Tricks and treats in Australian String Quartet’s Halloween recital at St George’s Cathedral, Perth
A Halloween special from Australian String Quartet violinist Francesca Hiew and guest pianist Andrea Lam brought treats and a few tricks to St George’s Cathedral, Perth, on Thursday, October 31.
Without cellist Michael Dahlenburg, the three remaining ASQ principals – Hiew, lead violinist Dale Barltrop and violist Christopher Cartlidge – each presented a solo to Lam’s accompaniment, and combined in a rare violin-viola trio.
Hiew’s choice was Giuseppe Tartini’s 1713 Sonata in G minor, the “Devil’s Trill”; allegedly written after a dream brought Tartini face-to-face with a fiddle-playing Satan.
A deceptively innocent Larghetto pitched soulful violin over calming piano chords, swelling to fill the high-vaulted transept.
Hiew drew every tonal nuance from her Guadagnini instrument as elegant lines spilled from violin and piano; but sudden strident double-stopping gave warning of drama ahead.
The Allegro energico second stanza abruptly broached next-level engagement as nimble fingers set up a perpetuum mobile. Breaking to new heights, Hiew redoubled her efforts while Lam enjoyed the luxury of time in steady metronomic accompaniment, resolving in a dense chordal cadence.
Respite in a Grave interlude paused the pursuit of fate before harsh bow strokes announced the Devil’s trill over descending melody and urgent harmony. A throwback to the Grave dream theme brought calm amid the storm then plunged again into strident figures leading back to the diabolic trill.
Another return to restive rumination merely heightened the skirling frenzy of the demonic leitmotif, giving way to fiendish intensity in a multi-stopping cadenza, swirling around taut chords and discords; alternating furious and febrile.
Camera IconAndrea Lam at St George’s Cathedral for Australian String Quartet. Credit: Kane Moroney
Tormented strains finally gave way to warm harmony in both parts and a distinctly secular cheer.
More candy, anyone?
Cartlidge obliged with York Bowen’s 1918 Phantasy in F major. Mellow, meditative viola caressed the space to summon softly plangent piano chords, conjuring a timeless air in solo play then sharing a florid dance measure rich in embellishment.
Playful and solemn, this Great War eulogy evinced sad longing with outbreaks of grandiose nostalgia in expansive piano and lavish viola phrases, building to a lively jump cut.
Camera IconChristopher Cartlidge and Andrea Lam at St George’s Cathedral for Australian String Quartet. Credit: Kane Moroney
Lyrical whimsy followed, fading in a long glissando to meandering piano, darkly reflective.
Viola returned with a misty-eyed lament, testing the upper register then swooning low to summon Lam into the limelight.
Renewed attack injected a manic mood swing, almost but not quite jazz; rather a doleful idiom for a world out of joint, fraught and furtive to the last.
A short interval – respite from hard wooden chairs – ushered in Zoltan Kodaly’s Serenade for Two Violins and Viola, with rattling rhythms in stark triads opening as a fanfare, morphing to country dance then romantic ballad.
Camera IconDale Barltrop, Francesca Hiew and Christopher Cartlidge at St George’s Cathedral for Australian String Quartet. Credit: Kane Moroney
An urgent tremolo from Hiew sustained her partners in frenzied bowing then another sonorous viola ballad, picked up in violin over driving rhythm.
So much dynamic interplay could have employed four voices though the sparse trio setting lent its own ambience, fading to a quizzical cadence.
Barely-there second violin led in the Lento second movement, with earnest viola and an almost impudent lead in skittish dialogue over minimalist harmonic whispers. Virtuosic flurries tapped violin harmonics and plumbed viola depths as Barltrop soared in an ethereal soliloquy over earthy accompaniment.
The Vivo finale burst out of a quiet moment. Pulsating beats then lyrical melody rang the changes before harp-like pizzicato turned to a leisurely dance measure; passing around and picking up pace, then pausing to start again.
Camera IconDale Barltrop and Andrea Lam at St George’s Cathedral for Australian String Quartet. Credit: Kane Moroney
Bucolic energy fair boiled over but crisp, clear expression never wavered through frequent changes in tone and tempo; rhythms of day and night resolving in what Barltrop termed a “barn-burner” finale.
To conclude the program, Barltrop teamed with Lam for Grieg’s Violin Sonata No.3, opening in full-voiced Romantic expression. Gently intoned chords settled the mood then unleashed a flurry in violin, ebbing and flowing in pace and volume.
Silvery cascades down the keyboard fell to profound depths, drawing darker motifs from violin then rising in temper to a rollicking reprise and dramatic dismount.
The Allegretto middle movement dawned in a limpid piano ballad, almost a nursery rhyme, echoed in violin over sparkling arpeggios. Variations ran through melodrama to delicate whispers, the duo intensely connected at each turn down to an infinitesimal cadence.
Call and response continued in the finale, Allegro animato; liquid streams coalescing in mercurial flows to mix and repeat. Quiet moments gave way to urgent figures shared between players who raced to the exits in a fit of vertigo to explode amid a firecracker conclusion.
Closing with two voices rather than four made for a slight anticlimax; a novel challenge for a quartet, who continue their tour this month in the Eastern States.
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