Download Maggini Quartet 6th November 2015

Maggini Quartet
6th November 2015
Quartet Played with Panache
Music from three centuries was on offer for the second concert at the Minehead and
West Somerset Arts Society’s current season on Friday (November 6) at the Regal
Theatre.
The prestigious Maggini String Quartet, on a return visit to Minehead, presented
three strongly contrasting pieces, played with skill, panache and warmth.
First up, the 18th century, with Joseph Haydn’s Opus 55, no 2, dating from 1788
during the period when Haydn was Prince Esterhazy’s court composer, marooned for
months on end in a remote palace in the Hungarian countryside; though you
wouldn’t know this from Haydn’s sharp, bright writing, to which the Maggini brought
wit and precision, allowing each instrument a chance to shine. An ideal concert
opener.
Then came the challenge of the evening, Malcolm Arnold’s second string quartet,
composed in 1975 at a difficult period of the composer’s life. I must confess to being
uncertain about Arnold as a composer, seemingly responsible for rather light-weight
pieces, occasionally giving the impression they were dashed off to meet a deadline.
Arnold also wrote much film music. How would the composer behind Bridge on the
River Kwai, Inn of the Sixth Happiness, not to mention Blue Murder at St Trinian’s,
cope with the intimate demands of a traditional quartet?
One of the strengths of the Maggini is their ability to introduce each item in an
informative and concise way, invaluable for the piece we were about to hear; by the
time I’d heard this I was already feeling more sympathetic, for the first few bars it
was obvious that this was an intensely personal work; angry, tense, brooding, any
lighter moments quickly taking a darker tone.
The Maggini proved to be ideal guides through this spiky sound world; they
worked hard to blend moments of real lyricism with the more strident chords (or
discords). This is the beauty of live music, with the chance to see as well as hear, and
to marvel at the players working together as a group.
After the interval, it was back to 1895, with a late piece by Antonin Dvorak, his
13th string quartet, written in 1895 on the composer’s return from a lengthy stay in
America, where homesickness took its toll. Dvorak’s joy at being back in his Czech
homeland was immediately apparent: the Maggini relished the warm melodies, with
proper emphasis on the undercurrent of darker melancholy, and with a final flourish
sent us cheerfully out into a damp autumn evening.
LVB (West Somerset Free Press 13 November 2015)