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Ear-catching Details
MIKE WHEELER listens to Haydn, Ravel and Dvořák from the Tedesca Quartet
Thanks largely to the energy and enthusiasm of a local promoter, the Chester Green area of Derby is developing quite a flourishing musical culture of its own. The latest event - St Paul's Church, Derby, UK, 22 July 2023 - was a recital by the Tedesca Quartet: Nic Fallowfield, Clare Bhabra, Richard Muncey (all past or present members of Sinfonia Viva), and Jenny Curtis.
Haydn's Quartet in D, Op 64 No 5, got things off to a polished start. With dapper support from the other players, the first violin theme that gives the work its nickname, the 'Lark', had a good sense of lift. The second movement showed a real grasp of Haydn's knack for combining outward simplicity with emotional depth. Though the minuet could have done with a touch more earthiness - for all his sophistication, Haydn remained a country boy at heart - it moved gracefully, while the finale was sent bubbling on its way.
The Tedesca Quartet - from left to right: Jenny Curtis, cello, Clare Bhabra, second violin, Nick Fallowfield, first violin and Richard Muncey, viola
The performance of Ravel's Quartet in F that followed was full of ear-catching details. Octave doublings in the first movement came over clearly, rich sonorities in the more orchestrally-scored passages were never allowed to swamp the textural intricacies, and the withdrawn ending had an engagingly drowsy quality. The pizzicato opening to the second movement was rhythmically alert, with a probing account of the trio section. The abrupt figure that launches and punctuates the third movement was rather softened in its effect, but there was no shortage of inwardness and concentration in the movement as a whole. There was an airborne rather than a truculent feel to the finale's driving energy, the insistent 5/8 passages in particular.
Dvořák's F major Quartet, Op 96, known as the 'American', came up as fresh as ever in the Tedesca Quartet's reading. After a buoyant account of the opening movement, the steadily unrolling of the second served its wistful melancholy well. Like the minuet of the Haydn, that of the Dvořák - also a country boy - needed a little more mud on its boots, but the birdsong chirruped nicely, and there was plenty of swing to the dance rhythms. The last movement was propulsive without being hard-driven.
Copyright © 27 July 2023
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
