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Australian String Quartet
Kristian Winther, Anne Horton, Stephen King, Rachel Johnston
- Two Gifts from Perth's Antipodean Namesakes
- Perth Courier
A further review of the ASQ's recent performance at Perth concert Hall, to celebrate the venue's fifth anniversary.
Read the full article here
- What a Wonderful Gift!
- Peter Rutterford - Perthshire Advertiser
"the many technical demands were played with consumate ease"
"playing of high intensity, passion, pathos, drama and technical mastery"
"great style and maturity that held the audience enthralled"
"a performance that was outstanding in both quality and interpretation"
You can find the full review of this concert - to mark the fifth anniversay of Perth Concert Hall and in celebration of Perth 800 - here
- Australian String Quartet makes guest appearance in Cologne
- Kölner Stadtanzeiger 21 Sept 10
The shimmering flame of expressiveness
Australian String Quartet makes guest appearance in CologneA viola player who is also a composer - that, according to the popular and jokingly irreverent image of this musical profession, should be a contradiction in terms. Nevertheless, there have been shining exceptions: Hindemith among others - or more recently - the Australian Brett Dean, who was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic for 15 years and, during that time, also made an international name for himself as a composer. He is supposed to be an autodidact in that field - hard to believe in view of the formal superiority and refinement of sound demonstrated in the German debut performance of his latest work at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall.
‘Epitaphs’ is the title of the five movements for string quintet in which the composer commemorates friends and companions who are no longer with us. Dean makes use of the full spectrum of extended playing techniques provided by the avantgarde movement, but on the basis of largely traditional harmonies and easily comprehensible melodies. What might have come across as offish cleverness, does not do so because the Australian is above all an Ausdrucksmusiker, a musician of expression, who keeps the flame of expressiveness burning beyond all the character changes.
However, credit for the powerful effect of the new piece must also go to the Australian String Quartet, which turns into a quintet through the addition of the composer on his viola. He also successfully joined his fellow musicians in Bruckner’s rarely performed String Quartet in F major. Here, with its breadth of disposition, its polyphonic treatment, and its balancing of the often fragile ensemble movement, these five managed to achieve a virtuoso interpretation.
Still, the opening piece of the night, Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E flat major op. 12, was even stronger, even more compelling. Throughout, the string sound was lightly muted, with life and warmth emanating from the inner voice, contributed to in no small part by the noble restraint of the first violinist. The four players dealt in marvellous style with the awkwardly positioned, evasive motifs of the scherzo and finale, i.e. with what we in the Rhineland call Knibbelsarbeit - fiddly work.
- Cologne Philharmonie with Brett Dean - Sept 10
- Volker Fries - Kölnische Rundschau 19 Sept 10
Homage to the Dead
Inspiring - the Australian String QuartetThis evening belonged to Brett Dean: an Australian composer who is a master of the viola and who, together with the Australian String Quartet, presented his brand-new string quintet ‘Epitaphs’ as a German debut performance at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall. Visually alone, this was a feast for the eyes - because the composer, a kind of John Malkovich of the viola, was accompanied by four striking female artists, making him the lucky man for the evening.
Sophie Rowell and Anne Horton (violins), Sally Boud (viola) and Rachel Johnston (cello) had opened the night with an enormously passionate performance of Felix Mendelssohn String Quartet in E flat major (op. 12). The waves of the Romantic period surged in homogenous ebb and flow,and dark colours - and it became apparent very quickly that here at work were masters of their craft.
But then, the String Quintet by Brett Dean. Each of the five movements dedicated to people he had known, but who (with the exception of György Ligeti) had died all too early between 2008 and 2009. Shattering, for instance, the homage to Jan Diesselhorst, a cellist with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which Dean himself had been a member for 15 years. Here, the way in which he told, through most subtle means, of the incomprehensibility of death simply took one’s breath away.
Chromatic scales and descending glissandi imbued life on the downhill track with a compelling symbolic force while every movement, at the same time, maintained its distinct characteristic as to expression and tone. This was a chamber music masterpiece, authentically performed. After the interval, the ensemble was similarly successful with Anton Bruckner’s rarely played String Quartet in F major. It revealed a near instinctive understanding between the performers who artfully shone a light on this rare piece from every angle. It was only right that it should earn them strong applause from the nicely attended Philharmonic Hall.
- Cheltenham Music Festival 2010 - Brett Dean at Cheltenham
- Roger Jones - Music Web International
The Australian musician Brett Dean, whose full-length opera Bliss is to be performed at the Edinburgh Festival in August, is very much an all-rounder. He is a composer, conductor, and viola virtuoso - and at Cheltenham Music Festival he undertook all three roles. Interest focused especially on his two premieres. Recollections, for chamber ensemble (receiving its UK premiere), was recorded for the BBC Radio 3 programme Discovering Music.........
Voices of Angels, Winter Songs, and Demons were also performed at Cheltenham, but the highlight has to be the world premiere of Dean's Epitaphs for string quintet. Commissioned by the Australian String Quartet (and also performed by them with Brett Dean as the second viola), this is intended as a tribute to five of his friends and acquaintances, all of whom died within the space of 18 months. The third, Der Philosoph, in memory of Jan Diesselhorst, a cellist in the Berlin Philharmonic, featured an expansive and moving cello solo. By contrast, Gyorgy Meets the 'Girl Photographer', in memory of the American philanthropist and photographer Betty Freeman who lived to the ripe old age 89, was more a celebration for a life well spent than an outpouring of grief. The final epitaph, Between the Spaces in the Sky, is in memory of the late Richard Hickox, who before his untimely death performed regularly at Cheltenham. Hushed, even reverent at times, this was music that emanated from the heart.
- Beethovenfest 2009 and more
The best source for the Australian String Quartet's publicity and news is their website www.asq.com.au.
On this page we will make available any reviews which are specifically of concerts in the UK or Europe, or are of particular interest because they have been newly published in Australia or other parts of the world.
Reviews from Flight, the ASQ's first National Season 2010 tour (full details here):