St George’s Church, Kemptown, 20 May 2013

The Elias String Quartet were effectively in residence for the Brighton Festival, giving three recitals all drawing on the Beethoven Quartets. I caught the final concert, which, like the earlier ones comprised of three contrasting compositions from across Beethoven’s lifetime. At St George’s for this final event they brought us Op18 No5, Op59 No3 Razamovsky and Op131.

The venue was sold out and the audience highly enthusiastic. I say this because I found difficulties with their approach. While there is no doubting the technical skill and versatility of the players, their approach is more than simply spirited. They frequently seem to be attacking the works with such violence that the result is uncomfortable and overtly aggressive. The opening Allegro of Op18 No5 was often frenetic in its created tension and the Menuetto seemed exagerated in its phrasing. The gentler variations in the Andante cantabile worked far better but the movement was still hard driven, before an extrovertly aggressive final Allegro.

I had hoped that this might simply have been their approach to the earlier work. Certainly the atmospheric opening of the Razamovsky was impressive and the following Allegro vivace more civilised. However the Andante was unexpectedly stark and the cello pizzicato passages violent in their attack to the point of discomfort. A modern composer may ask for this level of ugliness but I found it out of place in Beethoven. The Menuetto produced some warmer phrasing with a better internal balance, but the hectic hell-for-leather approach to the Allegro molto did little to bring us to a satisfactory conclusion.

The Op 131 Quartet in C sharp minor suffered in exactly the same way. I can understand that there will be listeners who find this approach challenging and stimulating, but I regret it was not for me. BH