February 2010

The Carduccis, who appear on the bar across the top of our website, have been great favourites of ours for some time, and over the years we have delighted in the marriage of Michelle and Eoin, and the birth of Charlie Denton (son of Emma and Matthew).  Indeed, at one concert Emma’s Mum was parked in the ‘Green Room’ – which is the very comfortable Council Committee room – looking after Charlie who was subsequently brought on to the stage to be admired by all.  Since then, the Dentons have had a daughter, Daisy, and Michelle and Eoin produced a daughter, Evie, just a year ago.  One more baby, and they have a junior quartet!

That the couples are happy and close is very obvious from the music they play, and last night’s concert was a superb example of a quartet truly at home with itself.  The opening Haydn quartet – ‘Joke’ – was delicately delivered, and of course, the final movement provided all the fun with its teasing endings which weren’t endings.

Matthew gave us a delightful and informative introduction to Ernest John Moeran’s String Quartet No 2 in E flat, which was, like the players themselves, an Anglo-Irish combination.  The first movement was pure English – Vaughan Williams crossed with Delius, and the second was a succession of wonderful Irish tunes which had our toes tapping, and it was hard to restrain some of the audience from taking to the floor for an Irish jig!

After the interval we were treated to Dvorak’s String Quartet No 12 in F Major ‘American’ and what a triumph!  The Negro melodies of the second movement sang in the capable hands of Emma’s ‘cello, answered by the wonderful lyricism of Eoin’s viola, all rounded off by the superb delivery of both violins.  It’s a wonderful work, delivered with consummate artistry by four superb musicians.

Just to keep us dancing, the concert was rounded off by an encore of Piazzolla’s Four- for -Tango which is the only piece he wrote specifically for string quartet. I had a quick squint at the music to see how they were instructed to create the fantastic effects – and sure enough against one chord it said ‘whip’!  If you missed the concert or want to hear this piece again, have a look at www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AC6yhNv20E.

So it all came to an exuberant end, and we would have loved more, but Michelle and Eoin had to head down to Perth to be reunited with Evie and the grandparents, and Matt and Emma went off with James for some Highland hospitality.

Our next concert is on Tuesday 16 March, when more old friends return to the Town House – Peter and Zoltan Katona, the virtuosic Hungarian guitarists.  Coincidentally, they have recorded 2 CDs with the Carduccis – it’s a small musical world!  Although we have not been notified that they are to be playing Piazzolla, I wouldn’t like to take bets that he won’t creep in somewhere!

Alison