Review: polish and good harmony in successful quartet concert

How fortunate for Leamington to be included in Arcadia’s prize-winning tour to celebrate their 2012 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition success. Lucky, too, for Leamington to be treated to one of their competition- winning entries from Haydn’s Opus 76, followed by one from Beethoven’s Opus 18.

Choosing Opus 18 No 6 enabled Arcadia to demonstrate just how much Beethoven learned from the late Haydn quartets of the last few years of the 18th century. As a ‘pupil of Haydn’ - although Beethoven did say he never learned anything from Haydn! - he clearly put Haydn’s Menuetto development to good use in his own Scherzo development.

Arcadia’s playing is simple, clear and crisp, with skill to create the changes in level and pace required by the recurring themes of the Haydn Opus 76 No 5 Largo Quartet. Playing the Beethoven, Ana Török showed firm leadership and great industry as she coaxed her cellist, Zsolt Török to make a very strong contribution with a climax at pace.

Arcadia is on home territory when playing Enescu’s Quartet Opus 22 No 2, an elaborate work which took 30 years to complete. Once again, a strong cello contribution is called for with some delicate interplay with the violins. Rarely will we hear a performance of such success. Polish, good harmony and evidence of the influence of the music school of Cluj are determinants of that success.

Clive Peacock