Originally hailing from Cologne, the Schumann Quartet consists of three brothers – violinists Erik and Ken, and cellist Mark Schumann – and the Estonian-born violist Liisa Randalu. They recently held a residency at Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt, Austria, where Haydn was the Esterházy’s kapellmeister. Four of the composer’s quartets formed the programme for this captivating concert, which emphasised the often startling originality of Haydn’s contribution to the genre and the freshness and immediacy of the Schumanns’ playing. This was music-making of the highest order.
They opened with the Quartet in G, Op 33, No 5. Haydn wrote it in 1781 after an intense period of operatic composition, and an air of theatricality hovers over its successive solos and ensembles. The slow movement is, in essence, an aria of lamentation for the first violin, its arching melody and closing cadenza sustained with beguiling poise and intensity by Erik Schumann. The subsequent scherzo, however, finds Haydn at his most impudent and experimental, pulling the listener off balance with rhythmic dislocations and jolting pauses, and the fleetness, humour and dexterity of the Schumanns’ playing was marvellously engaging.
The D Minor Quartet, Op 72, which followed, is very different – a moody dialogue for four musicians, none of whom is given prominence. The almost instinctive sense of give and take that characterises the Schumanns’ playing was very much apparent in the meditative opening movement, in which instrumental pairings seem to form and dissolve in continuous interplay. The minuet was gracefully elegant, the adagio dark yet lyrical. The finale, almost alarming in its brevity, had wonderful elan.
After the interval, the E flat Quartet, Op 17, No 3 was followed by Haydn’s last quartet, in F, Op 77, No 2. The two works are poles apart in scope. Haydn wrote the E flat Quartet primarily to show off the prowess of the violinist Luigi Tomasini, leader of the Esterházy orchestra. It is effectively a small-scale concerto, and the articulate grace and finesse of Erik Schumann’s playing was again paramount. The Quartet in F is a magnificent, even-handed work, embracing the lofty, the demotic and even the austere in the sparse duet between first violin and cello that opens the adagio. The Schumanns’ performance combined probing intensity with wit and energy, and a wonderful alertness to shifts of mood throughout. An outstanding evening, every second of it.
