Oslo String Quartet/Michael Collins (clarinet)

Quartet in F (unfinished) - Grieg

Quartet No. 12 in E flat, Op. 127 - Beethoven

Clarinet Quintet in A - Mozart

The two movements that Grieg wrote for his Quartet in F, as played by the Oslo String Quartet in St Stephen's last Tuesday, made one wish he had perservered. The scherzo movement in particular, with its underlying suggestion of a lively Norwegian dance and its piquant harmonies, sounded unusually advanced for the time (1891) and the audience of the day, still struggling to come to terms with the later Ibsen. The quartet does not sound as if it was written by the composer of the incidental music of Peer Gynt. Perhaps Grieg was advised that it would not be well received.

The playing of Beethoven's Op. 127 was notable for the way in which all the instruments blended, so that the four voices became one capable, as it were, of dividing itself into many. This unanimity, coupled with the Oslo's rhythmic alertness, helped the music to attain that level of transcendence that Beethoven seemed to be aiming at, without losing touch with earth. The players did not allow themselves to be seduced by detail, but showed a telling grasp of the work as a whole.

Michael Collins (clarinet) must know the Mozart Quintet better than most of us know our prayers, but his performance sounded as fresh as ever. The Oslo Quartet played with equal delicacy but too much restraint, so that Mozart's instruction that the strings be muted in the slow movement was hardly necessary. Oddly enough, it was in this movement that the clarinet blended best, at times almost, but not quite, disappearing into the texture in a manner that happily equalised the players and avoided that feeling of a concerto that occurred from time to time in the outer movements.