String quartet draws in public with lovingly-played pieces

The gifted Maxwell String Quartet were welcome return visitors to Perth Concert Hall for the final lunchtime concert before Christmas.

A respectably large audience was there to enjoy their performances of Haydn and Britten.

They began with Haydn’s Quartet in D Op.71 No.2, one of his enviable procession of masterpieces.

After an adagio introduction of warmth and affection, the Maxwells began an allegro of wit and repartee, particularly in the second theme, notes and phrases deftly shot across and taken up elegantly.

An adagio theme and variations followed, full of lyrical grace, delivered with the spontaneity and ease which only result from attentive effort.

The minuet was more courtly than some, with a trio of sustained legato phrasing.

At allegretto, the finale was a convivially witty piece, bursting into exciting fireworks for its close.

Britten’s Quartet No. 2, as viola Elliott Perks’ fascinating introduction told us, was close to the quartet’s heart as learnt in Aldeburgh.

They played with verve and sympathy, mastering Britten’s unique string sonorities, the final tour de force of the first movement where all three themes are played simultaneously coming over powerfully.

Fantastical sonorities were at the heart of the whirlwind vivace.

By far the longest movement, the chacony, Britten’s archaic homage to Purcell, came over most expressively, the ecstatic playing of the three upper voices over the cello’s strumming sounding particularly beautiful.

The Maxwell Quartet had vividly and engagingly drawn in the Perth public to two great quartets they obviously loved.