East Neuk Festival: Death and the Maiden
St Adrian's Cellardyke 5/7/26
Calidore Quartet
This penultimate report from the 2026 East Neuk Festival comes from the early afternoon concert in St Adrian’s in Cellardyke on 5th July. The Calidore Quartet, the day after a concert featuring a spellbinding Second Razumovsky preceded by a UK premiere of a Turnage homage to Beethoven, returned to give an account of Schubert’s iconic ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet D.810, in which Schubert confronts his own imminent mortality. They preceded the Schubert by a short piece by American composer Samuel Barber that has, in its popular arrangement for string orchestra, become a US national icon for the expressing of shared loss and grief, his ‘Adagio’ in its original version as a string quartet movement.
Six weeks ago at the Perth Festival, the Resol Quartet gave a reading of the Barber Adagio that was certainly poignant, but unburdened by the years of association with high-profile funerals, allowing it to communicate reaching out with humanity, solace and the tenderness of human contact, rather than an overt expression of shared grief. It is perhaps not surprising that an American ensemble like the Calidore Quartet would give a more elegiac reading that linked more with the performance history of the string orchestra version. I wouldn’t want to suggest that either reading is any less or more valid than the other, But I would make the observation that the string quartet movement (1936) significantly pre-dates the funereal use of the string orchestra version (1945 funeral of FDR). A musically identical 1967 version by the composer for a cappella choir is set to the words of the decidedly non-elegiac Agnus Dei. That said, the piece as performed in Cellardyke was very moving, each of the four voices gently, even hesitantly, voicing its deepest feelings with controlled pathos, before the heart-rending climax, a silence, and a calm outwardly stoic acceptance which rather tellingly and somewhat achingly does not end on the tonic B-flat minor, but F major. Gorgeous though F major is, there is something unsettling about the A-natural, as if there is more to tell, but it will remain forever unsaid. An enigmatic piece, then. Despite my plea for its liberation from the burden of cultural baggage. I felt it received a very fine and emotionally involving performance.
Two years ago in the East Neuk Festival, the Swedish-Norwegian string quartet Opus13 featured in no fewer than 4 concerts. In one, they gave an account of Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ of which I wrote: “This was a compelling and emotionally-charged reading of Schubert’s masterpiece, one I shall remember for a long time”. Well, I remember it well and, with Opus13 back at this year’s festival, comparisons are inevitable. Neither ensemble has anything to fear from the comparison.
If the ‘Trout’ Quintet from 2 days previously was Schubert in sunny mood appreciating the beauty of nature, the ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet is the same composer railing against the implacable cruelty of nature and his own fatally compromised health. The anger and defiance in the first movement found full expression, with contrasts sharply pointed but without exaggeration. Dynamics were controlled and always served expression; lyricism was maximised. Anxiety, solace, turmoil: all found moments of prominence. Ostinato accompanying figures (string players’ least favourite feature of Schubert’s scoring) were kept subdued in the background. The ensemble playing was flawless and directed towards presenting the tragic theatricality, very successfully. The slow movement is a set of variations on a theme, a lied in which Death appears as a friend, promising release from suffering. The variations are different reactions to this proposition, ranging from achingly beautiful lyricism and acceptance to defiant angry denial. There were particularly lovely cantabile solos from first violin and cello, with flawless intonation. The final spectral variation, where the “maiden” (Schubert himself, of course) surrenders and accepts fate, glowed with fragile beauty. Superb. The scherzo, a macabre brutal Ländler with Death himself driving it on, held a grim fascination. The trio, by contrast, offered a moment’s respite in a garden with birdsong, before the grim totentanz resumed, The finale is also a driven dance, a tarantella, but something has shifted. There is a mood of determination, grim perhaps but no longer willing to be a victim. The dance is life and we keep dancing in the face of the inevitable to prolong it. Every day of life is a win, and Death cheated, Death is inevitable, but we should spend the unknown time we have left living, not dying. Keep on keeping on. A surprisingly life-affirming message for a work titled ‘Death and the Maiden’. Cathartically and very satisfyingly realised by the Calidore Quartet.
So, à propos “inevitable” comparisons? Well both performances were cogent and expertly realised and, though differing in details of interpretation, appealed to hearts and minds in approximately equal measure. There is no competition and no trophy. But? Yes, there is a ‘but’. But, if there were a trophy in my (highly subjective) gift, current holders Opus13 would not be surrendering it to the engraver.
There was a delightful witty encore, introduced by second violinist Ryan Meehan: the finale of Haydn’s Op.33, No.2 ‘The Joke’.
Link: https://eastneukfestival.com/events/death-and-the-maiden/