EIF: Kleio Quartet and friends
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 19/8/26
Kleio Quartet, Makoto Ozone (piano), Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)
Two years ago, the Kleio Quartet wowed at the Edinburgh International Festival with an eclectic programme of Britten, Haydn and Wynton Marsalis. On the forenoon of 19th August, they returned to the Queen’s Hall, with violist and cellist both different from in 2024, plus two friends, to play a programme of just two works, a well-known string quintet and a virtually unknown piano quintet. First they were joined by cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason in Schubert’s String Quintet in C, D956. After the interval, Japanese jazz/classical pianist Makoto Ozone joined the quartet in Bartók’s 1904 Piano Quintet in C, Sz23. Unsurprisingly the hall was packed.
I was a little surprised at first to see Sheku Kanneh-Mason taking the second cello line. When the Pavel Haas Quartet were joined by Ivan Vokač to play the piece in last year’s East Neuk Festival, they “ceded” the first line to the guest. I should add that this observation was without significance or consequence for the chamber music making or its enjoyment. Dynamic balance and control was masterly, serving both clarity of expression and dramatic effect. Care was taken to avoid an overly-plummy bass. The duet of the cellos introducing the second theme of the first movement was exquisite, revisited in the exposition repeat. Stylish tenuto shaped exquisite phrasing. The spellbinding second movement began with an idyllic serenade, sung by Yume Fujise’s violin over Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s gentle pizzicato (with vibrato shortly after each pluck making the note ring like a bell). The trauma in the stormy central section was vivid, so that the fragile first violin solo over uneasy comments from the others felt like intimate and candid disclosure of imminent mortality. The preoccupations of the ‘Death and the Maiden’ quartet resurrected. The return of the idyllic serenade feel more like stoic acceptance than actual peace of mind. The “Tally ho” Scherzo galloped gleefully, but its contrasting Trio, at first hymn-like but then lapsing to the same hushed dread as had cast a shadow in the Adagio. The reprise of the hunt took on the character of bravado. The dance-like finale was an anxious Allegretto, the first theme Hungarian in character in the minor key, the second more Viennese in the major. Like the finale of “Death and the Maiden”, the forced jollity sought to postpone the inevitable, the seemingly more relaxed sweet moments swept aside in the forward drive, repose denied right up to the final semitone snarl. An involving, characterful and persuasive reading of a tragic Schubert masterpiece.
If I had not known beforehand and been asked to identify the composer of the first movement of the late romantic post-Brahmsian Piano Quintet, I would never have guessed Bartók. At a pinch, my closest wrong guess would have been “Did some scholar unearth a hitherto unknown Third Piano Quintet by Ernő Dohnányi?” But what a gem it is! It is melodically rich with improbable pre-echoes of such goodies as ‘Happy Birthday to You’, Alison Moyet’s ‘Is this love?’ and Maurice Jarre’s ‘Lara’s Theme’ from ‘Doctor Zhivago’. Changes of tempo and mood abounded, with turbulent youthful passion, idyllic interludes and dreamy moments too, with an exultant conclusion. The playful Scherzo was a syncopated waltz, archly furtive, with a smoochy Trio, still in waltz time. A faux return to the scherzo was in polka-like 2 and delayed the reprise proper. The Adagio started spookily like later Bartók “Night Music” but built in intensity to a very expressive climax. Folk melody elements and night birds emulation on piano led to a very romantic Richard Strauss-style dreamy idyll and an impassioned statement of the folk melody. The folk dance finale was very Hungarian and episodic, playful and mischievous, songlike episodes alternating with dances. A final joyful dash concluded a superb and revelatory realisation of an early and somewhat less austere Bartók work. Excellent.
Link: https://www.eif.co.uk/events/kleio-quartet-sheku-kanneh-mason