Return by Alberni Quartet

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33241, 2 June 1973, Page 13

Return by Alberni Quartet

The Albemi String Quartet was the resident quartet at the university in 1968, and three of those players, Howard Davis, Berian Evans, and Gregory Baron, together with a newcomer to the group, Peter Pople, returned to give a recital in the University Hall on Thursday afternoon. The reconstituted Albemi Quartet seems to be just as good as our memories of the old one, and a large audience gave the players a warm welcome and approbation of their playing. Michael Tippett’s String Quartet in F sharp minor and John Dankworth’s String Quartet No. 7 (1971) were played. The Tippett Quartet began with flowing part-writing, imitative and fresh in style, spaced so as to give rich sonorities while preserving clarity. It had a soaring quality, surging forward without nagging or goading, and created a pleasant atmosphere of well-being. The second movement was gentle, yearning, well-knit, but seemingly inconclusive. The third was lively with humour and adventurous flow, and the last movement had very much the atmosphere of the first. It ended in an atmosphere of peaceful resignation. The Albemi Quartet plays

as a disciplined and sensitive team. They avoid insipidity of tone but keep a splendid balance both in volume and in tonal quality. The texture of the playing is always clear and an important inner part can come through without any forcing. The phrasing is clear and sounds uncontrived, and every moment holds promise of good things to come. Their sounds carry naturally and easily through the hall. In rhythm their playing is stirring and alive. On the whole the Dankworth Quartet did not offer as much as the Tippett on a first hearing. It opened harshly, but with challenge, without seeming to arrive anywhere conclusively. There was a fair degree of variety in the writing, and it always semed as though it were going to offer a lot, but did not always deliver. Further acquaintance with it, however, could easily be much more rewarding. The composer was certainly very well served by the performers. —C.F.B.

World Cup.— The triple champion, Brazil, will face a testing warm-up In preparation for next year’s World Soccer Cup defence when it leaves Rio de Janeiro today for a nine-match soccer tour of Africa and Europe. Heading the opposition are Italy and West Germany.