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High Spirits
The Piatti String Quartet,
heard by MIKE WHEELER
In a neatly-planned programme, the competition- and award-winning Piatti Quartet opened with Haydn's Quartet Op 76 No 3, whose folky elements set down a marker for closer engagements with East European traditional music from Bartók and Dvořák (Derby Chamber Music, Multi-Faith Centre, Derby University, 14 March 2014).
Clean, clear textures and minimal vibrato made for a generally engaging account of the Haydn, with an effective bagpipe drone in the first movement's dance episode, and with some delicious moments of quiet delicacy in the second movement's musings on Haydn's 'Emperor's Hymn', taken at a good, flowing tempo. The start of the finale was weighed down by a little too much angst, but once fully underway the performance was full of Haydn's typical high spirits...
Copyright © 22 March 2014
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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