Rochdale Music Society Concert: Victoria String Quartet

Rochdale Music Society Concert: Victoria String Quartet

Rochdale Music Society’s 40th Anniversary Season’s second concert evening featured four local musicians of international standing who each contributed their technical brilliance to delightful performances of music by Mozart, William Alwyn and Schubert.

Violinists Benedict Holland and Catherine Yates with violist Robin Ireland and cellist Jennifer Langridge brought their combined experience of decades of playing in renowned ensembles and orchestras to provide an experience which was afterwards described by one member of the audience as having been “worth the ticket money for just for the first five minutes!”

Graham Marshall from Rochdale Music Society said: “Comments like this are much appreciated. I heartily agree.

“The whole evening’s music-making was on the highest level of technical and artistic delivery.”

The concert began with Mozart’s E flat Quartet written in the wake of his meeting with Haydn and finding the influence of the older man’s music exciting and illuminating. From the first movement’s somewhat mysterious opening through the harmonious conversation between the instrumentalists that quickly develops into an elaborate and colourful tapestry of melodic phrases, to the cat and mouse chase atmosphere of the understated drama of the finale - Mozart’s ability to entertain as well as challenge and satisfy the musical intellect of his listeners was deliciously presented in a performance of impeccable taste.

This was followed by William Alwyn’s Three Winter Poems, musical images of great clarity, brilliance and, despite their outward chill, deep warmth. With such spot-on performances, including some beautifully clear, very soft yet full bodied high notes in the first violin part, who could not have been utterly entranced by the sights of wintry landscapes, with frozen waters and sparkling snow showers?    

After the interval there was a single work: Schubert’s Quartet in A minor, known as the ‘Rosamunde’ because of the memorable theme from his incidental music to a stage production which the composer uses as the main idea in the second movement. He also uses melodies from one or two of his songs in the other movements. These give the music its lyrical qualities, which were superbly articulated by each of the players in their turn singing out with the warmth and inner strength the music inspires despite being generally melancholic in atmosphere (Schubert was ill and miserable at that time) but it is not gloomy. 

As the final movement’s climax to this finely structured performance made abundantly clear, it is life-affirming in the face of difficulties and dangers, and celebrates the power of music to emphasise the positives of human existence rather than the negatives.

The next Rochdale Music Society concert is Luka Okros (Solo Piano) on 1 February 2020:

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/events/63449/events-in-rochdale/rochdale-music-society-luka-okros-solo-piano