<<  -- 3 --  Malcolm Miller    STRING QUARTET TEXTURES

The programme concluded with a beautiful interpretation of Verdi's String Quartet (1871) -- a special treat in honour of the composer's Sesquicentenary anniversary. The first movement highlighted the contrast of the terse first subject, and its subsequent dramatic development, and the placid second theme with its unexpected shifts of key and poignant harmonies. Verdi's operatic idiom was more in evidence in the Andantino, a theme and variations on a tripping waltz, interspersed with darker, dramatic episodes and a climactic coda. If here were echoes of Forza del Destino, Rigoletto came to mind in the Scherzo and Trio, where a thrusting gypsy style theme is contrasted by the cello's Italian tenor aria. Verdi's final fugue was gripping, the pointillist textures of the counterpoint leading in two waves to dramatic highpoints, and finally to an exhilarating conclusion.

A short encore, the fugal finale from Haydn's Op 20 No 3 rounded off the concert with a flourish, affirming the panache of the Carducci Quartet who clearly have a promising future; one awaits their appearance at a major London venue and hopefully their recording of Graham Whettam's Quartets. Meanwhile the Gloucester Music Society 2001-2 season continues with The Oriel Singers (10 November 1001) and the Dartington Piano Trio (7 February 2001) in a programme of Mozart, Schubert and Bridge. Finally the cello-piano duo of Felicity Vincent and Thomas Dewey (7 March 2002) perform a programme of Brahms E minor Sonata Op 38, Delius's Cello Sonata, Herzogneburg's Three Legends and Chopin's G minor sonata Op 49.