The Cantenir Quartet

Press, 26 July 1986, Page 8

The Cantenir Quartet

The Cantenir Quartet in concert at the Great Hall, Arts Centre, July 25,1.10 p.m. Reviewed by Philip Norman. The opening moments of yesterday’s lunchtime concert confirmed the suitability of the Great Hall acoustics for string sound. The Cantenir Quartet of Mark Menzies (violin), Martin Risely (violin), Tony van Bureu (viola), and Janet Sim (cello) easily filled the hall with a rich, resonant tone. The string quartet, named of all things after the eighteenth-century Rumanian prince responsible for introducing musical notation into Turkey, presented a remarkably polished account of two substantial works. In fact, one work would have been sufficient, for the combination of Mozart’s Quartet in G major, K 387 an< Borodin’s Quartet

2 in D major gave a running time for the concert of well over the customary 40 minutes. Thoughts of expiring parking metres may well have competed for attention with the closing two movements of the Borodin quartet in the minds of many in the audience. Certainly the collective concentration level in the venue declined noticeably in the closing 20 minutes. Of the two works presented, the Borodin quartet was especially satisfying for the obvious commitment to the music shown by the players. The opening and closing movements brought sounds of arresting power, capped by climaxes of commendable passion. The scherzo was attacked with zest, and driven by a buoyant pulse. A tender, well controlled sound characterised the

group’s performance of the notturno movement. The Mozart quartet met variable success under the fingers of these four young local musicians. Their attack on many of the phrases in the allegro movements inclined to be a shade impetuous. While •the group’s attention to dynamic shading was creditable, a number of the abrupt changes in amplitude appeared as unnecessarily melodramatic. Nevertheless, the playing maintained a lively quality throughout. The meeting of technical finesse and hearty spirit was at its happiest in the opening two movements. The first movement produced some sizzling scalic passages from all four instruments; the second featured finely ascribed melodic shapes from particulaifiy the first violin.