String Quartet in A minor, Op 132 - Beethoven

Apart/Together - Jane O'Leary

Quintet for Piano and Strings in F minor, Op 34 - Brahms

If there was anyone present at the Vanbrugh's recital in the NCH on Sunday who had not previously heard Beethoven's Opus 132, what a revelation it must have been! From the gravely considered phrase which opens the work, through the heart-stopping simplicities of the central adagio to the seductive tune of the final movement, the Vanbrugh contrived to keep the music at a high level of intensity, so that the more relaxed moments came as welcome breathing-spaces.

The trio in the middle of the obsessive figures of the second movement, the sudden cheerfulness that adorns the "Hymns of Thanksgiving", and the banal little march that precedes the finale became essential havens.

Joined by Robert Taub for the piano quintets by Jane O'Leary and Brahms, the Vanbrugh produced great varieties of tone to match the composers' demands. In O'Leary's Apart/Together, there was much emphasis on the apartness; much of the time, the piano sounded like a brash intruder on the quirky conversation of the quartet. Togetherness was much more apparent in the Brahms, in which piano and strings coalesced without a hint of imperiousness on either part.

In comparison with the Beethoven, the Brahms carries such a weight of notes that it could have sounded heavyfooted, but the performers allowed it plenty of air without diminishing the episodes of orchestral magnificence the composer loved.