Russian doom and gloom proves highlight of a merely good performance

Queensland Conservatorium

September 22, 2014

The Borodin Quartet is one of those rare ensembles that has become an institution, the very name connoting a performance of the highest standard. A pity, then, that this concert was only good, rather than truly great.

The concert opened with Beethoven’s String Quartet in G major, Op 18 No 2. The Op 18 set of six works were the very first quartets to be published by the great composer, and many have seen the collection as a statement, showing his understanding of the string quartet format.
No 2 finds Beethoven in a cheerful and unbuttoned mood – there are conversational gestures across the whole ensemble, and there’s an air of friendliness and grace to the majority of the work. Perhaps the Borodin Quartet was simply jet-lagged, but there were some fundamental issues in their performance. Intonation was occasionally somewhat questionable, but, less forgivably, the Beethoven at times simply ran out of puff. The third movement scherzo in particular seemed far longer than usual, and decidedly not its usual effervescent self. This is a movement that can burst from the pages and glow with colour, but it all seemed rather wan in this performance.

Naturally, the Borodin Quartet seemed more comfortable with the next item on the programme, Shostakovich’s doom-laden String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op 110. The original lineup of the Borodin Quartet had a close relationship with Shostakovich, and served as a sounding-board as he was writing many of his quartets.

Here, the quartet was at its most effective. The ominous atmosphere of the piece came through immediately, with the opening cello notes (spelling out Shostakovich’s name with his musical signature, D-E♭-C-B♮) creating a truly chilling mood. The terrifying Allegro molto and Allegro second and third movements were devastatingly brutal, and the first violin’s highly chromatic opening solo in the second movement was vicious in the way the bow seemed to rip across the strings.

The recurring tinnitus-like drones in the later movements were highly effective, and the quartet convincingly separated the droned note (passed around from player to player) from the rest of the piece. It seems simplistic to state it, but the sense of unease created by a continuously droned note while the rest of the ensemble moves around it is something to behold. At the end of this emotionally draining work, the audience seemed almost stunned into submission, and there was a cathartic silence before wild applause greeted this confronting piece.

The second half of the concert consisted of Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op 22. While the piece was played well, I suspect the work is not top-drawer Tchaikovsky – there are an awful lot of sections that seem to have a great deal of notes, but not a huge amount of music. It’s not until the last movement that the performance really came to life, with an outpouring of melody that seemingly the whole quartet had been awaiting. A good concert, but not a great one.