A Masquerade Raids Beethoven’s Confessions: The Elias String Quartet at Wigmore Hall

Above: A YouTube recording of The Elias String Quartet playing Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 5’s ‘Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile’ in 2018. Credit: Elias String Quartet – Topic Channel.

Crepitations taint restraint with stains of ache in cryptic string quartets. Arpeggios offer watercolour tears; diminuendi drip impressionistic brushstrokes. Hushed beneath motifs’ false smiles, the symbols stifle sorrow until torment storms the shore.

Glamour moored Beethoven’s fifth at The Elias String Quartet’s Wigmore Hall performance last night. Panache attacked as first violinist Sara Bitlloch entered trills with forte and a forceful absence of vibrato. Scratches of unsure sound lent the portrait patchiness: cello arpeggios climbed too subtly while a shy viola surfaced late. Paces delayed at the unravelling of second movement ‘Menuetto,’ whose acciaccaturas scrambled into hiding. Turns unfurled too bluntly and the variations’ imitations raced into obscurity.

Marie Bitlloch’s cello levelled fine staccato in the ‘Andante cantabile’ but all musicians’ pp clamoured in the fourth variation. A high A trill spilled brusquely from the first violin and synchronicity crunched into drunken revelry in the convivial fifth. Though ‘Allegro assai’ proffered feistiness from both the cello and the violins, crescendi came with violent bents, high pitches with shrill quibbles.

Trills tipped off secrets at the start of String Quartet No. 9, the third of Beethoven’s ‘Razumovsky’ trio. In brazen voices the ensemble cast a lurid spotlight on its ornaments: each was adorned with indiscretion. Diminuendi went and came abruptly and the cello’s second movement pizzicato groaned with omens. Hidden by façades of dancing masks, trimmed triplets were denied a chance to make admissions; whispered runs ran out of breath. Urgency purged Simone van der Giessen’s ‘Allegro molto’ viola solo of vicissitudes but vigour in the perpetuum mobile bars was inviting. Quavers raged unfazed across all instruments in the finale of this movement, which deployed apt despotism.

Despondent ponder pleads repentance at the eeriness unwinding String Quartet No. 14: a peer into a mournful past. A fast grasp of this introduction to a fugue glossed over guilt on Bitlloch’s first violin. Donald Grant’s second’s entrance was a tad suspended; decrescendos fell too suddenly. First movement ‘Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo’s climax splashed with ill-timed lashings of the lower strings and brassy higher pitches. A diminuendo memory on cello in the second slithered in and out of hearing like a whining bystander.

A flute seemed to unspool in van der Giessen’s superficial landings on viola at the start of third movement ‘Allegro moderato.’ Demisemiquavers vaunted elegantly but without the score’s recitativo obbligato discourse. Dialogue stayed amiss until the variations’ ‘Andante moderato e lusinghiero’ imitation, where bombastic higher strings impinged on the viola’s eloquence. A sotto voce orderliness opened ‘Adagio ma non troppo e semplice,’ but livid volumes soon became the shots of open warfare. Pizzicato on the cello in both this part and the ‘Presto’ packed a punch that seemed to blast from outside Beethoven. Harsh garishness dressed the pianissimo sul ponticello section in the sparks of excess glitter.

Tempestuousness crested in ‘Allegro’: the quartet’s fierce climax. Militancy taunted with entrancing cannon fire but the cello’s crass attacks procured bow-tapping. An outlier motif seeped on viola and the poco ritenuto portion shunned restraint. Despite a fighting finish final chords stressed dissonance.

Frissons of stirrings were upstaged in this guns-blazing bash that axed soliloquies. Without a hint of subtext Beethoven was shushed at his own party.