Unanimity From White To Grey

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday October 25, 2006

Reviewed by Harriet Cunningham

CLASSICAL

BORODIN QUARTET

City Recital Hall, October 23

RUSSIA'S Borodin Quartet returns to Sydney, after an absence of 13 years, with a program of uncompromising weight: late Beethoven, even later Shostakovich. It is the antithesis of triteness - the culmination of two composers' creative lives.

It would not be unreasonable to expect a kind of definitive intensity from this band of musicians who, in an earlier incarnation, studied with Shostakovich himself. But the Borodin's playing is anything but heavy. In the second movement of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132, the super-smooth tones transformed the clumpy Landler into a sort of folk dance for angels in 100 shades of white. And in the riveting central movement, Heiliger Dankgesang, the quartet moved from near flatlining to renewed life in the Neue Kraft Fuhlend, even feeling well enough to switch on the old Viennese charm.

The group's range of tone colours is commanding - always smooth but never glossy or strident. Indeed, the leader's operatic outburst in the Allegro Appassionato seemed almost by the by - a flash of brilliance from a musician who has no need to insist on his mastery.

From Beethoven's 15th to the Shostakovich String Quartet No.15 in E Flat Minor, Op.144, and from 100 shades of white to 1000 shades of grey. It was here that the Borodin Quartet demonstrated impressive unanimity - four musicians, one instrument. At the end of the first movement, when each player took a turn to contribute an explosive crescendo, if you closed your eyes and in spite of the range of pitch it could have been one instrument, so consistent was the shape of each note.

The quartet chose to perform their compatriot's final quartet by candelight, which had the effect of further shutting down the senses, the colours and distractions of a public place to focus on the infinitesimal shifts in tone, the almost stationary movement.

No vibrato, no phrasing, no projection, and yet the terrible greyness somehow gripped. Indeed, after a desperate Epilogue and dark silence the house lights and applause seemed unbearably loud and bright.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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