New Zealand String Quartet

This was a lovely concert and for me a watershed in the musical life of the NZSQ.

Over the years we have come to expect superb performances from this accomplished group, particularly in 20th century music – listen to the recording of the Bartok string quartets, for example – but the more standard, earlier repertoire has never been quite as distinguished to my ears.

But this concert, in the wonderful acoustic of the Hunter Council Chamber, revealed an understanding and affection for Mozart that was of the highest class.

Mozart is not easy to bring off, and the two sublime quintets in C major, K.515 and in D minor, K.516 are rarely heard in completely satisfying performances. But here they were quite superbly realised; with grace, life, clarity and a confident sense of style that was memorable.

It helped, clearly, to have the collaboration of distinguished German violist Hariolf Schlichtig and his imperturbable sense of pacing, and his glorious sound, clearly inspired his colleagues. Care, too, had been taken in selecting from Mozart’s six quintets the two to be performed. The keys of C major and D minor made a marvellous contrast, particularly when divided by Beethoven’s Quartet in F minor Op. 95 ‘Serioso’.

This concentrated work, with its forward looking dissonances, sounded completely “new” when surrounded by the Mozart works, and they, in turn, revealed their beauties afresh next to Beethoven.

Really thoughtful programming for a concert that had as an encore (I usually don’t like encores), the adagio from the Quintet K.593. And it was a marvellous end to a memorable concert.