St Ann's Church, Dawson St
Haydn
- Quartet in G minor Op 74
No 3 (Rider)
.
Glazunov
- Prelude and Fugue.
Sokolov
- Mazurka.
Blumenfeld
- Sarabande.
Sokolov/Glazunov/ Liadov
- Polka.
Taneyev
- Piano Quintet
For their final tour of 2009, the RTÉ Vanbrugh String Quartet presented a welcome programme that registered on the normal-weird spectrum somewhere between unconventional and adventurous.
After a traditional opening with Haydn - the conclusion of the Vanbrugh's year-long bicentenary homage" - the rest of the first half was dominated by a series of encores, curious little Russian pieces you wouldn't normally hear, certainly not without clapping first.
It took a while for Haydn's "Rider" Quartet to settle, its serious, energetic first movement featuring some tuning skids. The slow second movement was sustained and expressively rich, above all when Haydn switches movingly from the major to the minor at the central point.Then came those Russian encores. In fact, the first was no lollipop, being a densely treated Prelude and Fugue by Glazunov and the most serious of a set called Les Vendredis ("Fridays"). A who's-who of Russian late 19th-century composers contributed 17 short pieces for the wealthy St Petersburg publisher Belaiev who hosted Friday night Russian quartet soirées. The Vanbrugh's sampling included an inconsequential Mazurka by Sokolov - Shostakovich's teacher - who also collaborated with Glazunov and Liadov on a Polka. And there was a bittersweet Sarabande by one Felix Blumenfeld whose music, the printed programme notes delicately indicate, "although pianistically attractive, has not outlived him".
The concert's second half was devoted entirely to Sergei Taneyev's big-boned, heart-on-sleeve Piano Quintet for which the Vanbrugh were joined by the English pianist Peter Donohoe. Unlike most of his contemporaries, including those who contributed to Les Vendredis, Taneyev was opposed to the idea of Russian nationalism in music and avoided appropriating folksong.
Despite this viewpoint his Quintet somehow still sounds Russian: big and serious, emotionally dark. Here the Vanbrugh were at their best. The long first movement builds to a melodramatic pot-boil, the Scherzo is playful and effervescent, and the Largo is like a solemn hymn over a walking cello-line. The massively climactic Finale - featuring trillions of notes for Donohoe, who was right at home - unveils Taneyev as Chausson's Russian brother.
