Saturday 12 November 2011
7.45 pm
at the Middleton Hall, University of Hull
Royal String Quartet of Poland
| Mozart | Quartet in D minor K 421 |
| Górecki | Quartet No 1 op 62 Already it is dusk |
| Webern | Langsamer Satz |
| Tchaikovsky | Quartet No 1 in D op 11 |
The Royal Quartet make a welcome return with music by their compatriot Henryk Górecki on the first anniversary of his death. Górecki achieved worldwide fame in the 1990s with a recording of his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. The Royal Quartet’s recent CD of all three Górecki quartets gained a 5-star review in BBC Music Magazine.Their programme also contains Webern’s highly romantic Slow Movement of 1905, one of Mozart’s finest quartets (see below) and Tchaikovsky’s popular Quartet No 1.
But the greatest test here was Mozart’s D minor Quartet K 421 in which the Royal’s fusion of taste, poise and sensibility really came into its own. The ambiguous temperament of the music, on occasion veering towards sunnier realms but constantly drawn back to the darker side of minor tonalities, was established with telling discretion, the ensemble’s natural expressive nuances speaking of a sincere emotional response. Daily Telegraph
