KEY POINTS:
The Brentano String Quartet is a world-class group and, when the four Americans played in the Town Hall on Friday night, Chamber Music New Zealand must have been aware they had brought us one of the finest concerts of the year.
Haydn's D major Quartet Opus 76 no 5 is a work which shows the composer at the height of his expressive powers.
No ingenuity was left unexplored by these musicians, who achieved an unwavering unity of purpose while bringing out the many individual and textural contrasts.
There was daring and even a touch of the zany when called for, and the Brentanos were at their finest in the Largo, with phrases that both sang and betrayed the melancholic bent that Haydn asks for. Gabriela Lena Frank's Quijotadas might have already received its official world premiere in Wellington, but it came with the adrenalin of a first performance. Leader Mark Steinberg introduced the character of Don Quixote, the inspiration for Frank's five portraits, as living on the border of fantasy and reality - this substantial work seemed to traverse countless musical borders in its 20 minutes.
Bursting upon us with Bartokian gusto and ending with a bullet-train Seguidillas, it embraced a wealth of music, punctuated by pizzicatos of every hue. They were especially savage in the fourth movement, a mountain song, passionately voiced by Misha Amory's viola.
After interval, five Monteverdi madrigals arranged by Steinberg were a study in ensemble, with immaculate part playing and rich textures.
Bartok's sixth and final quartet was a revelation. From Amory's opening exploration of the first of the composer's recurring mournful themes, the spirit was searching and the tone was sumptuous.
The full group entered, delivering finely etched passagework and an acute awareness of the colouristic potential of their instruments.
Highlights included Serena Canin in fervent stride during the middle section of the March to a no-holds-barred jaunt in the Burletta, and the tension was not relinquished until the final of Bartok's contrapuntal webs had dimmed in the distance.
