Category Archives: Small scale

In Concert – Cuarteto Casals @ Wigmore Hall: Bach, Shostakovich & Turina

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Cuarteto Casals [Abel Tomàs, Vera Martínez-Mehner (violins), Cristina Cordero Beltrán (viola), Arnau Tomàs (cello)]

J.S. Bach Art of Fugue BWV1080: Contrapunctus 1, 4, 6 & 9 (1742, rev.1748-9)
Turina La oración del torero Op.34 (1925)
Shostakovich String Quartet no.3 in F major Op.73 (1946)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 12 January 2026, 1pm

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

Cuarteto Casals began this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert with a quartet of movements from The Art of Fugue, Johann Sebastian Bach’s four-part masterpiece of musical counterpoint. The collection has that rare quality of being able to combine technical prowess and emotional substance, and these were evident right from the outset. Initially plaintive, Contrapunctus 1 grew in scope and stature, though while three of the quartet opted against vibrato cellist Arnau Tomàs did not, meaning his instrument was more rounded in tone. A convincing Contrapunctus 4 featured lively exchanges, while Contrapunctus 6 enjoyed the dotted rhythms redolent of a French ‘ouverture’. Finally Contrapunctus 9 was a light-footed dance, its slower theme commendably clear towards the end.

Vera Martínez-Mehner then swapped with Abel Tomàs to assume first violin duties for Joaquin Turina’s chamber tone poem La oración del torero. This vivid account of bullfighters praying for their lives before a fiesta was written in the wake of a scene witnessed by the composer, observng the toreadors ‘backstage’ in the chapel. Martínez-Mehner and Cristina Cordero Beltrán, perhaps unwittingly, were ironically clad in red for a performance that turned up the temperature a good 20 degrees inside the Wigmore Hall. Their highly descriptive account featured castanet evocations that were on point and searching solos that led to a radiant concluding section. Turina’s chamber music is rarely heard in the concert hall, and while this performance revealed a healthy debt to Debussy’s string quartet in particular, it showed off an attractive melodic style. On this evidence it would be rewarding to hear the composer’s string quartets and piano-based chamber music much more frequently.

The temperature cooled notably for the Shostakovich, though here again the quartet were able to use the extremes of their dynamic range. With the String Quartet no.3 closely attuned to the end of the Second World War, it was difficult not to think of telling parallels with the current situation in Russia and Ukraine, evident on every page. The songful melody of Martínez-Mehner’s opening tune cast initial warmth, but this soon dissipated, the quartet’s confidential asides drawing a notably hushed response from the Wigmore Hall audience.

Parallels with Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony, completed just three years earlier, were revealed – the heavy-set viola tread of the second movement recalling its scherzo, while the solemn fourth movement Passacaglia, placed as in the symphony, found an equivalent emptiness, nowhere more so than in the stricken unison from viola and cello towards the end.

Yet there was hope, as the questioning finale struck a more positive tone in spite of heavy irony, and a cold dread as the Passacaglia music reappeared. The music hung in a still suspension through the coda, in only the way Shostakovich can, revealing answers that were hard to come by while peace and dread co-existed in equal measure. Silence followed, and there was understandably no encore.

Listen

You can listen to this concert on BBC Sounds, until 11 February. Meanwhile click here to listen to a playlist of the works in this concert on Tidal, with the J.S. Bach and Shostakovich recorded by the Cuarteto Casals themselves.

Published post no.2,766 – Tuesday 13 January 2026

In concert – Chaos String Quartet @ University of Birmingham: Haydn, Wallen & Bartók

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Chaos String Quartet [Susanne Schäffer & Eszter Kruchió (violins), Sara Marzadori (viola), Bas Jongen (cello)]

Haydn String Quartet in E flat major Op.20/1 (1772)
Wallen Remembering 2012 (2025) [BBC commission: World premiere]
Bartók String Quartet no.3 BB93 (1927)

Elgar Concert Hall @ Bramall Music Building, University of Birmingham
Friday 12 December 2025 (1pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Birmingham University’s regular series of lunchtime recitals came to its close for 2025 with one postponed from earlier this year – the Chaos String Quartet (based in Vienna) being heard in a programme that played to the strengths of this most enterprising among younger ensembles.

Its warmly received debut release having featured the fifth of Haydn’s Op. 20 quartets, it was good to hear this group as persuasive in the first work from that groundbreaking set. Certainly its initial Allegro moderato found the right balance between an underlying elegance with that inquiring spirit such as informs all six of these pieces, and was duly abetted by the deceptive playfulness of its ensuing Minuet. The slow movement was as ‘sustained and affectionate’ as its marking indicates it should be, with the final Presto propelled along on its buoyant course.

There have been numerous commissions in BBC Radio 3’s ’25 for 25’ series, with this latest being by Errollyn Wallen (currently Master of the King’s Music). Howsoever its title might be interpreted, Remembering 2012 packs considerable emotion into its five-minute duration – such that the composer might consider extending it or adding further movements. It hardly needs adding that the year in question, coming mid-way between the world financial crash and Brexit, now seems harbinger of a more positive era which manifestly failed to happen.

The recital ended with a performance of Bartók’s Third Quartet which hopefully commended to those present what is the most difficult to grasp of this cycle – not least given the ingenuity of its formal design, along with its innovative if always constructive use of extended playing techniques. Having pursued a suspenseful course across its ‘Prima parte’, the Chaos ensured a visceral impact to its ‘Second parte’ before securing palpable eloquence from the former’s ‘Recapitulazione’, prior to a ‘Coda’ as carried all before it in an outburst of unbridled energy.

A memorable conclusion to an impressive recital, the Chaos returning with the Minuet from the fourth of Haydn’s Op. 20 quartets as teasing encore. Its sophomore recording scheduled early next year, hopefully this most questing ensemble will be back in the UK before long.

Published post no.2,753 – Friday 19 December 2025

For more on the Barber Lunchtime Concerts, head to the Barber Institute website, and click on the links to read more about the Chaos String Quartet and composer Errollyn Wallen

In concert – Kleio Quartet @ Wigmore Hall: Elgar, Webern & Haydn

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Kleio Quartet [Juliette Roos, Katherine Yoon (violins), Yume Fujise (viola), Eliza Millett (cello)]

Elgar String Quartet in E minor Op.83 (1918)
Webern 5 Movements for String Quartet Op.5 (1909)
Haydn String Quartet in D major Op.50/6 ‘Frog’ (1787)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 6 October 2025 (1pm)

On the evidence of this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, the Kleio Quartet – members of the station’s New Generation Artists scheme – are ones to watch. Not least for their programming, for it was refreshing to see a Haydn string quartet given top billing at a concert rather than making up the numbers.

The concert began with an account of Sir Edward Elgar’s sole String Quartet notable for its poise, elegance and understated emotion. Elgar’s ‘late’ works are best experienced in concert at this autumnal time of year, though the dappled sunlight evoked here was compromised by a subtle yet lasting foreboding. For the youthful Kleio Quartet to capture the thoughts of a man in his early 60s with such clarity was impressive indeed. They did so through a first movement taking the ‘moderato’ of Elgar’s tempo marking to hand – deliberate but never plodding. The dense, Brahmsian counterpoint was deftly unpicked, while the nostalgic elements of the second movement gave the feeling of an ensemble performing in an adjacent room, the listener asked to imagine an elegant salon setting. The purposeful finale snapped us out of this reverie with vigorous exchanges, though there was time for affection in its second theme. Ultimately the music revelled in the Sussex outdoors enjoyed by Elgar and wife Alice, though the Autumnal chill remained present.

Memories of a very different kind coursed through Webern’s 5 Movements for String Quartet, written in the wake of his mother’s death. These remarkable compositions illustrate an unparalleled gift for intense, compressed expression. None of the movements last longer than two minutes, yet so much concentrated feeling is loaded into their short phrases, pushing against tonality with oblique melodies and rich yet desolate harmonies.

The Kleio Quartet found those qualities and more in a deeply impressive account, with the alternate moods of the first movement, argumentative and then delicate, and the forthright third. Countering these moods were the soul searching second and the sparse, eerie fourth, where the ticking motif of Yume Fujise’s viola suggested a period of insomnia. The bare bones of Webern’s anguish were made clear in the final movement, in the high, inconsolable violin of Juliette Roos and the empty closing chords.

Following this with one of Haydn’s most amiable quartets was an inspired move, the Wigmore Hall audience smiling feely as the composer’s humour was repeatedly revealed. The so-called ‘Frog’ quartet, named for the croaking repeated notes of the finale’s main theme, shows Haydn completing his Op.50 set of six quartets with a panache that would surely have delighted their beneficiary, Frederick William II of Prussia.

The Kleio had fun with the unpredictable first movement, spirited yet restless, and the harmonic twists and turns of the Poco adagio, led by expressive flourishes from Roos. The quirky Menuetto revelled in melodic inflections and cheeky asides, with the pregnant pauses of the trio section adding to the irregular rhythms within the triple time meter. All of which set up the fun and frolics of the finale, where the occasional slip of ensemble tuning could be easily forgiven in the spirit of the Kleio’s performance, Haydn charming his audience to the very end.

Listen

You can listen to this concert as the first hour of BBC Radio 3’s Classical Live, which can be found on BBC Sounds until Tuesday 4 November.

Published post no.2,680 – Tuesday 7 October 2025

In concert – Heath Quartet @ London Chamber Music Society, St John’s Church Waterloo – Haydn, Bacewicz, Locke & Beethoven

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Heath Quartet [Maja Horvat & Sara Wolstenholme (violins), Gary Pomeroy (viola), Christopher Murray (cello)]

Haydn String Quartet in G major Op.33/5 ‘How Do You Do?’ (1781)
Bacewicz String Quartet no.6 (1960)
Locke Suite III in F (c1660)
Beethoven String Quartet no.16 in F major Op.135 (1826)

St John’s Church, Waterloo, London
Sunday 28 September 2025, 6pm

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

This early evening concert marked not just the start of London Chamber Music Society’s new season but also that of its first at St John’s Waterloo, following some 17 seasons in residence at King’s Place. The actual programme, however, could not have been more typically LCMS.

What better than to start with a Haydn quartet? His Op. 33 abounds in ‘less is more’ writing, not least the fifth in this set whose buoyant opening Vivace features a cadential figure which provides the nickname, then a Largo whose keening melody for first violin and cadenza-like passage betrays likely operatic origin. The Heath Quartet was equally inside the Scherzo with its amiable impulsiveness, while the final Allegretto had a genial humour that carried through to its good-natured payoff. A piece deserving of greater prominence within the Haydn canon.

As does the Sixth Quartet in Grażyna Bacewicz’s output. Evidently a breakthrough in terms of her writing for strings, its stealthy yet never brazen Modernism is clear from the opening movement in its subtle overhaul of sonata design, then the Vivace with its intensive rhythmic interplay. A ‘song without words’ centred on cello, the slow movement is a soulful interlude prior to a final Allegro as makes inventive play with rondo design – the widening expressive gulf between its stable refrain and its unpredictable episodes deftly sidestepped at the close.

Purcell’s music for consort might be the most directly acknowledged precursor of the string quartet, but that by Matthew Locke is hardly less significant and preceded it by almost two decades. This third of his six four-part suites is no exception – the substantial and teasingly discursive Fantasia being followed with an elegant Courante and a soulful Ayre then a (surprisingly?) trenchant Saraband. Throughout, the Heath’s seamless interplay was such as to relativize any distinction between a consort of viols and the ensemble of strings it became.

An ensemble taken to a peak of perfection on the cusp of the Romantic era with Beethoven’s last string quartet. Here the Heath judged the equable poise of its opening Allegretto then the quixotic humour of its scherzo to perfection. Neither was there any lack of feeling in a slow movement whose pathos becomes the greater for its understatement; the ‘difficult decision’ that informs the finale duly rendered with a sure sense of this music’s venturing towards its playful conclusion. Beethoven was rarely so profound as when he was being this disarming. A persuasive start to a new season and a new chapter in the illustrious history of the LCMS. A wide range of recitals is scheduled between now and June, while those unfamiliar with St John’s need have no doubt as to the excellence of its acoustic or attractiveness of its setting.

Click on the links for more information on the Heath String Quartet, the London Chamber Music Society and events at St. John’s Church, Waterloo. You can also click for more on composer Grażyna Bacewicz

Published post no.2,676 – Friday 3 October 2025

In concert – Johan Dalene, Andreas Brantelid & Christian Ihle Hadland @ Wigmore Hall: Korngold & Ravel

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Johan Dalene (violin, above), Andreas Brantelid (cello, bottom), Christian Ihle Hadland (piano, middle)

Korngold Piano Trio in D major Op.1 (1909-10)
Ravel Piano Trio in A minor (1914)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 7 July 2025 (1pm)

by Ben Hogwood

With the BBC New Generation Artists scheme reaching its quarter century earlier this year, we had a timely reminder of its legacy in the shape of this high-powered BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert at the Wigmore Hall. All three artists record for the BIS label, and on this evidence it is to be hoped the three will form a lasting trio, for they have an obvious and enduring musical chemistry.

The concert began with the first published work of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a child prodigy in the same line as Mozart and Mendelssohn before him. While his Piano Trio in D major Op.1 is dedicated to his father Julius, who was a forceful influence on his son’s writing at this point, to have written such an accomplished work is simply remarkable. The work’s rich harmonies and searching melodies explore new possibilities while revering past traditions, a Viennese work written through the eyes of a young composer showing off his agility and expressive potential.

The trio can be elusive on occasion, with a lot packed into its four movements. On occasion the young composer appears to be trying out variants of a modern Viennese style, which comes to him naturally along with an awareness of developments in France. Fauré is a notable influence; so too Brahms and Richard Strauss; and these, mixed with youthful passion, make a heady concoction.

That this performance succeeded owed much to the dexterity and balance of pianist Christian Ihle Hadland, bringing clarity to the second movement Scherzo where Korngold’s thoughts are not always finished before moving onto the next melody. Johan Dalene gave room to the fervent Larghetto, bringing out its thoughtful side with a pure tone in the higher violin register. Meanwhile the strength of the finale was bolstered by its longer sentences, adhering clearly to the energico of its marking but with Dalene and cellist Andreas Brantelid finding perfect melodic unison. All three players enjoyed Korngold’s oblique approach to the final cadence, signing off with some panache.

Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor was in his mind for some time before writing, though once composition began it did so with great urgency, the composer aware that the First World War was imminent. Hadland was superb throughout this interpretation, the crystalline quality given to the piano’s chords setting the tone for the whole work. Dalene responded with a sweet melancholy to the second theme, while the trio’s white-hot energy and virtuosity in the fast ensemble passages was something to behold.

They also relished the cross rhythms of the Pantoum, given with some exotic colours as Ravel’s mind became distracted by thoughts and the musical language of the Far East. Those were even more apparent in the language of the Passacaille, the threat of war now prescient in the hollow left-hand line of the piano, picked up by Brantelid as though intoning a Gregorian chant. This thoughtfulness and relative darkness gave way to a brilliant burst of light in the harmonics opening the finale, where again the trio reached energetic highs amid bold and clear ensemble statements. Hadland’s mixture of precision and power proved ideal for Ravel, helped by a similar approach from both string players, all three sweeping all before them in the convincing closing bars.

These were performances to cherish, while thought provoking in their proximity to the War where Korngold raised money as a regimental band leader and composer while Ravel approached the front line as a munitions lorry driver.

Listen

You can listen to this concert as the first hour of BBC Radio 3’s Classical Live, which can be found on BBC Sounds until Wednesday 6 August.

Published post no.2,589 – Tuesday 8 July 2025