String Quartet in C, K465 "Dissonance" - Mozart

Akhmatova Songs for soprano and string quartet - John Tavener

Quartet No 2 in F sharp minor, Op. 10 - Schoenberg

The Vanbrugh's Mozart has matured to a velvet smoothness but the opening adagio of this work does not lose any of its strangeness - rather the reverse. The allegro section of the first movement was both sprightly and graceful and the second movement, andante cantabile, was delightfully relaxed in its flowing melodiousness.

The clarity of Mozart's textures was made to seem dense by the simplicity of the Akhmatova Songs. The vocal line, sung with stylishness and sincerity by Patricia Rosario (soprano), is obviously inspired by liturgical chant and she carefully wedded the words to the music's sinuosities so that the emotions of Akhmatova's six poems were heightened. The function of the strings was to provide an even background which would not upstage the singer, though each instrument was allowed some melodic flourishes in Tavener's characteristically ethereal style.

The task of the singer in the last two movements of Schoen berg's Quartet No 2 is different. She must be the equal of the instruments: the work is not so much a quartet with an added voice as a quintet, one of whose members is a singer. After the first two movements for quartet only, in which the Vanbrugh played with an almost savage power, the mood quietens for the settings of two mystical poems by Stefan George. Once again the singing was a model of balance between meaning and melody and so impressed was the audience that the silence before the applause after Sunday's performance was longer than usual.