Strings in their step

EUROPEAN ensemble the Giocoso String Quartet will perform works by Haydn, Schumann and Ravel when they make their Tasmanian debut at the Hobart Town Hall next week.

The ensemble was formed in Austria, and its members — violinists Teofil Todica and Sebastian Casleanu, violist Martha Windhagauer and cellist Bas Jongen — hail from Romania, Germany and the Netherlands.

They won the Musica Viva Australia Prize at the 2015 Melbourne International Chamber Music.

They begin next week’s concert with Haydn’s String Quartet Opus 71 No.2.

“This work is in G major and I like it because it is simple but deviously so,” Jongen said.

“It is organised but there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes. It begins with the cello, then the viola, second violin and first violin then Haydn turns it around in different orders, giving it a playful character.” Jongen said the Schumann String

Quartet Opus 41 No.1 was an amazing work that advanced the quartet format after Beethoven.

“Schumann was ‘innig’, which means introverted in a positive way,” he said. “This work starts with a slow introduction that embodies the spirit of Schumann. The second violin plays the same melody over the first so it has a fugal quality. There is an incredible harmonic progression characterised by emotion that is heartfelt but not sentimental or extroverted. It has a warm, homely atmosphere with occasional energetic bursts.

“The second is fiery, the third is slow, beautiful, contemplative and dramatic in the middle, and the finale is explosive.”

The concert will conclude with Ravel’s String Quartet in F.

“It was written when Ravel was very young and is a warm, flowing, mature work,” Jongen said. “It is one of the jewels of the string quartet repertoire and has a style unique to Ravel.”

Musica Viva Tasmania presents the Giocoso String Quartet at the Hobart Town Hall from 8pm next Thursday, April 5. Tickets start at $70 for adults and $65 concession, phone 6233 2299 or go to www.theatreroyal.com.au for bookings.