades away.
The second movement, taken at some pace with the first and second violins in chattering dialogue and with many pauses and pizzicato interventions, leads to a speedy, rather menacing, conclusion. The final ‘Lento’, termed ‘Sorrow’ by Kodály, is profoundly melancholy with its sad haunting melodies, and ending with two mournful pizzicati, like tear drops, on viola and cello.
After the Interval came Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, comparable to Bartók’s later work insofar as both are in several ways reflective of their composers’ personal history. It was Smetana himself who termed this quartet ‘From My Life’. It has a striking affirmative opening, a melodic polka-inspired second movement, and a soulful and expressive Largo where the audience was absolutely held by the viola and cello parts which concluded it.
Then comes an ebullient, life affirming Vivace. Here though is where the autobiographical element of the composition suddenly becomes extremely poignant, when a grinding chord and sustained high violin note herald a strangely muted ending. In this passage Smetana was, apparently, communicating the tinnitus from which he was suffering, and which led to his eventual deafness.
In this concert the Endellions provided a thoughtful choice of music, taking us from the relatively comfortable compositions of Haydn to those of Bartók and Smetana, reflective of great world sorrow and personal sadness. Their programme left us wondering as ever at the remarkable breadth, depth and range of emotions which four stringed instruments, played so masterfully together, are capable of evoking.
JOHN GILROY
