Exquisite ensemble playing and perfect intonation

The brilliant New Zealand String Quartet plays in Buschbell’s Old Church for the third time.

Frechen-Buschbell – “Only good friends play here – we’ve never depended on music agencies.” Friedbert Diels, organiser of the small series of musical recitals in the Old Church in Buschbell, was clearly proud of the performance given by the fabulous New Zealand String Quartet. The quartet’s members are Helene Pohl and Douglas Beilman (violins), Gillian Ansell (viola) and Rolf Gjelsten (violoncello), and they once again played in the church, which was completely sold out. To mark the beginning of a two-week tour of Europe, the quartet made use of Mr and Mrs Diels’ hospitality to prepare in peace for the highlight of its tour, a performance in London’s Wigmore Hall.

The concert began with Abhisheka, a pure sound composition by New Zealand composer John Psathas. This piece is based on a quiet lament melody, and experiments with glissandi and microtonality. The Sunrise, Joseph Haydn’s fourth quartet from his mature op. 76 set, did not pose any problems of technique for the ensemble. The quartet sent the enthusiastic audience into the interval with three temperamental pieces by Erwin Schulhoff – whose work was branded as “decadent” by the Nazis – and with renewed strength then climbed the mountain that is Beethoven. Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor (op. 132) is a veritable tour de force of all the musical highs and lows of the string quartet medium. With exquisite ensemble playing and perfect intonation, the work washed over the audience like a novel breathlessly read from beginning to end without a break. The work’s slow third movement, featuring Beethoven’s addendum Holy Song of Thanks, from a Convalescent, to the Godhead, is a nod to the composer’s grave state of health while recovering from a serious inflammatory bowel disease condition at a convalescent home in Baden in 1825. This movement, which makes up the core of the work, was especially convincing thanks to the players’ warm, intimate tone.

The encore, the movement with variations from Felix Mendelssohn’s last string quartet, had a distinctly wistful quality. The four musicians would certainly be most welcome to return for another performance sometime in the next few years; here, too, the atmosphere in the auditorium was so tense that one could have heard a pin drop.