Concert Reviews

Perth Chamber Music crowned their last concert of this season with a recital by the Nemtsov Duo of cello and piano. From the dramatic first note of Beethoven's Cello Sonata Op.5 No.2 it was apparent that the brother and sister became the music such was their commitment. Their's was intense, yet warm-hearted, music making, very vocally inspired. The dancing theme of the first movement really smiled and the end had all the heroic energy one could wish. The final Rondo had playing of brilliance and dazzling good humour. The two delighted in Beethoven's bravura writing.

“Every note is genius and it is very romantic”, said Mikhail Nemtsov introducing Shostakovich's Cello Sonata. And he and his sister went on to prove this in the warmth of the opening and a later lyrical passage of great beauty. They were equally brilliant in the sarcastic Scherzo and a sonic delight in the glissandi of the Trio. In the third movement they absolutely conveyed the weight of sorrow on Shostakovich's shoulders, before shrugging this off in the sharply delineated humour of the final Allegro.

Their rapport with both audience and music came through in Chopin's Cello Sonata. In the second theme the sheer sound of their playing was enthralling. Swagger and power were there in the Scherzo, yet also delicacy and feeling, especially in their elated playing of the Trio. Though short in bars, their lyrically intense playing brought out the melodic wealth of the Largo. The Finale had energy and beauty, as in Mikhail's double-stopping in the second theme and seemed only too short before its colossally exciting end.

The very different world of Piazzolla's Le grand tango sprang to life in the husky melodies played with fervour and abandon. The slow central section gave pause before the final fast section, with its virtuoso writing, brought back the wildness you can only attempt if you have absolute mastery over what you are doing.

To calm the very enthusiastic audience in St Ninian's Cathedral the Duo gave Fauré's Après un rêve with gloriously refined, sustained tone.

Invigorating and musically rewarding guests for Perth Chamber Music at their Tuesday Concert were the Dutch wind quintet the Anemos Arts Ensemble. They made a spirited start with Mozart's Divertimento K270. Lively in the Allegro, innocent in the Andantino, sprightly in the Minuet, they brought out all the bubbling fun of the Finale.

Reduced to just clarinet and bassoon for Poulenc's Sonata of 1922, clarinetist Karel Plessers delighted the well attended St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth both with his description of the work and the performance, the lyricism of the Romance and the insouciant zest of the other two movements.

The Françaix Quintet No.1 (minus its Theme & Variations) brought the audience to the Interval with fine style, a quintet of individual characters of varied tone and dynamic.

With Sandar Teepen forsaking his oboe for the cor anglais, the Anemos Arts Ensemble gave a finely felt performance of James MacMillan's Untold. Scottish-born flautist Angela Schneidt next played solo in three of Richard Rodney Bennett's Songs for the Instruction of Singing Birds. Using the full range of the flute, including flutter tonguing, these pieces put character into the birdsong and enthralled the audience.

Back as a quintet for the final two pieces they gave wonderfully easeful tunes and colour in Elgar's Chanson de matin and fine and distinctive playing to Debussy's Petite Suite: a fine languorous sound to En Bateau, the piccolo and Lars Wachelder's fine horn playing in the Menuet and a final Ballet of verve and excitement.

The splendour of wind sound in the acoustics of St. Ninian's was such that the audience called back the players for an eagerly awaited encore: a joyous reading with fine colours of Zemlinsky's Humoresque.

The members of the Heath Quartet were Perth Chamber Music's guests on Tuesday evening in St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth. Quartets by Haydn, Janacek and Beethoven were given to the delight of the enthusiastic audience.

Haydn's Op.33 No.1 is a dramatic quartet in the minor. The Heath Quartet plunged in with their intense tone catching the serious atmosphere. Called Scherzo the minuet second movement continued the drama of the piece with rigour. The Trio section was a total contrast: a lightly spun respite. The Andante showed leader Oliver Heath's lyrical tone, as seconded by the others, in the radiance of this movement. Drama returned in the Presto with dazzling playing from all members of the Quartet.

The Heath Quartet plunged immediately into the more drastic emotions of Janacek's Quartet No. 2 Intimate Letters with tremendous impact. Their approach to the second movement was more ecstatic and lyrical than some and contrasted well with the wild central part. Their emotional sensitivity was shown in the sad opening of the third movement leading to outburst and despairing recall. Beginning more conventionally happy the fourth became more anguished, then subsided to be broken by the two horrible scrubbing episodes and the final, manic return to the movement's opening.

The Heath had poise and perfection in the classic quartet sounds of Beethoven's Quartet in E flat Op. 74 Harp. The ‘harp’ pizzicato passages came over as an interesting extra colour and they showed a well differentiated dynamic range. Beethoven's Adagio and their beautiful playing of it was the highpoint of the evening: warm textured and sensitively felt by all members of this fine ensemble. They tempered the vehemence with elegance in Beethoven's Presto third movement, yet there was no mistaking the titanic forces at work. Their speed and ensemble in the Trio was breathtaking. The warm-hearted variations of the finale suited them well, finding great variety before the final furious fiddling of the end.

Different though equally perfect in style was the encore they offered to the applause of the appreciative audience: Mendelssohn's Canzonetta from his Quartet in E flat Op. 12.

The Perth Chamber Music concert on Tuesday evening was a total musical delight. The distinctive sound of the ensemble Clarion 3 caught the acoustic of Perth's St Ninian's Cathedral perfectly. Nor with such superb musicians as clarinetist Janet Hilton, bassoonist Laurence Perkins and pianist Sarah Beth Briggs could it have been otherwise.

They opened with a trio arrangement of the first movement of Beethoven's Septet which was the liveliest, most friendly calling card. Next Sarah Beth Briggs played Three Character Pieces written by Britten at the age of 17, which she had premiered also at the age of 17. With the continental influence of his teacher Frank Bridge these ended with sparks in a virtuoso moto perpetuo.

The real discovery of the evening was William Hurlstone's Trio in G minor of 1896. It showed mastery and purpose from the start with rewarding prominence for the wind in writing both accessible and charcterful. The second movement was a warm serenade. The Scherzo had Mendelssohnian fairies but naughtier, more impish. After a dark start the finale had a glorious tune, ending in a radiant coda.

The second half began with Janet Hilton in an affection filled performance of Poulenc's Clarinet Sonata. She showed poignant feeling and joie de vivre. Laurence Perkins' bassoon took centre stage in Elgar's Romance with sustained, poised lyrical playing in this poetic piece and, as he himself said, simple and beautiful in four of Vaughan Williams Folksong Studies. Sarah Beth Briggs was the sensitive accompanist.

All three were together again for an exciting and diverting performance of Glinka's Trio pathétique. It neither sounded Russian nor plumbed emotional depth, but was more of beautifully played and amusingly characterized vocal scena from Italian opera of around 1830 - including a mellifluous duet and an exciting bring-the-curtain-down cabaletta. This proved so popular that Clarion 3 returned with a Brahms Hungarian Dance to send the appreciative audience out light of heart into the icy rain of the evening.

From their very first notes the technical perfection of Perth Chamber Music's guests for their second concert was apparent.

The Elias Quartet began Britten's early three Divertimenti by impressing with their absolute precision in pinpoint rhythms.

They excelled further technically, playing always vividly at the service of the music. In the March cascades of notes passed seamlessly from one instrument to the other. Their Waltz showed immediacy of emotion, this time innocence, with winsome pizzicato. Their fearless confidence of execution showed in the moto perpetuo Burlesque, their accuracy evoking a feeling of wildness.

For the start of Haydn's Quartet they showed the warmth and friendliness of witty, civilized, intelligent conversation. Haydn shocked in his slow movement. It was a miniature operatic scene, where, after a curtain for all four, the cello then the first violin sang: very impassioned, dramatic even tragic. Then came the change to beautifully sustained writing for the aria. Next the most un-minuet like minuet Haydn wrote, the Elias following Haydn's instructions and going straight into it so that the break between movements was blurred. The Finale was a fugue with four themes, but far from being dry the Elias brought out Haydn's sense of fun.

After the interval they tackled what is probably the most demanding quartet ever written, and in its most exacting form: Beethoven's Quartet in B Flat Op.130.

The opening movement started with a visceral depth of tone, which, while in no way denying the subtle and fine art of quartet playing, presented the music directly - The Elias really lived in this music.

They were at home with Beethoven's gruffer sense of humour in the Presto second movement, giving its repeat a lightness and wit. Their third movement was fast in comparison to some, but made the music hang together. The German Dance fourth movement had them presenting the melody with sinuous beauty. The Cavatina was played with heart and honesty. Possibly Beethoven's most profound piece of music was given with emotional truth and depth. To end with the Grand Fugue was overwhelming. They set out, and continued, with exemplary clarity taking the audience in the very full Art Gallery with them. The Allegro had energy and vigour, the gentler, slower section had no less clarity of thought with the third section bringing out more of Beethoven's humour.

Their magnificent performance called forth tremendous, enthusiastic applause and bravos from the well filled gallery.

Perth Chamber Music began this year in the most magnificent style with a violin and piano recital in Perth's Art Gallery and Museum on Tuesday evening. The artists were rising Japanese star Arisa Fujita and, making a most welcome return to Perth, pianist Sam Haywood.

They began with the most developed of Bach's violin and keyboard sonatas: that in E Major BWV1016. In no way was this dour old Bach. After the lofty opening Adagio, Arisa Fujita and Sam Haywood played Bach's game of catch, joyously alternating the almost folk-like tune. A second Adagio, this time Arisa Fujita's nobly etched line limned itself against Sam Haywood's emotionally inflected playing. A final Allegro of bounce, brilliance and grandeur ended the Sonata.

Brahms' Violin Sonata No.2 came next in a performance with a first movement which was youthfully springlike yet with moments of wistful nostalgia. Again emphatically not Brahms the stuffy greybeard. The two musicians showed a sure, light touch in the Andante and were playfully lively in the Vivace sections of the second movement. With its low lying line the third movement is sometimes difficult to bring off for the violin, yet the duo combined both a glowing warmth and forward movement. Their engagement and enjoyment of this piece was shared by the large audience.

More Brahms followed the interval. This time the twenty year old in his Scherzo in C minor. Arisa Fujita and Sam Haywood played with plenty of ardour and power, giving the second theme a swashbuckling swagger. Their fervour in the Trio was the perfect foil in this most exciting playing.

Franck's Violin Sonata in A major was obviously played with enjoyment by the artists and enjoyed no less by the audience in the well filled Gallery. I have not before seen so many audience heads nodding vigorously in approbation. The fluid playing of the first movement rose to a tremendous climax, yet had delicacy too. The following Allegro had inspired vigour and the Recitativo third movement had both fire and deeply felt introspection. After all the emotion of the first three movements it was both release and pleasure to hear the fun Arisa Fujita and Sam Haywood had in the joyous canon of the final Allegretto. Recalled many times the pair offered as an encore the refined eloquence of Heifetz's arrangement of Debussy's song Beau Soir, which rose to passion with Arisa's double-stopping. It was a most superb start to this season of concerts.

Very successful in their choice of up and coming new groups Perth Chamber Music had another winner in the Atrium String Quartet. Made up of four Russian musicians now living in Berlin, their concert in St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, had the attractive rarity of three Russian composers and three little known works.

The first work was Anton Arensky's Quartet No.2, written to the memory of Tchaikovsky it was a clearly constructed work with considerable melodic charm. As with all the pieces the Atrium Quartet showed not only considerable technical ability, but identified themselves emotionally. So the chant which permeated the work had its own special atmosphere and interest. In the same way the swings to melancholy and to joy had a palpable validity. The best known part is the theme and variations second movement: here they dazzled in the characterization of differing variations.

Shostakovich's Quartet No.10 in A Flat, one of his more rarely played, again had a performance which fully committed to the emotions. In the cool opening they portrayed the varying sonorities. In the second, Allegretto furioso, they made the most of this aggressive scherzo. The Atrium Quartet put over both the lament of the passacaglia Adagio and its shock at being interrupted by the cheeky trepak of the last movement.

Tchaikovsky's large scale Quartet No.3 followed the interval. Another memorial work, this time to a Czech violinist friend, lament and oration were important both in the substantial outer sections of the first movement and, the works centre, the Andante funebre. Higher spirits came to the fore in the dance inspired Scherzo and the energy of the Finale.

As counterbalance the Atrium Quartet gave a witty performance of Shostakovich's fun-poking Polka from his ballet The Golden Age.

Perth Chamber Music's second concert of 2011 was a great event along a range of dimensions. The exciting partnership of cellist Sebastian Comberti and pianist Katharine Durran was heard in the intimate setting of Perth's Art Gallery and Museum on Tuesday. Great music, to begin with, great artists at the top of their form and hugely generous with the amount they played.

They began with Beethoven's grandest cello sonata, the one in A Major Op.69. Both artists had the measure of this work and were both vigorous and confident and sensitive and expressive. The middle movement Scherzo had the right Beethovenian mischief and heroic swagger.

Another heroic work, Brahms Cello Sonata No.2, was next. The first movement had magnificent sweep and the second was expressively played.

The miniatures which followed the interval showed that not only could they play great music grandly, but could also finesse a lighter style. First the now hardly known Alice Mary Smith in her sweet-toned Melody and spinning-song and waltz inspired Scherzo. Then two slightly better known composers Moszkowski in his Guitare and Glazounov in his Sérénade espagnole - their grace and melodic felicity put over to perfection.

Finally came Mendelssohn's Sonata No.2 in D major where at times the playing was buoyant and sparkling, at times impassioned or humorous.

And for an encore, they gave us Cassado's Requierbos (Flirtations). Only the imminent locking up of the Museum could stop them!

The youthful Roxburgh String Quartet opened their concert in Perth Art Gallery on 18 January with two short works by Henry Purcell. Interestingly they played the Pavane and Chaconne, the famous one in G minor, with restrained vibrato, imitative of the viols for which the two pieces were originally written.

Their start to Debussy's Quartet followed like a sunburst. They captured the ebb and flow of the first movement with warmth. Not for the only time that evening the viola of Feargus Hetherington gave a lead in the exciting second movement. The virtuoso pizzicato playing came over well. They rose to their best in an appealingly played lyrical slow movement. Their movement from the slow to the fast in the finale could have been handled more smoothly, but they captured the drama and brought out Debussy's musical links well.

After the Interval, Perth heard its first performance of James Clapperton's Schir Corbie Ravin. Feargus Hetherington had the prominent viola part, as sympathetic soloist in this some ten minute piece. The viola's material in this intriguing work was derived from the early Scots tune Macpherson's Lament.

The Roxburgh Quartet gave a dark, questioning reading to the Adagio at the start of Mozart's Dissonance Quartet K465. They moved to light and grace in the Allegro, which ended with a happily played coda. The slow movement again inspired them to their best. Their interpretation of the Menuetto convincingly treated the piece as an energetic scherzo. Their finale was a little too relaxed, too inclined to slow up at the ends of phrases, but redeemed by their playing of the coda.

As response to the applause from the well-filled Art Gallery they offered a sprightly encore, Dvorak's Nature Lies Peacefully in Slumber, No 11 of his Cypresses cycle.

From their very first notes, resounding in St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, it was clear that the Galliard Wind Ensemble's Tuesday concert for Perth Chamber Music would be a very special event. This held true for the entire programme of Mozart and 20th Century Works.

The dramatic opening to Mozart's Serenade in C minor K.388 immediately grabbed the attention and the acoustic with its urgent characterful playing.

Though 20th Century music may put some off, Perth Chamber Music had chosen wisely: the good, the great, the entertaining and the unusual were all there in superb performances starting with Milhaud's La Cheminée du roi René.

Barber's Summer Music was aptly characterized, as in its very different way was Hindemith's Kleine Kammermusik. Nielsen's Wind Quintet is great music and the Galliard Wind Ensemble clearly laid out the musical argument, starting the first movement bright and breezy and ending it with a wonderful glow of humanity. Their rustic vision of the Minuet had real charm, and their searching playing of the Praeludium and delight in the quirky variations brought prolonged applause from the large audience.

Paul Patterson's Comedy for Five Winds was an ideal, at times uproarious, end to the concert, capped by an encore in the form of the Charleston from Norman Hallam's Dance Suite.

For their first official concert of the season, Perth Chamber Music welcomed back the Vogler String Quartet, this time to a venue new to them St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth.

In rehearsing, the Vogler Quartet had been so impressed by the acoustic of St Ninian's that they wanted to play Kontrpunktus 1 from J.S.Bach's Art of the Fugue before the programme proper. So the timeless Bach rang out with clarity, perfectly catching the acoustic.

Beethoven's Quartet op.18 No.3 was a delightful second start to the evening, showing Beethoven at his most Haydn/Mozart influenced in this gently witty work. At 25 years without a change in personnel the rapport of the Vogler Quartet was immediate and total and they proved clear-eyed guides to this genial work.

Seven of Dvorak's rarely performed Cypresses came next. Arranged from a set of love songs these diverse pieces had all of Dvorak's melodic style. The short pieces showed warmth, tenderness, happiness and moved through the agitated to the wistful before the slightly more extended finale.

After the Interval Schumann's little encountered Third Quartet was given in an outstanding performance. From the very first notes the Vogler Quartet were just so right in style.

To the pleasure of the audience the Vogler Quartet ended their concert with J.S.Bach's Kontrpunktus 2 as a 'second', this time true, encore.

The 2010-11 classical music season here in Perth set off in superb style with the Millennium Quartet, who demonstrated enviable fluency, technique and anticipation. Dvorak's "American" Quartet showed them to be a really fine ensemble with the most alert playing, capable too of beauty and relaxation. In Ginastera's Quartet No. 1 they were fully attuned in idiom and energy, whilst also bringing out moments of delicacy.

With what seemed a personal favourite, Arta Arnicane was back to her considerable best with Debussy's L'Isle joyeuse. This ended the printed programme with almost unbelievable verve and precision. This performance had the full clarity of the blazing sun but also ravishing tone in the lyrical interludes, before building to its exultant and ecstatic end.

It was with agreeable anticipation that the audience awaited the return of the Carducci String Quartet for Perth Chamber Music's Thursday evening concert in Perth Art Gallery.

The very best came in the final work, Beethoven's Quartet in F, Op.59 No.1. The Carducci's power in the first movement was rightly worlds away from the politeness falsely associated with a string quartet. It was grander and more wide ranging with magnificent playing in the development and a powerful climactic statement of the opening theme. They brought out Beethoven's sense of fun in the Scherzo playing with rhythmic acuity, a fine manner with the more lyrical tunes and a wry little twist to the final bars. The Carducci Quartet's playing gained the apex in the slow movement: taking 'mesto' (sadly) as the keyword they took the audience on a voyage of vivid emotion. An antidote to this was the relaxed, good humour of the Finale with its Russian folksong. Their playing seemed to improve still more through the varied incidents, until, with a final, wittily lingering look at the folksong, they hurtled to Beethoven's joyous conclusion to be greeted by resounding applause from the Perth audience.

They began with a performance of Schumann's Three Romances op.94 which went straight to their Romantic soul. The sound of both players was so right for these pieces from the very first notes where clarinet and piano converse intimately, at first wistfully then more movingly. The second piece showed great charm in its storytelling style and the folk-song influence was to the fore in the darker ballad style of the third piece.

Schubert's first real breakthrough in quartet writing was the isolated Quartet Movement in C minor. From the tense start to this work the Alba Quartet showed themselves totally engaged with the piece. They inhabited every note of every bar, portraying both the drama of the development and the burnished melody of the second subject.

St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth was the venue for Tuesday's Perth Chamber Music concert with violinist Jennifer Pike and pianist Daniel Tong. Jennifer Pike first came to fame at the age of 12 as youngest winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Contest.

The programme opened with Kreisler's Praeludium & Allegro. This piece looks at the Baroque and J.S.Bach with the far from authenticist eyes of this Romantic violin virtuoso. The fabulous sound of Jennifer Pike's Matteo Goffriller violin delivered a flash and dazzle cadenza over the rumbling piano before the piece ended with a terrific display of double-stopping.

Perth Chamber Music had their first concert of the season in their usual venue of Perth Art Gallery and Museum on Tuesday evening. The artists were the Wihan Quartet of Prague in works by Haydn, Smetana and Schubert's unique String Quintet.

In playing Smetana the Wihan Quartet was playing one of their national heroes. Smetana's late troubled masterpiece, his Quartet No.2, was given in an unforgettable performance both harrowing and sympathetic. Most graphic and intense was the third movement. This was truly the "whirlwind of music" Smetana spoke of. Their playing of the short fourth movement showed a Smetana desperate but not broken, his eyes on the future.