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On May 26, 2013, the VQ perform the hauntingly beautiful Sanctus, by Riho Esko Maimets, winner of the international VQ New Works Competition.  They are joined by cellist Jamie Walton for a performance of Schubert's masterpiece, the String Quintet in C Major, D. 956.

Join the VQ at St. Andrew's Church, Fulham on Sunday March 24 at 3:00pm for a programme featuring Mozart's String Quintet in G minor, K. 516 with guest Charles Sewart on viola, and the Elgar Quartet in E minor, Op. 83. Writer and broadcaster Roderick Swanston will give an informative talk on Elgar's music.

"In many ways, performing as a soloist is easier than performing chamber music. Chamber music is complex. There are so many possibilities in terms of ensemble and balance. Musicial choices and interpretations can change how you approach something in any given moment.  Playing secondary and then all of a sudden shifting to playing a solo can be nervewracking - coming to the forefront and then sinking back into the texture of the piece is not easy.  You are always adjusting sound, vibrato.  Playing solo offers possibly more technical demands, but, it is your sound, your voice, your personal interpretation, your projection - it’s very self-involved. You always have to maximize bow, vibrato, sound projections, etc.  This is, of course, not the case in a string quartet because you have to be thinking of three other people and what they are doing."

-Larry Dutton, violist of Emerson Quartet

Boris Tischenko - String Quartet No 5 Op 90 (1984) UK premiere

Dmitri Shostakovich - Piano Quintet Op 57

Pushkin House, London
October 30, 2012

Review by Edward Clark

Boris Tischenko was, for 50 years, a major figure in St Petersburg’s musical life. After his student years he continued studies with Shostakovich and reputedly became the great composer’s favourite pupil.

Tischenko remains little known outside of Russia, despite the accolade from Shostakovich. He has left a large legacy in a musical catalogue embracing seven symphonies, six string quartets, numerous concertos, ballets and lots of chamber/instrumental works.

It is a generous catalogue too, displaying the key elements of his musical style that he gradually developed from his early years under Khrushchev to his last period under Dmitri Medvedev. His work emanates from the tradition of Shostakovich and investigates further the idioms of parody, irony, anarchy often expressed with a sardonic smile.

Certain works, mainly in the symphonic cycle, have an epic sweep but generally Tischenko was a commentator on the human condition in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. He learnt from Shostakovich how to stay sane within an insane system and how to protect his integrity when so many others were losing theirs.

This is by way of an introduction to the UK premiere of the Fifth String Quartet, a mature work, written in 1984. It contains all the elements mentioned above within a classical model, even to the point of an exposition repeat within a sonata form first movement.

The beguiling opening melody gives way to the harshest dissonances. Contrast is very much sought throughout the whole work and, for whatever reason, he delegated the writing of the tune that begins the finale to his young son! Phrases are constantly repeated, melody is heard then obscured; there are abrupt changes in dynamics and between the highest and lowest registers of the quartet tonal spectrum. After all this deviation in mood and temperature the enigmatic, quiet ending causes puzzlement. It seems to encapsulate the composer’s desire to camouflage his sense of truth from the society around him, where hidden eyes and ears were always seeking examples of subversion.

In the same way we know little about Shostakovich’s true intentions in many of his major works, Tischenko’s art hides behind a mask of inscrutability. Many Russian artists, such as the film directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Alexander Askoldov share this quality of enigmatic meaning.

The Fifth String Quartet proclaims Tischenko as one of the most fascinating and enduring musical figures among recent Russian composers. No wonder Shostakovich came to admire him.

The successful impression left by this work was in no little due to the masterful playing of the Villiers String Quartet. Using parts supplied by the composer in 2007, the quartet gave a searing performance of a work of wide ranging contrast. Admittedly the acoustic was cramped and muddy but the ear adjusted to allow the separate stands of sound to become distinct and clear. Each player rose to his or her own challenge of interpreting music of great diversity that was, nevertheless, embraced within the composer’s carefully constructed web of collective sonority.

The second work was by the master himself. A major composition, the Piano Quintet, written in 1940, does not follow the rules handed down for such a combination from the classical and romantic eras. Opening with a long piano solo, elsewhere there are long stretches where the piano is silent. In many ways it is an awkward work because of its own idiosyncrasy; the musical challenges for sustaining a mixture of extreme astringency with almost naive simplicity are abundant in the score.

Julian Gallant and the Villiers String Quartet rose to these tasks with a wide ranging employment of skill and understanding. The thundering third movement scherzo duly delivered its intended mark and the other, outer movements were held together with poise and refinement.

Today’s audiences have learnt that the heart of Shostakovich’s achievement may well lie in his chamber music. His reaction to the hurt and suffering he endured throughout his life is superbly captured in these intimate, powerful works, not least in this great piano quintet. 

British Music to the Fore

British Music Society

June 23rd, 2012

by Edward Clark

....The Villiers String Quartet played a concert including the world premiere of a string quartet by Robert Still, Dialectic for string quartet by Alan Bush, finishing with Cherry Ripe by Frank Bridge. The evening concert gave the world premiere in concert of the Violin Concerto by William Alwyn, sandwiched between two Russian classics.

Robert Still should have had his centenary celebrated in 2010 but even the BBC shamefully neglected this interesting and possibly important English composer and little is heard of his music today. He wrote four string quartets but alas did not date any of them. Two are without key signature and very likely were composed after his studies with Hans Keller in the 1960’s. (He died in 1971).

Still is remembered mainly for two symphonies no’s 3 and 4, which were recorded by Sir Eugene Goossens (no 3 in 1969) and Myer Fredman (no 4 in 1971). Both are available on the Lyrita label and make rewarding listening. The earlier two symphonies remain in manuscript with No 2 yet to be performed.

He composed a substantial a catalogue however with plenty of variety in genres; orchestral, songs, chamber, choral, opera and piano solo. Gibbons and his orchestra perform the world premiere of the Violin Concerto with Efi Christodoulou in May next year.

So some sort of reappraisal is becoming available; the string quartet heard on this occasion is without key so sounds a little different to the usual melodically inspired style employed generally. There is plenty of interest however with a modernist tinge suited to the time (no doubt under Keller’s benign influence). It makes a vivid impression with a final slow movement of limpid subtlety.

The Villiers String Quartet prepared the performance thoroughly and delivered the work with panache and a high degree of confidence in the music’s worth, so important for any world premiere. Dialectic by Alan Bush is an early work but one full of interest in its one movement form. Considered by some as one of the great English quartets it possesses a warmth and expertise that allows it to be so considered; it is a work within the Villiers’ core repertoire and received a superb performance much appreciated by the audience. After the rigours of two contrasting but intellectually stimulating quartets the concert ended with the tuneful and touching Cherry Ripe by Frank Bridge....

2012 VQ New Works Competition

St Andrew’s Church, Fulham Fields, London, UK
29th April, 2012

by Edward Clark

Tucked away in suburban west London, in a recently restored church of great beauty, was a string quartet concert containing works of truly international, contemporary dimensions. This was the climactic concert of an innovative venture launched by the enterprising Villiers String Quartet, the quartet in residence at St Andrew’s Church.

A press release was released on-line calling for composer submissions from around the world. The upper age was 35, the piece had to be less than twenty minutes long, it had to be unpublished and it had to be for a classical string quartet. Fifty four submissions were sent in before the deadline of 5th January. All were read through by the quartet and six were chosen for the semi-finals. One movement of each work was uploaded onto You Tube and over the next thirty days people could vote on their favourite. 1200 votes were cast and three finalists were thereby selected for this concert. The winner received £500 plus a recording of his work and a performance next season.

First to be played was the longest work, by Riho Esko Maimets, a Canadian national of Estonian descent. His works opens with soft, mysterious sounds, a lament appears on the cello being joined by other instruments playing harmonics. A viola pizzicato heralds the main musical material which retains a ritualistic flavour throughout, drawn from various religious traditions.

Regression to the quiet opening merely confirms a desire for nonconformity towards usual expectations of even a modern string quartet. The audience should be congratulated on maintaining absolute silence for the ethereal end which quietly descends into a peaceful close.

The second performance by the American Henry Stewart is written about two images, the first a photograph by Gary Goldberg found in The Family of Woman. This begins with a drone on cello, joined by a solemn melody on viola with high support from the two violins; lyricism appears that has a post-Barber intensity. This then dissolves back into the opening refrain. The end is sudden and laconic.

The second movement is about a hallucination the composer had as a child. His vision was a great, terrible black fire on the horizon of an empty plain. It opens has the two violins competing for attention through the use of various string devices. Like in the first movement a kind of modernism gives way to a more lyrical approach, though this time of an urgent nature. Adams replaces Barber as the main influence here. There is a thrusting quality that generates genuine excitement. Calm descends into a stoic coda. Calm after the storm perhaps.

Chris Roe was inspired to write his Jetez! (French for Throw)  after seeing a couple of local French people amusing themselves by throwing stones and various projectiles off the edge of a high cliff near to the small French village of Auvillar.

Hence the opening possessed a busy, somewhat threatening impulse which barely relents throughout its very short time span. There is little content as such, more music for effect which is perhaps the main point of the inspiration. For our age of short attention spans it is undoubtedly effective.

And so to the judging by both the listeners at the well attended venue and on-line, the concert having been streamed on the internet.

It is hardly surprising not to find influences in each work: Arvo Part’s mysticism is clearly evident in Maimets's work; I have alluded to Barber and Adams in Threnody/Images by Stewart. No direct associations are to be heard in the final piece but it is so brief I was not really involved.

Maimet’s Sanctus was the deserved winner. It had a greater depth and sincerity than the other two works. It demonstrated an ability to work with original material and keep the attention of the audience, as shown by the rapt silence at its end.

The qualities of the Villiers Quartet were well shown in the performances, with evidence of careful preparation and excellent execution. No more so than in their buoyant and felicitous playing in the marvellous Haydn quartet which ended the concert in suitable style.

It's been an incredible season of music at St. Andrew's - we thank everyone for their support, especially the team at St. Andrew's as we have grown and transformed with them alongside the renovation works!  Here are some photos from our Haydn, Delius & Bush programme from May 27, 2012.  Photographs taken by the lovely Charles Gervais of Both Hemispheres Photography.

Photographs by Charles Gervais, Both Hemispheres Photography