Australian String Quartet pays tribute to Beethoven and other groundbreakers

Top Australian ensemble celebrates the musical legacy of some groundbreaking Beethoven.

The Australian String Quartet performing Beethoven in Sydney Opera House's Utzon Room.

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I started listening to chamber music in my late teens, but I felt Beethoven’s late quartets, like Marcel Proust’s monumental novel Remembrance of Things Past, were too intimidating to take on at that stage.

However a couple of years later I heard the 12th quartet Op 127 – the first of the five written in the last two years of his life – and everything changed. The effect is best summarised by the quote from the Danish String Quartet talking about their first encounter with one of these works.

“This late Beethoven quartet had a different flavour from that of most other music we had encountered. It felt as if it had fallen down from outer space on to our music stands, disconnected from music history and tradition.”

The Op 127, written in 1825, was at the heart of the Australian String Quartet’s first tour of the year titled Vanguard which aimed to show how this glorious and revolutionary work changed the face of chamber music, with repercussions that continue to this day.

On the program were two other works, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s String Quartet No 2 and the national premiere of a new work by Sydney-based Melburnian Harry Sdraulig, his single movement String Quartet No 2.

The Beethoven led off, and as second violinist Francesca Hiew pointed out, this was like serving the main course before the starters, but the ploy worked as there is no more arresting way to start a concert than with the rich and powerful introductory chord. Dale Barltrop and the ensemble gave full depth to it and the promise of remarkable things to follow, aided by the golden tone of the ASQ’s priceless quartet of Guadagnini instruments.

From where I was sitting I got the full benefit of Michael Dahlenburg’s cello and Chris Cartlidge’s viola, particularly in the pivotal variations of the second movement with their interweaving lines. Barltrop led with characteristic precision and sensitivity and his interplay with Hiew, backed by watertight ensemble work, was a highlight.

This was a sublime performance and, after a break, any thought that the rest of the evening would be an anticlimax was soon dispelled by Sdraulig’s new piece. This was 20 minutes with a lot of delights to unpack – singing solos from Dahlenburg and then Cartlidge, a riot of colours, textures and tricky rhythms, all in a style that was intelligent, accessible and entertaining.

The ASQ has had a fruitful relationship with the composer, having performed several of his pieces over the years, and it was apparent that Sdraulig had written this quartet tailored to their musical personalities, calling for precise ensemble work with each individual firing off the other. The work rocked along in the fast sections while there was a stirring emotional ingredient to the solo passages and the slow sections.

It made for an effective transition between the Beethoven and the final work by Korngold who, before moving to Hollywood in 1934, had established himself from the age of 11 as a Viennese sensation.

Like Beethoven he was a groundbreaker, writing the soundtracks to some Hollywood classics – The Adventures of Robin Hood and Anthony Adverse among them – and changing the face of cinema music. His second string quartet, however, is European to the core, giving nods to both Richard Strauss’s lush romanticism as well as to Johann Strauss, senior and junior, with a final movement which is a waltz on amphetamines.

Dense harmonies, irresistible fun rhythms and plenty of virtuoso moments all made for a flamboyant and exciting finale to a superb evening with the Adelaide-based foursome.

DETAILS

• CONCERT Australian String Quartet: Vanguard

• WHERE Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House

• WHEN July 2, 2024