Auryns play Haydn with cheer, wit

Beethoven, Haydn superb

Music and Beyond Day 3 Auryn Quartet Dominion-Chalmers United Church Reviewed Monday at 2 p.m.

Dominion-Chalmers Church wasn’t full, but there was a decent turnout Monday afternoon for the first of the three concerts by the Auryn Quartet during this year’s Music and Beyond festival. The program included major works by Haydn and Beethoven, products of the composers’ late periods, and a seldom-heard Intermezzo by Hugo Wolf.

It began with Haydn’s penultimate string quartet, the F major, op. 77, no. 2. This work, while similar in style to much of the composer’s mature work, might be mistaken for something by Beethoven. In the customary four movements, it is of good cheer and but also of some weight.

The Auryns played it seemingly as an old friend, familiar in all its ways, yet with the same elegance and wit that must have struck them the first time they played it. The outer movements were forceful and gracious at the same time. The scherzo-like second movement was notable for its evenness and consistency, while the slow third movement was equally poised and balanced.

The Wolf Intermezzo, a work I don’t recall hearing before, has a kind of core grace, almost Viennese in feeling but, paradoxically, a lot of the strong chromaticism for which the composer is known. Early in the performance the musicians weren’t entirely convincing with some of the score’s more angular harmonies, but that was soon sorted out.

Chamber music enthusiasts like to debate which of Beethoven’s late quartets is the greatest. I’m not sure exactly how one measures such things. Some are inclined to say the F major, op. 135, but many others would say the A minor, op. 132, the last music the great composer wrote.

Without exactly entering the “greatness” debate, my personal favourite is the C-sharp minor, op. 131. It was also Beethoven’s favourite.

It is in seven movements played without pause. The emotional balance is even throughout the score’s nearly 40-minute duration, though the long and complex fourth movement might be called its fulcrum. The Auryns played it in a way that has gone slightly out of fashion. They don’t apologize for its grand gestures or symphonic proportions, but neither do they exaggerate its proto-Romantic elements. It was an eminently satisfying and moving performance.

The Auryn Quartet will give two more performances in Dominion-Chalmers, Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday at 2 p.m.