Day two of the string quartet week at the Festival Midis-Minimes, and once again a young French quartet made its appearance. Last year, Quatuor Akilone had to cancel because the second violinist was not feeling quite well. Today all four young ladies showed up as promised with an unselfconscious Mozart straight from the heart.
On the music stands was the penultimate of the total six string quartets Composti e Dedicati al Signor Guiseppe Haydn (1785). You know, the collection that in Mozart's own words was the true fruit of prolonged and exhausting efforts. The autograph material also shows that Wolfgang struggled most with the string quartet in A major: the Menuetto was retouched, the variations from the Andante rearranged, and an alternative design for the finale consigned to the waste bin. But the final result is worth it. It was Haydn himself who, following a performance of this music, confessed to father Mozart: "Ich sage ihnen vor gott, als ein ehrlicher Mann, ihr Sohn ist der grösste Componist, den ich von Person und den Nahmen nach kenne: er hat geschmack, und über das die grösste Compositionswissenschaft." Beethoven too was considerably impressed, and used K464 as the blueprint for his own quartet in the same key from his opus 18. According to Professor John Irving, author of a classic monograph on the Haydn quartets, each generation discovers something new in this sextet of works: "[…] so 'universal' in its message that it allows each subsequent generation to reinterpret it according to the agenda of its own times, though without diminishing its essence. The 'Haydn' quartets continue to appeal to every time and to every taste […]" (p. 83-84).
Free and unaffected
The latter proved true once more this afternoon. An almost full house awaited Quatuor Akilone. Expectations were high, as the winner of the (for now) last edition of the Concours International de Quatuor à Cordes de Bordeaux (2016) is indeed expected to deliver something. And the four young ladies did not disappoint, quite the opposite. To truly grasp the beauty of Mozart's music, you must be free and unaffected. That is exactly how the quartet presented itself. Any hint of pretentiousness was completely out of place. The opening movement, both gallant and ingenious, was all refinement instead. The rhetorical niceties of this Allegro were brought out eloquently and came into their own most of all in the extended development, with its constant interplay between voice and countervoice. Subtle dynamic nuances enlivened the light-footed minuet that followed. Each phrase in the trio was laid down gracefully. Exclamation marks did not sound shrill, but kept the listener attentive with a gentle hand. The Andante is the much-praised heart of this quartet: a series of six variations in which the harmonic densification continually places new demands on the ensemble. Particularly the first two variations sang beautifully through a well-considered vibrato, though in the second variation the ostinatos in the second violin could have come through more clearly. In the bitter fourth variation, the nervousness was skillfully ratcheted up partly through attentive dialogue between the first violin and cellist, while the latter seemed wholly absorbed in the striking pulse of the ultimate variation. The contrapuntal finale (Allegro), yet another compositional tour de force, finally delivered a varied organ point; a display of alert and energetic musicmaking.
After some deep bows – incidentally equally well synchronized – Quatuor Akilone had one more piece in store. In these temperatures it is not opportune to pick up speed again, the young ladies must have thought. And so the carefree Adagio cantabile e sostenuto from Haydn's fourth quartet of opus 64 was performed: an elaborate aria that made one dream of a better world.
- WHAT: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), String Quartet No. 18 in A (K464)
- WHO: Quatuor Akilone [Emeline Concé (violin), Elise De-Bendelac (violin), Louise Desjardins (viola), Lucie Mercat (cello)]
- WHERE: Royal Conservatory, Brussels (as part of the Festival Midis-Minimes)
- WHEN: Tuesday 31 July 2018
- PHOTO: © Natacha Colmez-Collard