Martin Beaver, first violin

Kikuei Ikeda, second violin

Kazuhide Isomura, viola

Clive Greensmith, cello 

The Tokyo String Quartet performs on Stradivarius instruments known as the ‘Paganini quartet’, named after Paganini who bought and played them during the 19th century. The instruments are loaned as an indivisible set of four, presently owned by the Nippon Music Foundation.

The Quartet is back in Sydney on its fifth visit since 1980.

This year, they launched a three year program to perform all of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets. It was apt that they should open their first Sydney concert of romantic and modern works with Beethoven’s String quartet in F minor opus 95 (Serioso) composed in 1810, the last one to be written before the cluster known as the ‘late’ string quartets.

Then followed version three of Carl Vine’s String Quartet no 5 (2007). It was a privilege to hear the composer give his insights into the composition. Vine described his dissatisfaction with the first two versions. The revision contains a new segment between the third and fourth movements, written in six continuous movements it was a pleasure to listen to its premiere. The musicians handled it with aplomb. The violins played stellar harmonics above the viola’s arco and the cello’s pizzicato, evoking the rhythms of a dance.

The second half of the program featured Wolf’s Italian Serenade in G major and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet no 2 in A minor, op 13.

The audience greatly enjoyed it and the beaming musicians obliged with an encore: the finale of Haydn’s String Quartet op 50 no 1, performed with tremendous lightness, dexterity and humour.

The Haydn piece revealed a beauty and clarity of sound well suited to the classical style, while the romantic works somehow lacked the anticipated richness of sound despite the powerful playing of these consummate musicians.

Perhaps this venue was not intimate enough for a string quartet as the sound evaporated into the cathedral ceiling. Maybe it was the acoustic, the location of the listener or the historical instruments … the sound struggled to carry. – Shamistha de Soysa