String quartets come and go. In recent years, we’ve seen the rapid rise and equally swift demise of several young outfits usually formed when collegiate colleagues get together. It is nonetheless remarkable that some groups have achieved astonishing longevity – the Alban Bergs and the Borodins, for example. Indeed, the Amadeus Quartet passed into the national consciousness. Now celebrating its 25th year, the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet is surely destined for similar seniority. This is despite the recent axing of 40 per cent of its workload by employer, Irish national broadcaster RTE.
The 17 quartets of Beethoven form the core of any quartet’s repertoire. It is fitting, then, that the Vanbrughs should mark this anniversary by revisiting the music they first recorded in 1996, performing the complete cycle in a series of concerts in Cork, Dublin and at the Cadogan Hall in London.
The first programme was nicely devised, having an early work, one from the middle period and finally one of the titanic late quartets. Opus 18 No 1 began buoyantly, with glittering playing from first violin Gregory Ellis, matched perfectly by the other players in security of intonation and varied colour throughout the Andante Variations. The fugato finale set off at a cracking pace and maintained the ebullience throughout.
The F minor Quartet Op 95 is famously intense (Beethoven called it quartetto serioso) and here the arresting unison opening was compelling while adhering to the marking of forte and not the fortissimo sometimes heard. The tense argument of this almost visceral movement was gripping and the music is certainly in the Vanbrugh’s veins and sinews. Christopher Marwood’s mezza voce cello infused the Allegretto with mystery and there was real beauty in the lines from Keith Pascoe, the other violinist, and viola player Simon Aspell. Capturing well the sense of unease as the Larghetto gives way to the Agitato, the major key was reached with the required lightness and closed with joy.
Much has been made of the searching nature of the late quartets, riven as they are with apparent incongruities of tonality and form, sometimes puzzling, even outrageous and seemingly incomprehensible. However, the Vanbrughs unfolded the E flat Op 127 quartet with utter conviction. They know the start, the middle and the end of every note in this piece and effortlessly guided the spellbound audience through each of the music’s byways. The musicianship here combined meticulous preparation with an astonishing sense of discovery – not least during the Adagio which provided the evening with an emotional centrepiece, anchored by Ellis’ formidable playing. Should the Vanbrughs and other high-end cultural institutions like them survive swingeing budget cuts that see anything without a price tag as non-essential, I look forward to hearing them again in another 25 years.
Beethovenians should get to the Cadogan Hall for the remaining concerts in this series.
The Vanbrugh Quartet Complete Beethoven String Cycle continues until November 10.
See www.cadoganhall.com for details.
