United Kingdom Edinburgh International Festival 2024 [7]: Chiaroscuro Quartet (12.08), Maxim Emelyanychev (piano and Principals of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (13.8). Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 12 & 13.8.2024. (SRT)
There was a time when ‘authentic’ playing tended to mean harsh sounds and astringent textures. Not any more. These two concerts demonstrated period performance style at its best, with transparency and clarity but also lovely levels of warmth.
Take the Chiaroscuro Quartet, for example, a textbook example of how modern quartets play the high classical repertoire in that style, playing on gut strings with nineteenth-century bows. Watching them on Monday morning, however, you notice the vibrato. Unlike lots of period ensembles, they are liberal with their use of it, and they were happy to embrace it to give colour and vigour to the opening movements of the two Haydn quartets they played. That, combined with their choice of strings and bows, gave the sound an oaky richness that you wouldn’t usually expect from a period quartet, and there was frequently a singing quality to the melodies, particularly from Alina Ibragimova on the first violin. It helped that they were not afraid to deploy extremes of dynamics, leaping from pianissimo to fortissimo in a heartbeat to accentuate Haydn’s frequent musical jokes.
Yet when they wanted to, they stripped the vibrato right back. The lack of vibrato made the minuet of Op.33 No.4 sound even more dainty because the sound seemed so stripped back, and it increased the yearning intensity of the slow movement of Beethoven’s first Razumovsky quartet, before melting into the gorgeous major key episode.
In short, the Chiaroscuros don’t deploy a blanket rule, and that is what makes them such a joy to listen to. It is never entirely clear what is around the corner, be it in the lopsided Scherzo of Haydn’s No.5, or the deflated frenzy of No.4’s Finale, which made the audience break into a giggle. And Beethoven’s second movement sounded more than ever like a conversation, each performer feeding the other one a line so that they came across as finishing one another’s sentences.
By contrast, it is still a bit of rarity for the string players of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to play on gut strings – they are better known for playing modern instruments in a period style – but it is becoming more common for certain repertoire, and the string principals who played in their Tuesday morning concert did use gut strings to striking effect. It meant that the opening movement of Mozart’s G minor Piano Quintet was even more urgent and stormy than usual, though it didn’t stop them from sweetening the sound with the utmost delicacy for the gorgeous slow movement, or the cheerful finale. They also did a terrific job in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.12, here arranged for single strings. Only occasionally did you miss the chuckle of the winds; in every other respect this was a beautifully balanced performance, and no one who heard the dreamy slow movement could complain about gut strings sounding harsh.
The witty continuo playing of Maxim Emelyanychev, their Principal Conductor, was perhaps the finest thing about the orchestra’s festival performance of Così fan tutte at the weekend, and if his playing was better behaved this morning then it still brought a tangy sparkle to everything, not least in the lively Haydn Fantasia that he thew in to start the second half. Only in moments of the lovely Kegelstatt Trio did the balance sound slightly out of sync, Maximiliano Martín’s clarinet dominating the sound a little too much, which is hard to avoid when his instrument is naturally louder than either the fortepiano or the viola. All had settled beautifully by the time of the final Rondeaux, however, with flecks of light-hearted humour thrown in to enliven the texture.
Simon Thompson
The Edinburgh International Festival runs at venues across the city until Sunday 25th August. Click here for further details.
12.8.2024 – Chiaroscuro Quartet, Queen’s Hall.
Haydn – String Quartets, Opp.33 Nos. 4 & 5
Beethoven – String Quartet, Op.59 No.1 ‘Razumovsky’
13.8.2024 – Principals of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Maxim Emelyanychev (fortepiano, 13.08), Queen’s Hall.
Mozart – Piano Quartet in G minor; Piano Trio in E-flat ‘Kegelstatt’; Piano Concerto No.12, K414