REVIEWS
Music in the round: The Michelangelo Quartet
Culture Music: Music in the Round
13-10-2006
Is there an equivalent of Music in the Round in, for example, Sweden, and are visiting artists expected to talk about the music in Swedish?
Frans Helmerson, the Swedish cellist of the Michelangelo Quartet, had half-an-hour to prepare something to say, and spoke well enough to create that special, close relationship that we enjoy in the Crucible Studio. The quartet are not used to playing in the round, and that might explain their slightly subdued start in Beethoven's Third Quartet in D. By the final presto though they were flying, and displaying the precision they are noted for. They followed this with Shostakovich's First Quartet and, claiming the work was written without irony, played it as such. This worked particularly well in the second movement, with its strong links to Russian folk music, evoked
with simplicity and beauty in Nabuko Imai's viola solo, and in the orchestral sounding finale. The real fireworks though were saved for Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet in D minor. Mihaela Martin and Stephen Picard, first and second violins, combined with an admirable equality of expression and technique, while Helmerson belied his professorial looks with a display of passion and exuberance. Their
English may be a little halting but who needs spoken language when there is expression like this? - Steve Draper
Michelangelo Quartet / Ralph Kirshbaum
Manchester Evening News
09-11-2004
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A Star Group is Born
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
01-02-2004
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It was a mature conversation between artists. It was not a performance of a young group playing with whatever energy they have from learning the notes nor was it of a veteran ensemble that seems a little retrograded in interpreting their lovingness to their experience and tradition. Instead, it was a performance of an ensemble of which each member being a master of chamber music, performed with clear consciousness of the origins and the future of the string quartets. The profound breathing techniques and bold determination together with the feel of a beautiful autonomy made for a truly impressive performance which, at the year end of 2003, was to become one of the best concerts I had attended in the year.
Of the programme consisting of Mozart “Dissonance”, Shostakovich No 8 in C minor and Dvorak “The American”, the Shostakovich; a well-balanced work of detailed musical construction with inner thoughts of the composer, was definitely the highlight of the evening. The mysterious melodies as well as the repeated notes were properly sounded as fatality, and not as a shallow production. The dramas created in the “Dissonance” were refreshing and beautiful. Also exquisite and fulfilling the joy of live performance were “The American” and the lustrous “Rosamunde” performed as an encore.
9 December 2003 at Kioi Hall, Tokyo
Yoshimichi Okuda
“Ongaku-no-Tomo” magazine
February 2004
A début concert of the string quartet led by violist Nobuko Imai in Otaru. The first impression of this quartet was “sharp and exciting sound” - one of the main reasons for this arising from the clear and honest sound of the first violinist Mihaela Martin.
Helped by the musical colours created by this quartet, the hidden romanticism was above all, most clearly expressed in Mozart’s String Quartet No 19 “Dissonance” which starts with unstable melodies and a mysterious introduction. As well, the emotional lyrical movement was particularly excellent in Dvorak String Quartet No 12 “The American”, despite the relatively solid and strict expressions outlined in this work.
The best of this quartet was to be heard in the Shostakovich String Quartet No 8 in which the true spirit of the work was felt in full. Such were the careful and meaningful treatment of the reoccurring themes from the composer’s former compositions appearing throughout, challenging rhythmical attacks in the second movement as well as the eminently pure melodies of reminiscence by cello and viola in the fourth movement.
5 December 2003 at Otaru Shimin Centre – Marine Hall, Japan
Kozo Yagi
“Ongaku Gendai” magazine –
February 2004
Michelangelo Quartet
Manchester Evening News
28-11-2003
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