Alberni Quartet Gives Lunch-Hour Concert

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31728, 11 July 1968, Page 16

Alberni Quartet Gives Lunch-Hour Concert

The Aiberht Quartet of the University of Canterbury gave a lunch-hour concert in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre at Ham yesterday. The programme began with “Five Comments” by John Cousins, a lecturer in the University School of Music. Having worth-while compositions by composers in the university is one of the obvious benefits which accrue from having a resident string quartet; and Mr Cousins’s interesting little works wera well served by the players. These compositions were ingenious in construction and gave us kaleidoscopic glimpes of various aspects of technique in writing for strings. The tricks and devices came off successfully and gave the impression of confidence in approach. The search for unusual ’ sounds and for variety in tonal expression ranged widely, and a general impression at a first hearing was that Mr Cousins had produced music that was assertive, humorous, quizzical, and emotionally gripping by turns. Each work is very short and impressions are, therefore, fleeting. It is only through development that one composer’s work tends to differ strongly from another’s; and in modern idioms short extracts can become basically as alike as grey cats in the dark. However, each of Mr Cousins's

“Comments” made one wish that it were longer. A few programme notes might have helped in making clear just what he was commenting on. Sibelius’s Quartet in D minor, Op. 56 was played with warmth and with appreciation of fine detail. This was a performance which showed clear design. There was no spirit of high adventure in the first movement, but it gave a cultivated and comprehensive awareness and appreciation of an ordered tenor of life. The vivace movement opened quietly at speed, conveying exhilaration and unruffled enjoyment of the out-of-doors. An adagio of lyrical serenity followed, the players showing their fine sensitivity in tonal flexibility. This movement had a most appealing ending. The last two movements were strong in contrasted textures. The first was based on a melody like a folk-song and was given quite complicated contrapuntal development; and the last was happy and widely observant in character. —C.F.B.