The Sanctuary, Queen’s Cross Church
Monday 28th November 2022
BROEN ENSEMBLE:
Dániel Mészöly & Michelle Dierx violins
Edward Keenan & Theodore Chung Lee violas
Balázs Renczes & Rob Wheatly cellos
PROGRAMME:
Mozart (1756 – 1791)
Adagio and Fugue in c minor K546
Brahms (1833 – 1897)
String Sextet No.2 in G Op.36
Anton Webern (1883 – 1945)
Langsamer Satz (1905)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
Verklärte Nacht Op.4
The third of eight performances presented by Aberdeen Chamber Music Concerts in the current season was given by the Broen Ensemble. They played to a gratifyingly large audience in Queen’s Cross Church, Aberdeen. Their programme was both fascinating and brilliantly well balanced. Each half of the programme opened with a shorter work for String Quartet, followed by a much longer one for String Sextet. All of the pieces had something, dare I say atypical, about them, especially if you merely glanced at the names of the composers responding to what comes conventionally to mind regarding them.
Mozart’s ‘Adagio and Fugue in c minor’ was not what you would generally expect from this composer especially as the opening Adagio was played with such vigour, starting with a dazzlingly strong introduction by the cellist. If you had never known of this piece, you would have probably associated it with a rather earlier composer, Bach perhaps? But possibly not. The playing was forceful and quite fiery followed by the Fugue, lighter and well-shaped but still not what you expect from Mozart. Viola player Edward Keenan explained the background of the work, composed at around the time when Mozart was working on his last symphonies. Was Mozart thinking about the music of Bach or about his own ‘Requiem’. It was certainly fascinating to meet with Mozart in this piece presented so strongly by the Broen Ensemble. Most performances of the work on the internet are for full string orchestra, some of those sounding a little more gentle, like Mozart.
Edward gave us a splendid introduction to the next piece in the programme, the ‘String Sextet No. 2 in G’ by Brahms. I was not present at Chamber Music’s previous performance by the Griller Quartet in 1947. I would have been two years old. I am now in my late seventies and I thoroughly enjoyed Monday’s new performance. Edward pointed out the wavering figure played by the viola at the outset. He got us to listen out for it throughout the work and indeed there it was, given many different colours by Brahms, especially in the first movement. There was a delicious melody that appeared first on the cello, played beautifully by Balázs Renczes, what a gorgeous cello tone! There were shimmers and pizzicato passages and I enjoyed the way in which they were passed through the instruments.
In the second movement, pizzicatos on cello or viola played an important part and there was an exciting trio section played with real gusto.
The third movement opened with the two violins against a sad undercurrent from a viola. It was contrasted with brighter and energetically played music leading into the finale to which the Broen Ensemble gave a marvellous open-air country feel. The introductory talk by Edward Keenan pointed up the many clever touches of thematic content moved between instruments, something which the players seemed to absolutely rejoice in. I was reminded that it was Schoenberg who once called Brahms ‘The Progressive’. This work certainly suggested something of that, making it perhaps unexpected?
The second half of the concert also began with just a quartet of performers playing ‘Langsamer Satz’ by Anton Webern. Mention that composer to many people and they will probably think of his later music, often very short and possibly quite glacial, like little musical sculptures carved from ice. This piece was quite different. It was caressingly warm and seductive. There were particularly delectable passages for muted strings contrasting with more open sounding romantic music. It was a really lovely performance.
Schoenberg is of course thought of as the man who invented atonality? But he wrote many earlier fully tonal works, for instance the marvellous ‘Gurrelieder’ with its final sprechstimme ending where the orchestral writing is the ultimate in musical impressionism. The final piece in today’s concert was his Op. 4 ‘Verklärte Nacht’ where he takes the sensuality of Wagner and drives it to the outer limits. Perhaps this is why he moved to serialism because in this piece he had gone about as far as it was possible to go. I do remember one lecturer saying that serialism was just romanticism with all the sugar or sweetener removed.
Well, I absolutely love this piece. I am not sure about the poetic story behind it, but as a musical painting of a glowing starlit night it cannot be bettered. I loved the way that although the playing was beautifully melded together, at the same time Schoenberg makes every player a special soloist within the music. The six players of the Broen Ensemble excelled at that. You could watch as each player made his instrument say something really individual throughout the performance. This made it something enthralling to watch as well as to listen to. This was music that invited you to come and wallow in it, and so I did.
I was actually surprised when the players decided to give us an encore. What could possibly follow what we had just heard? Well, the answer was to go for something as different as possible. This they did. It was a piece created by the Danish String Quartet, ‘The Peat Dance’. It was simple, bright and jolly, better to clear the mind for driving safely home.
ALAN COOPER