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Prizewinners at the 2023 Carl Nielsen international Chamber Music Competition, the Kleio Quartet, began their Buxton Festival recital with a deeply thoughtful account of one of J S Bach's organ chorales: 'O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross' (O man, bewail your great sin), BWV 622 – St John's Church, Buxton, UK, 6 July 2024.
Haydn in one of his more serious moods followed, in his String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76 No 2, known as the 'Fifths', from its opening theme. After getting the first movement off to a vigorous start, the quartet looked deep into the music's recesses, as well as opening up in the outgoing moments. The second movement's minuet-style theme was both courtly and wistful, and the brief passage of dialogue between the upper and lower pairs of instruments towards the end of the movement was deftly brought off. The players didn't try to smooth over the rough-edges of the so-called 'Witches' Minuet' third movement, with the trio section turning into a rustic hoe-down. The end of the minuet's repeat was appropriately abrupt. The finale was full of driving energy, with the leader, Yume Fujise, enjoying the opportunity for some upward slides. With the final turn to the major key, a gentle smile came over the performance.
Dvořák's String Quartet in G, Op 106, was the last one he started, and the penultimate one he finished, taking time out from the A flat Quartet, Op 105. After a fresh, amiable opening, the players found an appropriate balance between the music's boisterousness and lyricism. They eased into the introspective second movement gently, savouring the music's poignant harmonic turns. There was plenty of bouncy, dancing vigour in the third movement, and a wistfully intimate tone in the trio section; the minor-major key-shifts made their mark without undue emphasis. After an introspective slow introduction, the main body of the last movement was crisp and incisive. The withdrawn central passage, glancing back to the first movement, was poignantly handled, before the music gathered it energies for the exuberant ending, delivered with panache, by an ensemble that is clearly going places.
Copyright © 16 July 2024
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK