All Saints Church, Hove, 23 May 2014

As this year’s Brighton Festival draws to a close, so the Elias Quartet bring their Beethoven cycle to a successful and very gratifying conclusion. As with previous evenings, each concert covers a wide range of Beethoven’s string writing, on this occasion moving from Op18, via The Harp, to Op 130 and the Grosse Fuge.

The vast spaces of All Saints seemed a little intimidating for the intimacy of Op18 though the pp passages carried well. The Elias’ approach to Op18 No4 was to look forward rather than take a nostalgic view of Haydn’s writing, and the Andante was clearly linked to the first symphony. The Menuetto had an unexpected urgency about it, searching for something it never quite found. As such this made a very good bridge into Op74 The Harp.

The virility of the writing was much to the fore here, with the cello soaring beautifully at the end of the first movement. The Adagio unfolded seductively and had the gentlest of endings before the passion of the Presto and a fine viola solo as it moved towards the wistful conclusion.

With Op130 we were into a different world altogether. No problem here with the acoustic. It was almost as if the volume had been turned up so that we hear each part with greater clarity. After the intensity of the opening movement, the Presto came as a pleasant relief, immediately supported by the warmth of the Andante. The dance metre of the fourth movement was not overplayed, keeping it closer to the warmth of the earlier movements. The magnificent cavatina   was breathtakingly beautiful, a hint of melancholy throughout acting against any possibility of sentimentality.

The final Grosse Fuge brought the evening, and the series, to a triumphant climax. Beethoven makes severe demands upon both the players and the listeners in this work, but the rewards for all are amply worth the efforts on both sides of the stage. The warmth of the response was fully justified.

The quartet are recording all the Beethoven quartets for release later in the year. Those of us who attended the live performances will need no other encouragement to buy them as soon as they are available.