Belcea Quartet. Photo by Jillian Edelstein.
Rosalind Appleby – UWA Perth Festival: Belcea Quartet Plays Bartok
28 February 2006
The Belcea Quartet’s performance of the entire string quartets by Bartok was a centrepiece of the chamber music program at the Perth Festival. The acclaimed British quartet had contributed lively and intelligent playing to concerts earlier in the festival and their first solo concert was much anticipated. It’s the first Bartok cycle the quartet has done, and they will be repeating it at the Wigmore Hall later in the year.
Bartok’s early quartets are intense, moody explorations of atonality with rhythms and structures from folksongs integrated into the music. The Belcea Quartet delivered a high impact performance of the first three quartets on Saturday.
Belcea pushed through the reams of ideas in Bartok’s first quartet, masters of detail but always striding forward. Corina Belcea-Fisher led with cool assertiveness and impeccable technique. Cellist Antoine Lederlin was refined and responsive on cello. The thick depth of sound came from the inner parts and Laura Samuel on second violin and Krzysztof Chorzelski on viola gave pronounced and arresting contributions. With this kind of energy from each player the quartet was able to communicate the detail of every musical idea Bartok had to offer. With the full impact of Bartok’s creativity released, the result was quite overwhelming. Perhaps that is what critics mean when they say an ensemble have formidable talent: beware you may not have the strength to hear it all.
The second quartet was equally assaulting. Bartok changes ideas and styles every few bars according to the Belcea interpretation. Every phrase was given its own unique treatment, from dense chromaticism where the ear is screaming protest to moments of light sweetness.
The second movement was a manic, high-energy conversation, with jagged string interjections and clever use of silences for high impact. Long sinuous lines in the last movement (lento), demonstrated the quartet’s capacity for expressive phrasing. But while the volume was lower the intensity remained.
The third quartet began with a barely audible cello phrase joined soon by the other instruments, evolving into some of Bartok’s most creative writing. Pitch slides, muted harmonics, percussive tapping with the wood of the bow, trills that sounded like insects buzzing: the quirky ideas were jammed into a work lasting barely 15 minutes in total. Lederlin led convincingly from the opening bars with sonorous cello tone and rhythmic strumming. The quartet was unflagging in their energy and this miniature sparkled with incredible freshness.
The driving energy and impeccable technique of Samuel and Chorzelski, blending with the coolly intelligent leadership of Belcea-Fisher and Lederlin, make the Belcea Quartet a group of vibrant precision and assertiveness. Their powerful performance of Bartok’s string quartets was a world-class contribution to the Perth Festival.
- Rosalind Appleby
More Information
Belcea Quartet Plays Bartok
25 & 26 February
Government House Ballroom, Perth
Website: http://www.perthfestival.com.au/
