Quartet Op 20 No. 4 in D - Haydn
Quartet No. 6 - Bartok
Quartet Op 76 No. 1 in G - Haydn
The quartets of Haydn were closely studied by Bartok but it is not easy to see how he was influenced. This sixth quartet seems to take pleasure in snarling at the orthodoxies with its mocking March and Burletta, and formally it owes nothing to Haydn.
The Vanbrugh Quartet in the NCH on Sunday in no way tempered its oddities and the grim finale was as desolating as it ought to be.
The performance was a worthy conclusion to the Vanbrugh's Bartok cycle and will hopefully bring nearer the day when all six quartets will be performed in two recitals.
Haydn's quartets are about 200 years old and it must be difficult to find the right frame of mind for a convincing performance. What might have struck his first audiences as inventive and exciting sounds all too familiar to our ears and to accomplish the necessary vivication without distortion is always a problem.
On this occasion, although there was plenty of gaiety and solemnity in the right places, the playing seemed to me just a bit too relaxed, but that could have been because of the greater expressiveness of the Bartok.