Perth Festival of the Arts: Review of Tippett Quartet coffee concerts in Perth Concert Hall

May 31 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

THE Tippett Quartet was formed in 1998, the same week in which the composer, whose name they took, died.

They are a group of young, highly talented musicians who combine new works with mainstream repertoire and play with immaculate intonation, compelling virtuosity and total commitment.

For their residence at the Perth Festival of the Arts they brought two contrasting ‘coffee’ concerts: the first featuring music by Hollywood composers better known for their film music than their classical work and, in particular Bernard Herrmann, whose centenary is celebrated this year. The second concert consisted of more mainstream works with string quartets by Haydn, Beethoven and Tippett.

Miklós Rózsa was nominated for 16 Oscars, winning on three occasions. His music for the epic films Ben Hur, King of Kings and Quo Vadis have gone down in cinema history. His string quartets, however, are still little known so it was a rare delight to hear his Second String Quartet played with great vitality and aplomb by the Tippett Quartet.

The four-movement work has many attractive moments with a Bartokian percussive first movement, a lyrical slow movement, delightfully played by Julia O’Riordan, followed by a rhythmical Scherzo and lively finale. Precise, rhythmical playing from the quartet was matched by lyricism and sensitivity of the melodic sections.

Bernard Herrmann is well-known for his Alfred Hitchcock film scores, in particular the chiller ‘Psycho’. A suite from the film arranged by Richard Birchall, is a short one-movement vignette in four sections beginning with a prelude (the frenzied drive with the stolen money), the spooky atmosphere of the Bates motel, the famous shower scene and the final eerie and chromatic finale (relating Bates madness).

The music was played with electrifying audacity, complete with screeching glissandi and heart stopping expectancy capturing perfectly the excitement of the movie.

The other work featured by Herrmann was his Echoes for string quartet, a slow moving and contemplative piece in several distinct episodes, originally written as a ballet. Again, the Tippett Quartet brought out the varying moods with great care and attention to detail from its mournful opening to the beautifully crafted fade at the end, but overall the work felt it should accompany a film rather than a ballet.

A short Astor Piazzolla piece Four for Tango was included, perhaps mainly for the screaming string section so reminiscent of Psycho, but it was played with great pizzazz and was great fun.

The final work in this first concert was Erich Korngold’s Third Quartet, another underrated ‘serious’ composer who made his name in Hollywood. His third quartet has some of the epic quality and swashbuckling style of the great Errol Flynn films, complete with big sweeping themes and lush, romantic melodies.

The Scherzo had definite allusions to Dvorak’s New World Symphony, whilst the slow movement ‘like a folk tune’ was beautifully controlled and pure Korngold. The Finale was played with great vibrancy, passion and panache by the quartet.

The Tippett’s second ‘coffee’ concert began with Haydn’s ‘Sunrise’ Quartet, producing yet again excellent ensemble playing from the four players who, throughout their performance, have a total awareness of each other. The reading of the Haydn appeared a little serious and lacked some of the spontaneity of the earlier concert but overall it was played with sincerity and Haydn’s charm was always present.

This was followed by Sir Michael Tippett’s First Quartet, composed in 1935, and originally in four movements, but revised to three movements in 1943. It is a work full of emotional character and opens in dramatic form that continues throughout with its driving rhythms and dense chromatic textures.

The slow movement, a lovely paean of melody, gives some relief and was played with great control, whilst the fugal Finale produced brilliant technical virtuosity.

The final work was Beethoven’s Op.95 Quartet ‘Serioso’, and here again the Tippett Quartet played with total conviction and great gusto. It brought to a perfect conclusion these two excellent ‘coffee’ concerts from four highly talented young musicians.

Peter Rutterford