There could really be no finer way to round off this year’s Dante Festival than this quite superb recital in the delightful setting of Tavistock Parish Church.
Opening with Matthew Taylor’s Quartet No 5, the players created some striking textures and sonorities, contrasting moments of great power with those of sublime delicacy.
Schumann’s A major Quartet combines some gloriously passionate writing with passages of angry furore, but the Dantes, under the inspired leadership of Krysia Osostowicz, proved they were completely at one with the composer’s often conflicting thoughts, in a performance of heartfelt sincerity.
Violist, Tim Boulton, joined the ensemble for a special four-viola arrangement of a G major Telemann Concerto, with Krysia Osostowicz and second violin, Giles Francis, swapping over, alongside regular quartet-violist, Judith Busbridge.
A novelty item it might have been, but the precision and tautness of the exacting contrapuntal writing was immaculate throughout.
Mozart’s G minor Quintet is arguably one of the finest pieces of chamber music written and is regularly encountered in the concert hall.
This performance, with second viola, Tim Boulton, and some impressive support at the bottom end from cellist, Bernard Gregor-Smith, must surely rank among the very best, from the pathos of the opening Allegro, the Minuet’s quirky accents, the seemingly high-spirited finale, and the ravishing tranquillity of the slow movement – all stunningly reproduced by these absolutely first-rate artists.
PHILIP R BUTTALL
