Sextet No.1 in B flat, Op 18 - Brahms

Sextet No.2 in G, Op 36 - Brahms

In the first of a series of five Monday evening concerts in the RDS, to be given by various groups of soloists mostly from the NSO, six players gave a welcome performance of Brahms's two Sextets for strings. As these works are notable for the way that the interest is distributed among the parts, the players should be named: Alan Smale and Elaine Clarke (violins), Adele Govier and Cheremie Allum (violas), Aisling Drury-Byrne and Annette Cleary (cellos). It must be very stimulating to play in a classical work where the tune is as likely to be in the violas or cellos as in the violins, and it is surprising that groups do not come together more often to perform these works. The preponderance of the lower instruments and the variety of textures available are exploited by Brahms to create a great richness of tone; by the use of double stopping, there can be as many as 18 strings sounding at once.

The players made the most of their opportunities and played with such gusto that the richness was never allowed to cloy. Ideally the playing could have been cleaner and changes of speed could have been neater, but the spirit of both the sextets was admirably captured. Though Brahms was 29 when he wrote the first and 34 when he wrote the second, they express all the impetuousness of youth. The Sextet in B flat is a more dreamy work, the fireworks are mostly in the Sextet in G; and it was in the latter that the performance was most revelatory. This is in no way a diminishment of the first sextet; its beauties are of another kind. The recital was a most encouraging start to the Symphony Soloists series that the RDS is promoting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Symphony Orchestra.