City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney, August 19, 2013

The Elias String Quartet came out of Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music in 1998 and has quickly earned a reputation for artistic excellence, particularly as a result of a series of incandescent performances at London’s Wigmore Hall. Their discography is still not large but it’s hard to find anything from Haydn to Schumann to Benjamin Britten, or even new music by Huw Watkins, which has not drawn superlatives from the critics. One of Musica Viva’s great talents is to spot these “up and comings” and give Australian audiences the chance to judge for themselves. This concert of Haydn and Beethoven, framing a quartet by Australian composer Matthew Hindson is as good a showcase as any and easily earns a recommendation ahead of a substantial national tour.

There’s nothing like the use of a word like “melancholy” in a program note to attune the ear to what follows. Haydn’s old age, we are informed, was laden with feelings of nostalgia, homesickness and even with persistent rheumatism. Once furnished with this information you cannot fail to listen out for it in even the jauntiest of movements – the regular long sighing phrases that...