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Phillip T Young Recital Hall
July 28, 2016
In 1986 Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister of Canada, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mikhail Gorbachev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Ronald Reagan was President of the USA.
Fast forward thirty years and Justin Trudeau is Prime Minister of Canada, Theresa May the newly-incumbent Prime Minister of an increasingly dis-United Kingdom, the Soviet Union has been consigned to history and the USA, nearing the end of the second term of its first Black President, is about to make history once again by electing either its first female or its first certifiably insane President.
In a rapidly-changing world it is good to be able to rely on a few constant factors and, since 1986, one of those — and far from the least — has been the Lafayette String Quartet.
On Thursday evening, the Lafayettes opened their thirtieth anniversary season with a superb concert for the Victoria Summer Music Festival.
The evening opened with Haydn's Op.33 No.2, dubbed the "Joke".
Unusually, possibly uniquely in my experience, I was hearing the same performers play the same music within the space of just six weeks.
Fine though their performance in June was (you can read my review here) this was undoubtedly superior. Not in the first and third movements — I wrote in June that I did not expect ever to hear these performed better and I stand by that; although perhaps the development was just a little more teasing and the andante, especially at the close, was unutterably lovely.
The scherzo, though, no longer featured the hint of archness that I detected (or at least, though I detected) then and the portamento in the violins was just a hair cheekier, to great effect.
And, for whatever reason, the quartet decided to take the alternative approach to the finale's end(s), signalling by their body language that, while apparently over, there was more music to come. To my mind this worked better: it was just as amusing and had the advantage that the audience did not feel that they had been made fools of.
This was a performance that veered about as close to perfection as I imagine it is possible to get.
Jean Coulthard's Threnody, composed mainly in the 1950s, although not completed until the late 1960s, is cast in a somewhat conservative idiom, which might lead one to think it had been written several decades earlier.
My reaction to the music was similar to the way I felt when the Lafayettes last played it, about eighteen months ago (review here): despite some very moving passages, the work still strikes me as somewhat overlong, that Coulthard could have used the services of an editor.
Nevertheless, the Lafayettes clearly believe in the work. The opening lament was exquisitely played, with total concentration; the intensely focused second movement seemingly had the audience collectively holding its breath, while the volatile and forceful finale, even if one felt the way I do about the work, was really rather moving.
Finally — or perhaps I should say last but most — came Ravel's sole exercise in the quartet medium.
There are a few pieces of music that, for me, are perfection itself; not necessarily the most profound music, but music which, by changing a single note, would somehow become less. For me, Ravel's Quartet is one of these perfect works (Schubert's "Trout" is another).
The Lafayettes closed their concert with a superb account of the quartet. The opening, poised and quite delicious, led to a first movement which was, in some ways, quite analytical, revealing a good deal of detail often inaudible; the coda found the quartet luxuriating in the sheer beauty of the music.
The second movement, marked assez vif, was on the quick side, although the trio was very slow indeed, enabling the listener once again to hear much inner detail. The final chords were very — perhaps, just perhaps, slightly over — emphatic.
The slow movement seems almost the very definition of the word "languid" and, for me, always summons up a hot summer's day in the South of France. This was, climatically speaking, a perfect day for the music, which was so gorgeous that time stood still.
The finale was almost fierce, but far from unrelentingly so, and was full of rhythmic vitality.
I had high expectations of this performance and was not even slightly disappointed.
For a richly-deserved encore, the quartet gave us the finale from Mozart's "Hunt" Quartet. Marked allegro assai — which, coincidentally, means pretty much the same as Ravel's assez vif. Its life and elegance brought the evening to a charming conclusion.
Victorians should count themselves fortunate indeed that such an outstanding ensemble has made its home here for the last quarter of a century. Thursday's enthusiastic reception should confirm, if they had any doubts, that they are indeed appreciated here on their home turf.
Here's to many more years of outstanding chamber music from these four fabulously talented women.
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