Quartet in G, D887.......Schubert

Sextet No 1 in B flat, op 18......Brahmi

LISTENING to Schubert's blast string quartet is like meeting an old friend or friends; there is the sudden shock of delighted recognition, followed by the sharing of reminiscence. I remember listening with fascination to an unattributed tune on someone's discarded 78 rpm record; it was, I realised later, the Trio section of the Scherzo of that quartet. Now, decades later, played by the Vanbrugh String Quartet in the NCH, it is as captivating as it was then; but the intervening years have wrought subtle changes in the relationship between the music, and the listener.

Suffice to say these players brought to the whole work a mature insight which integrated the four movements from, the magically hushed beginning to the lively ending.

One does not get many opportunities to hear Brahms's String Sextets, so the Vanbrugh's invitation to Hanno Strydom (cello) and to Cian O Duill (viola) to join the group in a performance of the Sextet in B flat is a public benefaction. The addition of a second cello and viola to the ensemble gave Brahms the possibility of varying the texture in all sorts of ways and, since the two, supplementary players sounded as if they had played with the Vanbrugh all their lives, the performance was a delightful musical exploration.

Brahms being Brahms, with the preponderance of low instruments in the ensemble, a certain heaviness was inevitable, but the brisk and brief Scherzo and the happy-go-lucky Finale more than made amends for an over-serious approach to the first two movements. It is to be hoped that the Vanbrugh, with Hanno Strydom and Cian O Duill, has arranged to perform the second of Brahms's Sextets.