United Kingdom Edinburgh International Festival 2024 [9]: Takács Quartet (16.8), Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord, 17.8). Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 16 & 17.8.2024. (SRT)
The chamber music world can be an unassuming place, but there is star power aplenty within it, and it breezed into the Edinburgh International Festival on Friday morning with the arrival of the Takács Quartet (Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes [violins], Richard O’Neill [viola] and András Fejér [cello]). Not many of the Queen’s Hall morning concerts have sold as well as this one, and the warmth of their reception proved that these four musicians pack a mighty punch.
They played Haydn’s Sunrise Quartet with such easy grace that its first movement sounded like the most openly joyous thing Haydn ever wrote, and there is a lot of competition for that title! It was underpinned by a marvellously oaky richness, however: this was serious jollity, something you might also apply to the hymn-like solemnity of the slow movement, and to the finale, which was full of the most energetic politesse you could imagine. Schubert’s final quartet was just as graceful, if a little curter in the opening movement, maybe even slightly cursory in places. No ‘heavenly lengths’ here. The slow movement expanded with beautiful lyricism, however, and the finale seemed ready to burst off the stage in its energetic speed.
Gratifyingly, however, the heart of this concert was its most recent work. Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s Flow, receiving its European premiere, was a gloriously upbeat celebration of life and positive energy, full of glorious melodies and beautifully lyrical textures. Ngwenyama’s inspiration was nothing less than the flow that binds the universe together and embodies its life force. Little wonder it was so celebratory, therefore. Lines of music were tossed around between instruments, sometimes frantically, but always with a sense of purpose, and the opening movement fizzed, even palpitated in places. Parts of the music were like snippets of birdsong, while others balanced stasis and movement, or seemed to form and dissolve before your ears. This was a complete treat, and I am already hoping for the opportunity to hear it again.
I had heard enough from Mahan Esfahani by the time his concert the following morning had finished, however. Don’t get me wrong: he is great at what he does, and his technique is extraordinary. It was repeatedly on display during this virtuoso display of the baroque, ranging from constantly varying Fantasias from the Bach sons to sets of Chaconnes and Variations that mutated organically like twists of the kaleidoscope. Esfahani often needed to produce swarms of notes that swirled around one another outrageously, but he articulated each one individually with pinprick precision, and with a proper sense of architecture about the big pieces, most notably Buxtehude’s variations on La Capricciosa. So all very good; it is just that a full morning of harpsichord becomes a bit much when everything is from the same period. Esfahani plays so much contemporary music: why not leaven the texture with some of that?
Worse, the overall atmosphere around this concert was distinctly odd. The windows were blacked out and the hall plunged into darkness save for one spotlight on the harpsichord, focusing the attention on Esfahani and his instrument as though they were holy relics to be approached in hushed awe, conscious that we as an audience were privileged. This wasn’t so much over-inflated as downright silly, and anyway the mawkishly reverential atmosphere was torpedoed by the fact that the surtitle screen above him was on the blink.
Aren’t we supposed to be past all that? We are far better off when we treat this music and these artists as superb examples of humanity rather than divinely bestowed icons.
Simon Thompson
The Edinburgh International Festival runs at venues across the city until Sunday 25th August. Click here for further details.
16.8.2024 – Takács Quartet, Queen’s Hall.
Haydn – String Quartet, Op.76 No.4 ‘Sunrise’
Nokuthula Ngwenyama – Flow (European premiere)
Schubert – String Quartet in G D887
17.8.2024 – Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord), Queen’s Hall.
WF Bach – Fantasia in E minor, F21
Handel – Chaconne in G, HWV 435 (HWV 1733)
Bach – Partita No.4 in D, BWV 828
Pachelbel – Chaconne in F minor
CPE Bach – Fantasia II in C, Wq 59/6
Buxtehude – La Capricciosa