Quartet's awfully big adventure

The Brodsky Quartet will play pieces from their own recordings.

Quartet to play range from Shostavokich to Beethoven’s Opus 132

Ten days ago, in an early evening concert, the Brodsky Quartet gave us a taste of what we might expect next Wednesday when they return with a full programme of Schubert, Shostakovich and Beethoven.

Violinist and leader Daniel Rowland is not surprised I was blown away by Bartok's Fifth Quartet. "It's a favourite and so full of life and life-affirming," he enthuses.

The Englishman is enjoying his first visit to New Zealand and is fighting fit after what he describes as a "jetlag-buster", fleeing from his central city hotel room for a harbour trip to Waiheke and a scenic trek along the island's cliffs.

The group's first appearance had come to us courtesy of the Auckland Arts Festival and this man simply adores festivals. "You can feel a buzz you don't always get in the concert hall," he explains. "These occasions bring in audiences who may not usually go to concerts and, if they're open-minded and in the spirit of things, something happens."

The Brodsky Quartet was founded in 1972 and Rowland joined up in 2007, but he was well aware of its illustrious past.

"My mother and father met at the Dartington Summer Music School so I went there a lot as a kid," he muses. "I heard the Brodsky Quartet many times and as a teenager had a masterclass with my predecessor. Little did I know our paths would cross again 16 years later."

Needless to say, Rowland heartily embraces the adventurous strategies for which the group is so admired. He did not play alongside Elvis Costello on the original 1993 recording of The Juliet Letters but he did tour that work with the singer just five years ago.

"That guy is impressive," he says. " And The Juliet Letters is a uniquely compelling recording, especially bearing in mind that it really was a collaboration; all five musicians composed for it."

Like his colleagues, he enjoys tackling a composer's complete output, on CD and in concert.

"This unique musical journey mirrors the musical life story of the composer," he points out, remembering "a recent Shostakovich weekend, with five concerts over 48 hours, that was exhausting but exhilarating for the audience and the quartet."

On disc, he is proud of the new Chandos set of Complete String Quartets by Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942). "It may start off sounding like a mix of Dvorak and Brahms," he says. "But, by the time you get to the Second Quartet, it's extraordinarily personal and harrowing. I was in Vienna and caught an Egon Schiele exhibition; that quartet reminds me of the twisted, extreme expressionism of those paintings."

The lively Rowland proves to be the perfect promo man for next week's concert, describing the first offering, Schubert's Quartettsatz, as "one of the best short pieces ever, with such passion and vulnerability coming out of just seven or eight minutes".

The Brodskys recorded the complete Shostakovich Quartets in 2004 and, next week, we have the Third. "It's the first one with a sense of balance and perfect proportions. It's the perennial favourite of the set, along with the Eighth," he adds. "And it's here that the composer finds his own voice. It starts light-hearted, almost like Haydn, and then gradually becomes darker and darker, as the wartime spirit kicks in. The final transformation ends up in the stratosphere, which everyone can interpret however they want."

The concert will end with Beethoven's Opus 132. Here Rowland focuses on the wild contrasts between "an extraordinary slow movement, followed by a crazy, irreverent march and then a sublime Fidelio-like finale. It's wonderful. The ultimate bringing together of the spiritual and the earthy."

What: Brodsky Quartet
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Wednesday at 7.30pm