Lammermuir Festival: Maxwell String Quartet
Aberlady Parish Church - 16/09/23
The afternoon of Saturday 16th September saw the Maxwell Quartet return to the Lammermuir Festival with an eclectic programme of Purcell, Haydn, Alberga and their own Scottish folk arrangements. The venue was Aberlady’s lovely Parish Church.
The programme opened with four Fantasias by 17th century English composer Henry Purcell, the outer two in major keys, the inner two in minor. All were motet-like, fusing late English Renaissance features like modal melody and harmony with Baroque counterpoint of great ingenuity, featuring slow introductions and faster sections. They work perfectly on string quartet and received a compelling and convincing outing.
Cellist of the group, Duncan Strachan, rose to welcome the audience, extol the Festival and introduce the group and the programme. In more ways than just professionally, the Festival represents a ‘homecoming’ for half of the group – both cellist and the first violinist Colin Scobie live just up the road in Longniddry, while the second violin George Smith lives in the borders. Violist Elliott Perks is a Londoner.
It is for their interpretation of Haydn that the Maxwells have won the highest acclaim. The first of two Haydn quartets on the programme, Op.20 No.1 in E-flat major, marks the beginning of Haydn’s gradual ‘democratisation’ of the quartet as a genre, moving from a showpiece for accompanied solo violin to conversational chamber music as we now know it, earning himself the epithet ‘Father of the String Quartet’. The first movement is a sunny and engaging sonata form with first violin prominent but loads of mutually responsive writing, especially cello, with whole melodic phrases, not just pedal notes. The minuet comes second, quite a brisk Allegretto with a more relaxed trio sporting a little first violin cadenza. The slow movement, marked Affettuoso e sostenuto, is hushed, prayerful and measured with little accents and a wee flourish for the first violin, a sustained chorale for four equal voices, repeated with a morendo conclusion second time round, magical in the warm key of A-flat. The Presto finale is a thrilling scramble with witty syncopations. Lots of rhythmic ambiguity to add to the hilarity (but, I confess, a tad too ambiguous for my personal taste). Haydn’s final gag: a final dash to an expected big finish is subverted by a concluding pianissimo. Thoroughly delightful and totally owned by the Maxwells.
Before the interval, the two violinists swapped places for two medleys in their own very fine arrangements. The first combined a short passage from the 14th century Inchcolm Antiphoner, a fisherman’s song from Musselburgh and a Scots Canadian Reel. The second commenced with a 16th century pibroch lament and concluded with a pair of Shetland reels, played very fast, joyful and thrilling. Fabulous.
Multi-talented Jamaican/British pianist/dancer/choreographer/composer Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No.2 (1994) is a single-movement work, frugal thematic material used imaginatively in a multi-episodic structure. It is unmistakably 20th century, at times rhythmically exciting, idyllic, spooky, sonorous and plaintive, but with a forward drive and pace that holds the rapt attention of the listener. There is about the music a directness and immediacy that, especially in the closing bars, reminds me of Janácek. It received the utmost advocacy.
I am sure I wasn’t the only person in the audience waiting with bated breath for Haydn’s F-major Op.77 No.2, representing as it does the master at the height of his powers and a perfect example of the pinnacle to which he had taken the genre. It is also his last completed quartet. The Maxwells did not disappoint. The first movement’s genial first theme was delivered with sweet cantabile innocence, though some mischievous scampering shows that simplicity will not reign unchallenged. Teasing chromaticism in the second theme promises some daring harmonies. The exposition repeat featured lovely added ornamentation in the first violin part. Haydn’s expert development, with its daring departures of key, mood and harmonic texture, including a very spooky episode in the minor key, was delivered with dramatic flair. The recapitulation featured different ornamentation again in the first violin part, lending the playing a freshness and an improvisatory feel. I don’t know when I’ve heard better. The quirky syncopated minuet is really a scherzo, mischievously wrongfooting any attempt to dance it. The first violin again ornamented the repeat, even including an improvised cadenza. The demure sotto voce trio is on its best behaviour, but we know better. A ‘false start’ gag to the minuet reprise adds extra hilarity. More overt innocent simplicity characterises the theme of the Andante, whereupon everybody gets a chance to play a variation, ornamented with increasing complexity by the others. A dramatic climax with a suspension and a pause leads to – the ‘innocent’ restatement of the theme and a simple coda. The triple-time playfully dancing finale plays the syncopation game again, with some fabulously agile scurrying playing from the first violin and cheeky comments from the cello. A few ‘decoy’ codas are swept aside by the real big finish. Excellent.
The violinists swapped places for the charming encore, their lovely arrangement of an Irish lullaby. Thumbs up from me.
We have done very well in this year’s Lammermuir Festival for high quality chamber Haydn, both trios and quartets. What’s not to like?
Cover photo: Rich Watson