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Haydn, Schubert and Ravel: Tippett Quartet (John Mills and Jeremy Isaac (violins), Dorothea Vogel (viola), Bozidar Vukotic (cello), Wigmore Hall, London, 19.12.2008 (BBr)

Haydn: String Quartet in C, op.20/2 (1772)
Schubert: String Quartet in A minor D. 804 (1824)
Ravel: String Quartet in F (1902/1903)


It says something about the strength, integrity and power of a musical performance when, whilst enjoying a drink in the Cock and Lion, after a Wigmore Hall show, a member of the audience of that concert walks up to you and your companion and enthuses for a few minutes about what we had just heard. Such was the impression made by tonight’s programme – you simply had to share your enthusiasm with someone.

Starting with early Haydn it was obvious that the Tippett Quartet – still a young group in the grand scheme of things – had spent time thinking about what it was going to play and how it was going to present that music. Haydn’s Opus 20 set of quartets might seem an easy option but it certainly isn’t. This work, despite an outward air of easy going melodiousness and happy japes, has much in it to catch out the unwary performer. The striding first movement was well handled, beautifully led by the cello, the music really allowed to sing. The slow movement is of deep seriousness and comes as a shock but the players here placed it perfectly, making it a logical continuation of musical thought – not always an easy thing to do. The finale was especially impressive, being marked to be played sotto voce until the very end and this is what impressed most about the Tippett’s playing – their ability to achieve a real pianissimo, whilst still allowing the audience to hear every strand, every nuance, of the music clearly and precisely.

These same qualities were carried into Schubert’s A minor work. There is an ineffable sadness to the opening theme, as it oscillates between minor and major, and, despite a little reticence from the first violin, the atmosphere was well built. This performance of the first movement had a real symphonic feel to it and all four players gave everything to make the music live before us. The variations on a little tune from Rosamunde, which makes up the slow movement, seemed very small beer after the marvellously nervous Allegro, but we were given a quite superb Minuet, filled with lots of the melancholy of the first movement. The finale is an odd piece for it’s a delightful, and gentle, rustic dance, and it’s difficult to give this movement the lightness it deserves because of what has gone before. Bbut tonight the Tippetts did it proud; it was light and buoyant, with a lovely playfulness: the rather perfunctory ending came as quite a shock. This was a splendid performance by any standard.

After the interval we moved forwards nearly a century to Ravel’s only essay in the form. This is a true virtuoso work and it received a big performance, the wild finale being especially exciting and giving a sense of fulfillment not just to the work but to the whole concert, for it was the only time the Tippetts pulled out all the stops and let their collective hair down in a barnstorming account of this thrilling music.

A too small audience was most appreciative, as well it might be. This was a superb exposition of three fine quartets and with the intensity and thoughtfulness the players put into their interpretations one is already salivating at the prospect of their next show.

Bob Briggs


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