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# CLASSICAL NOTES: Nick Boston tunes into the best classical music
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/classical-notes-nick-boston-tunes-into-the-best-classical-music-4/
- Published: 2022-04-26T11:00:42.000Z
- Updated: 2022-04-26T09:59:05.000Z
- Description: Reviews and previews from classical music columnist, Nick Boston
- Author: Nick Boston
- Tags: Arts, Brighton Festival, Brighton Fringe, Music, classical, classical music, music, Nick Boston

### REVIEWS

Following on from their two volumes of **Felix Mendelssohn**’s String Quartets, the **Doric String Quartet** are now joined by **Timothy Ridout** (viola) for a disc of his ***String Quintets***. Mendelssohn wrote just two of these, going with the viola added to string quartet combination, favoured by **Mozart** and **Brahms**, as opposed to adding a cello, which **Boccherini** and **Schubert** did.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical1.jpg)

Chandos CHAN20218

Mendelssohn’s ***String Quintet No. 1***, composed when he was 17, came hot on the heels of the successful premiere of his glorious *Octet*. Ever the reviser, it was another five years before he published both. Its opening movement has a leisured warmth, with only brief hints of darker moods in its development, before it gently dances to a quiet ending. The *Intermezzo*, with its singing melodic idea is sensitive and elegiac. Intensity builds over warm lower strings, with the rhythmic pace of the throbbing repeated figure increasing. It never feels totally settled, despite its calm ending.

We’re in *A Midsummer Night’s Dream* territory in the *Scherzo*, with skittering fairy music led off by the first viola. The players here give this precision and clarity, yet avoid it becoming too dry, and there is some dramatic scraping from the cello, not holding back from a harshly biting timbre. Yet once again, the movement disappears into nothing.

Whilst not quite reaching the heights of exuberance of the *Octet*, the finale is full of joyful energy, set up by its lively triplet upbeat. **Alex Redington** on first violin shines in the rippling runs, and sings over the rumbling lower instruments. Energy levels ramp up and up, leading to the joyous conclusion.

The **String Quintet No. 2** came some 18 or so years later, with much of the same sense of energy but perhaps less of the unfettered joyfulness of his youthful works. The opening movement has an athletic first violin part over a tremolo accompaniment. The whirling triplet rhythms mean there is always a sense of movement, and these drive on, becoming more insistent, building to a full-on emphatic conclusion.

In the dancing, lilting staccato of the second movement, once again the players here avoid it becoming to picky, maintaining a sense of the melodic material and the dance in an masterclass of control. But it is the intense pathos of the slow movement – essentially a funeral march – that is most striking about this work. From a darkly pianissimo opening, cello scales rise and a slow relentless march emerges. There are drum-like battering effects, and heartfelt laments from the violins. A nostalgic A major melody provides some temporary relief, but it is short-lived, and the agitation of the march increases.

Yet Mendelssohn can’t leave us totally in the dark, as the movement suddenly turns at the end to a triumphant D major, before subsiding into a gentle, calm end. The finale, perhaps a little incongruously after the deep intensity of the previous movement, bursts forth with a jolly, energetic theme.

This theme provides most of the material here, and its contrapuntal development perhaps loses a little direction at times, but Mendelssohn eventually pulls everything to a suitably emphatic close. Throughout these fascinating and underperformed works, the Doric String Quartet and Ridout are alive to the Mendessohnian flashes of joy and energy, yet they are also alert to the finer detail. They know when to provide warmth, but also when to give edge to their sound too. Highly recommended.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical2.jpg)

First Hand Records FHR127

**Arc I** is the first of a series of three recordings by American pianist **Orion Weiss**. This first album features three works from the years 1911-1913\. Weiss describes the trajectory of the series as like an inverted rainbow, and this first volume’s ‘steps here head downhill, beginning from hope and proceeding down to despair’. We’ll have to wait for the next disc to see things reach their lowest before renewal and rebirth are promised in the final volume.

So here we begin with **Enrique Granados**’ (1867-1916) ***Goyescas, Op. 11***, a Romantic masterpiece of invention. From the warmly expressive, watery cascades of the opening movement *Los reuiebros* (Flattery), through to the macabre, stuttering dance of the final *Epilogo: Serenata del espectro* (Epilogue: Serenade of the Ghost), this monumental and atmospheric suite is full of Granados’ extravagantly ornamented and improvisatory virtuosity.

Weiss is commanding in the frenzied, passionate outbursts in *El Amor y la Muerte – Balada* (Love and death – Ballade), but equally delicate in the nightingale’s song of the fifth movement. There’s a skip in his step in the moments of courting in the opening movement, and he ends the suite with ominous tolling bells before disappearing with a final mercurial wisp.

**Leoš Janáček**’s (1854-1928) **In the Mists** follows – a shorter suite, and more introspective than the Granados. There are typical Janáček chromatic twists and turns in the melodies, and his motif of death, the falling minor third, features large. Weiss captures particularly well the claustrophobic, suppressed passion of the final movement, which breaks out with melismatic, singing outbursts and increasing intensity, before defeat in its dark sombre conclusion.

Weiss ends with **Alexander Scriabin**’s (1871-1915) **Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68**, *Black Mass*. Full of ‘satanic’ tri-tones and chromaticism, begins hopeful but descends into darkness and despair, and Weiss makes the low rumblings and persistent trilling effects feel chillingly ominous.

There is a real sense of the second, more hopeful melodic idea insistently writhing as if trying to escape, before being ultimately subsumed into a frightening march. This is an impressive display from Weiss, and sadly speaks to current anxieties and a sense of despair. *Arc II* promises to take us to the lowest point of grief and loss, but hopefully *Arc II* will bring us some hope for the future – much needed at present.

### CONCERTS: BRIGHTON FESTIVAL

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical3.jpg)

Pavel Haas Quartet (credit Marco Borggreve)

The **Pavel Haas Quartet** join pianist **Boris Giltburg** to perform **Piano Quintets** by **Brahms** and **Dvořák**, and Giltburg also performs **Prokofiev**’s **Piano Sonata No 2** (**3pm, Sunday, May 8** at **Glyndebourne**).

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical4.jpg)

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

**Brighton & East Sussex Youth Orchestra** are joined by pianist **Jeneba Kanneh-Mason** and **conductor Peter Davison** in the **Piano Concerto** and **Third Symphony** by African–American composer **Florence Price**, alongside **Gershwin**’s**An American in Paris* (* **7.30pm, Monday, May 9** at **Brighton Dome**).

Contemporary instrumentalists **Riot Ensemble** perform music by **Xenakis** and **Kaija Saariaho**, as well as Brighton-based composers **Peter Copley** and **Patrick Harrex,** and new generation composers **Outi Tarkianen** and **Anthony R. Green** (**6pm, Wednesday, May 11** at **All Saints**, Hove).

The **Marian Consort** **combine** the Baroque magnificence of **Schütz**’s **Musikalische Exequien** with the world premiereof specially commissioned work bycontemporary Irish composer **David Fennessy** (**8.30pm, Friday, May 13** at **All Saints**, Hove).

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical5.jpg)

Marta Gardolińska (credit: Stephan Polzer)

As part of her UK debut, Polish-born conductor, **Marta Gardolińska** conducts the **London Symphony Orchestra** in music by **Lili Boulanger,** and **Tchaikovsky,** as well as **Marc-Andre Dalbavie**’s **Concerto for Flute** (with the LSO’s principal flautist **Gareth Davies** as soloist), and Ukrainian composer **Valentyn Silvestrov**’s **Prayer for Ukraine**. (**8pm, Thursday, May 19** at **Brighton Dome**).

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical6.jpg)

Iestyn Davies

**La Nuova Musica** join forces with countertenor **Iestyn Davies**, for a concert of arias and instrumental music in **Handel**‘s **Unsung Heroes,* conducted by* **David Bates** (**8pm, Friday, May 20** at **Brighton Dome.**)

**In Damascus**, a moving elegy for Syria from composer **Jonathan Dove,** is performed by tenor **James Gilchrist** and the **Sacconi Quartet**. Set to words by the Syrian poet **Ali Safar** it provides a vivid account of life in a war-torn country (**6pm, Thursday, May 26** at **All Saints, Hove).** This is followed by a concert by oud player, **Rihab Azar**, of classical and contemporary Syrian and broader Middle Eastern music (**8.30pm, Thursday, May 26** at **All Saints**, Hove.)

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical7.jpg)

Ilan Volkov (Credit: Astrid Ackermann)

The **Philharmonia Orchestra**, conducted by **Ilan Volkov**, with soloists **Gweneth-Ann Rand, Duncan Rock**, and the **Brighton Festival Chorus** perform **Kaija Saariaho**’s **Oltra Mar** and **Vaughan Williams**‘ **A Sea Symphony** (**8pm, Sunday, May 29** at **Brighton Dome).**

**All Saints**, Hove and **Brighton Dome** lunchtime concerts feature countertenor **Hugh Cutting** (**Tuesday, May 10**), pianist **Joe Howson** (**Wednesday, May 11**), violinist **Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux** (**Thursday, May 12**), Ukrainian pianist **Alexei Grynyuk** (**Thursday, May 19**), **Glyndebourne**’s **Jerwood Young Artists** (**Friday, May 20**) and French harpsichordist **Béatrice Martin** (**Wednesday, May 25**).

**For Brighton Festival tickets, [CLICK HERE](http://brightonfestival.org/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)**

### BRIGHTON FRINGE

Lunchtime concerts at **Brighton Unitarian Church** include **Lyndsay Jeffery** (clarinet) & **Nick Andrews** (piano) playing **Weber** and **Paul Reade** (**12.30pm, Friday, May 6**) and **Simone Alessandro** **Tavoni** (piano) playing **Schubert, Mompou** & **Chopin** (**12.30pm, Friday, May 20**).

**Sussex Flutes** perform **Mozart, Piazzolla** and **Beeftink (5.30pm, Saturday, May 21** at **St Laurence Church**, Falmer).

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical8-e1650966596390.jpg)

Greenwich Trio

Concerts at the **Chapel Royal**, Brighton include **Imogen Whitehead** (trumpet) & **Jennifer Walsh** (piano) (**1.10pm, Tuesday, May 10**), the **Greenwich Piano Trio** playing **Brahms** (**1.10pm, Tuesday, May 10**), and the **Zoffany Ensemble** performing **Mahler** & **Brahms** (**1.10pm, Tuesday, May 31**).

The **Sussex Symphony Orchestra** perform **Fire & Fury: Gala Concert**, with music by **Wagner, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky** & **Stravinsky** (**7.30pm, Saturday, May 21, All Saints**, Hove).

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/classical9.jpg)

Ivan Hovorun

And concerts at **St Nicholas Church**, Brighton include a recital celebrating women composers, poets and characters by **Mehreen Shah** (soprano & piano) (**2pm, Wednesday, May 11**), **Ivan Hovorun** (piano) playing **Beethoven, Mendelssohn** & **Schumann** (**2pm, Wednesday, May 18**), and **Daria Robertson** (soprano), **Nicholas Buxton** (tenor) & **Zhanna Kemp** (piano) in a programme of well-known arias & duets (**2pm, Wednesday, May** **25**).

**For Brighton Fringe tickets,** [**CLICK HERE**](http://brightonfringe.org/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)

### MORE INFO

**For more reviews, comment and events, [CLICK HERE ](http://www.nicks-classical-notes.blogspot.co.uk/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)**

**Twitter @nickb86uk**

**Email –** [**nbclassical@hotmail.co.uk**](mailto:nbclassical@hotmail.co.uk)