Australian String Quartet: Rapture

Elder Hall, Adelaide

16 May, 2025

Sometimes a concert slips through the reviewing cracks, and regrettably so. A case in point was the ASQ’s recent ‘Rapture’ concert. Not having been able to review it, I did nevertheless attend as an audience member, and felt impelled to add my thoughts about it.

As long-term observers of the group know well, the ASQ have a hectic concert schedule and are stretched in many directions. Obviously they aim for the highest artistic level, and the reassuring fact is that they tend to excel no matter the circumstances. But where they found time to develop and hone this concert to such a high level was the question: it was truly exceptional.

Such was the case in this ‘Rapture’ concert, and it seems to have come directly down to their choice of music. They were clearly fired up about all four items. Beethoven’s Op. 95 (‘Serioso’) and Janacek’s ‘Intimate Letters’ served as the two pillars, and on either side were two entirely different but complementary works: ‘No Feeling is Final’, by the Melbourne jazz composer Vanessa Perica, and Golojov’s Tenebrae.

From the first note to the last, the group felt intensely propelled across these works. The gristle and fibre they showed took the listener to unprecedented and very special places.

Dale Barltop’s playing was quite astonishing. I immediately felt a new daring in his playing in the Beethoven, and similarly with the whole ensemble. Emboldened, the four musicians gave Op. 95 an exceptionally invigorating performance. I was thoroughly taken by the urgency of their playing, the precision of their razer-sharp rhythms, and the finessed beauty of their tone production.

Bravo on ASQ for being so completely bold with Beethoven. That takes courage. Yet he’s a composer who not only responds to, but utterly demands, total conviction. It would be great to hear them tackle more of his quartets with the same uncompromising and venturesome spirit.

The Janacek brought on even more discoveries. One might have imagined there’d be fewer mysteries to unravel, it being a more modern work. However, parallel things happened. It was as if a fuse had been lit on this most explosive music. I fancied I was reasonably familiar with ‘Intimate Letters’, having heard ASQ play this work on previous occasions (years ago, with different personnel), but the discoveries came as a torrent. I don’t think I had fully appreciated the rugged, searing intensity of this music until now. Its lashing lines, rasping sonorities and fearsome trills all felt wholly new. The speed and accuracy of the ASQ’s playing was exhilarating, and the music gained an utterly fearsome edge.

New works can struggle to make a mark amid classics of the repertoire like this, and let’s be honest: it only infrequently happens. Yet Perica’s newly commissioned ‘No Feeling is Final’ found its place perfectly well in this company. Eschewing anything simplistic or gratuitous, it was a work of sophisticated, mesmeric texture that held one’s attention keenly all the way through. It is a truly excellent work of impressive technical accomplishment. To have the ASQ so energised and so on their toes with a contemporary work itself says something: clearly they relished it. And it was the same for the audience: Perica is a composer we want to hear again, and soon.

Closing this program, the Golojov offered exactly the kind of tranquil, meditative stillness that was needed to digest all this fervour. Reaching back into the Baroque world in its pure, slightly arcane elegance, it brought a welcome restfulness to this remarkable concert.

Subtle lighting effects contributed to its atmosphere and made it even more special.

This was perhaps the finest playing I think I’ve heard from the ASQ. They are a thoroughbred group now, and able to play at an astonishing level. Their love of the music is what seems to bring it about, coupled with their desire to share their discoveries with the listener. We might all be grateful for that.

20 May 2025