The Diary of a Leicester Concert-Goer
4 Nov 2024
Have I ever in a long life ever heard a concert better than this? Should it not join a short stellar list which would include some of the outstanding moments it has been my good fortune to experience?
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Over nearly 30 years there has been on offer any amount of fine music making under the auspices of LIMF, so much so that one’s memory can sometimes fail when attempting to place the latest offering in some kind of pecking order. The period of Covid, with the inevitable difficulties that that created in regard to live concert going, muddied judgement further in the context of what was possible and what was not. In regard chamber music, it was the string ensemble perhaps that suffered most, firstly because of medical restrictions on groups and secondly because it also often put the greatest strain on beleaguered finances. Given the fact that within the music for string ensemble there is to be found by far chamber music’s greatest contribution to the wonders of classical music and it is hardly surprising that post Covid this form of music making has struggled on the road to recovery. Though one has been thankful that live music is back, the wow factor has until recently not always been particularly in evidence, at least to this concertgoer.
That was until this Autumn, with a Festival which had a great deal of fine music making in performances right up to Festival standard and in regard the concert programming evidence of a great deal of thought. That trend, to judge from the first three concerts, looks set to continue in this winter’s Lunchtime series and it was this general good cheer which set me a thinking as I stood waiting for a taxi home after the first appearance in Leicester of the quartet Fibonacci. My thoughts went simply like this: Have I ever in a long life ever heard a concert better than this? Should it not join a short stellar list which would include some of the outstanding moments it has been my good fortune to experience? Or am I losing my sense of proportion?
Well, no, I don’t think that I am! This was a concert to remember right from its very beginning in that the Hansom Hall was in the firing line. This was the first time its acoustic had been exposed to the full-on sound of a string quartet and there was felt to be a distinct possibility the venue would struggle to cope. In the event nothing could have been further from the actuality. What emerged was a wonderfully warm and detailed sound about which one of the players positively cooed when introducing the final work of the concert.
Of course, the quality of the playing of the ensemble had something to do with it! From the very outset their playing of Florence Price’s Adoration announced something very special despite this listener at least thinking that yet another performance of this work would amount to overkill. In the event the playing was of such quiet tenderness that the work emerged new minted. It proved to be also an excellent start to a concert given over from then on to music of the very greatest musical energy, constantly speaking in an utterly personal voice.
Again to my surprise, this was true of Mozart’s String Quartet No 16 in E major where this performance found ample evidence of the composer being already in musical territory hitherto unvisited. Time and again these players communicated the excitement of the music as unexpected turn followed unexpected turn, coupled of course with much that flowed delightfully without a sign of the labour that usually goes with composition. It was an enchanting experience.
However, on paper it was to be followed by a work that made much sterner demands on the listener, Bartok’s String Quartet No. 4. I struggled to remember when I had last heard a live performance of any of this composer’s Quartets. I think it must go back 30 to 40 years when The Lindsays were regularly in town and regularly playing 20c repertory that fascinated. Well, I felt back in that territory here with the opening movement clearly designed to blow one out of one’s seat. From mostly gentle rolling hills we were transported to the North Face of the Eiger. But my goodness the view was mind boggling even a century after its composition. One noticed that the two violins swapped seats for this final work which must say something about the musical unity this quartet has achieved. Whatever, they placed before us all the swings and turns and surprise of this work. It is true that the quartet communicated astonishing energy in many places but it was certainly not in your face all the time. The composer’s night music vein here was communicated with all wonder of this mysterious world and I have never before been made so aware of the composer’s delight in pushing things to their limit as in the fourth Pizzicato movement. But then these players over and over again mined the treasures of this work in all its facets and deservedly received an ovation the like of which I suspect is not always to be heard even today at the conclusion of a mid- life Bartok composition.
All that remains to be said is that to judge from that applause there are many Leicester concertgoers hoping that this quartet will be heard very soon again in our city.