Lammermuir Festival: Quatuor Mosaïques I

Chalmers Memorial Church - 09/09/22

The celebrated period instrument string quartet Quatuor Mosaïques delivered their first programme of the Lammermuir Festival in the Chalmers Memorial Church, Port Seton, on the night of Friday 9th September, in a program of two works, Haydn’s Op. 77 No.1 in G major and Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” D810 in D minor.  Using gut strings brings both challenges and rewards.  Chief among the challenges is the tendency of gut strings to not hold tuning; chief among the rewards is a glorious warm tone.  Not surprisingly, this expert ensemble has tamed the tuning challenge by tuning between movements.  They have also added to the rewards.  Not only is their ensemble tone warm, but they have harnessed the unique almost unpolished ‘wildness’ of the strings to better express characterful features of the music, whether the rustic charm of Haydn’s mischievous folk dance or the aching melancholy of Schubert’s intensely poignant melodic lines. 

The concert opened with Haydn at the peak of his inventive powers and the lovely tempo of the Allegro Moderato was agile yet precisely articulated, with especially delicious triplets from the first violin and responses from the cello.  Observing the exposition repeat allowed the listener to savour afresh the mutually responsive phrasing, clarity of the individual characters of the parts, yet great blended sound, with repeated phrases being subtly pointed differently.  The Adagio, with rhapsodic ornamented cantabile writing for the first violin, was elegantly performed with subtle use of rubato and tenuto to let the phrasing breathe with a sense of ebb and flow.  A perfectly judged pause before a passage in the minor key pointed out the drama, heightened by some anguished outbursts.  The scherzo minuet-and-trio, Haydn at his most mischievous, was gleeful and witty, alternating lightness of touch with rustic rambunctiousness.  The Presto finale was agile and cheeky, with some tricky runs for everyone, especially the first violin.  Expertly played, with an especially sweet rallentando before the final return of the main theme. 

Of all Schubert’s quartets, the one that bears the title of a song forming the theme of the slow movement’s variations must surely be the most densely scored, almost foreshadowing Brahms.  To hear it performed by a group that has clearly thought deeply about ensemble tone and blending is a special treat.  And it was indeed pretty special.  Even without any programmatic scenario, this is dramatic music and the drama was fully realised.  Chording was rich and clear, without assaulting the senses.  Counterpoint was expressive and mutually responsive, with a sense of unfolding narrative.  The use of minimal vibrato in the first statement of the theme in the slow movement enhanced the pathos and set up the first variation perfectly, with the pleading first violin line singing over cello pizzicato – absolutely scrumptious.  The texture throughout remained limpid, even with Schubert’s scrunchiest, most anguished discords.  The Scherzo, Allegro Molto, is a rustic dance, but robbed of joy as the dramatic tension is sustained, so when the Trio sings in the major key, it is laden with pathos.  The Presto finale, dancelike with a march-like second subject, puts on a brave face, but seems to accept fate: Schubert on familiar ground with his preoccupation with lost innocence.  This was a superb reading and performance of Schubert’s masterpiece.  Thank you, Lammermuir Festival.