The Heath Quartet

St Nicholas Church, Brighton, 21 July

The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad turns up in some unexpected places. This pleasant evening’s entertainment was – at one and the same time – the end of the CMP Festival, the start of the Summer Schubertiade and part of the Cultural Olympiade! This may have accounted for the unusually large audience – that and the fact that this was the first hint of summer we had had for more than a month.

If the works had a rather brooding quality to them it was certainly in keeping with the recent weather. The Heath Quartet opened with Mendelssohn’s Quartet No 1in E flat, its gentle introspection seeming almost domestic in the warm acoustic of St Nicholas. The light skittering of the Canzonetta brought some brightness while the unexpected tensions in the Andante seemed like a family quarrel. At the end of the final movement Mendelssohn returns to the final bars of the first movement but this is no simple repeat. We have come on a brief but poignant journey with him and the rounding is reflective rather than repetitive.

Gyorgy Kurtag is the featured composer for the series and on this occasion we heard an arrangement of his 6 Moments Musicaux Op44. Introduced by Oliver Heath the pieces grew on me as they progressed. It was difficult to believe that Kurtag was accepted as a student on the basis of Footfalls, but the final three brief movements had greater insight and impact. Rappel des oiseaux uses a wide range of harmonics and overtones which reflect the discomfort of bird song as well as its beauty. Les Adieux is as effective for what it hints at and fails to say as for the actual snatches of melody we do hear.

After a lengthy interval we heard Schubert’s Rosamunde Quartet in A minor. Despite the programme note insisting this is a depressive work the performance was anything but. The opening movement is certainly introspective, as the early works this evening had been, but the following movements glow with a warmth and sincerity which belies any pain which might lie behind the composition. After a hauntingly wistful Menuetto, the finale was almost playful.

A charming movement from Haydn’s Op50 No4 was a bonus to send us out into the summer night.  BH

The other two performances in the Schubertiade bring Marcus Farnsworth to Charleston Barn on 28 July and The Heath Quartet with Philip Higham to Alfriston on 4 August.  www.brightonfestival.org