Whoever first used the phrase “enjoying second fiddle” to imply being much less vital can’t have recognized many string gamers. And so they presumably weren’t conversant in Brahms’s two youthful String Sextets, the place the quartet lineup is expanded with a second viola and a second cello – every a necessary thread within the music’s densely vibrant warp and weft.
Anybody unconvinced might need discovered a conversion expertise within the Belcea Quartet’s Wigmore Corridor efficiency with violist Tabea Zimmermann and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras. Within the String Sextet No 1, these world-class soloists took the primary half in every case: Zimmermann set the tone (wealthy, heat, beneficiant) whereas Queyras’s cello strains soared and sang because the unequivocal equal of Corina Belcea’s first violin. The second motion was viscous virtually to the purpose of stodginess – though in pudding type this intensely calorific sound would have been Michelin-starred and exquisitely proportioned. The central trio of the third was wild and biting, and within the finale, the Belcea’s new second violin, Suyeon Kang, surged to the fore via the thickets of counterpoint, whereas the primary violin was all of the sudden, strikingly featherweight and delicate in dialogue with the highly effective earthiness of Queyras’s cello.
After the interval, the violas and cellos swapped seats. The String Sextet No 2 that resulted was finely wrought and lucid the place No 1 had been strong. Zimmermann’s sun-baked tone unfold subtly outwards, whereas Queyras positioned pizzicatos like drops of liquid gold. Components of the primary motion have been icy within the sudden absence of vibrato; components of the second showcased complete symbiosis between the devices now grouped in threes, the sinuous melody long-breathed and generally little greater than a whisper. Even the trio’s energetic savagery was fastidiously formed, whereas the chromatic strains of the third motion have been limpid and fantastically unusual. The Belcea’s cellist Antoine Lederlin carved out his massive melodic second of the finale, his tone mellower than Queyras’s, earlier than giving option to others within the motion’s play of momentum and hiatus.
The closing moments have been virtually pointillistic as all six musicians hurled themselves via yet another activate Brahms’s harmonic merry-go-round – a collective effort, joyously unbuttoned.
