Maxwell String delights
Maxwell String Quartet All three of Perth Chamber Music’s concerts this year have been five star events. Their most recent on December 9 with the Maxwell String Quartet was perhaps the most remarkable.
The still relatively young Quartet were supreme both technical and musical aspects and brought tremendous enthusiasm to their well attended concert in St John’s Kirk.
From the start of Haydn’s Sunrise Quartet, Op76 No4, there was the anticipation of wit and excitement: their repartee at speed, the smiles between the players, their delight in the‘phrenzied’music of the development.
The Adagio had great profundity and light filigree decoration; their Minuet a real rustic stamp, continued into the drone of the Trio, plus the leader Colin Scobie slipping in some improvisation.
Their Finale had a comfortable start: conversation between ideal friends. Which, through variety of attack and dynamic, whizzed up to the most exciting end.
Prokofiev’s Quartet No2 is often called dry. Not a bit with the Maxwells!
Viola player Elliott Perks’ introduction had the same qualities as their playing: invigorating enthusiasm, and they really made the piece sing. Their research into the Kabardinian themes Prokofiev had been given revealed the sheer variety of Prokofiev’s clever and sophisticated writing: Leader Colin Scobie sticking to the higher