Maggini String Quartet, Kendal Town Hall

Kendal Midday Concert Club’s season came to an end with a recital by the distinguished Maggini String Quartet and the equally distinguished pianist Martin Roscoe. As expected, this concert attracted a large audience and the quality of the playing made it one of the highlights of the current season.

The Magginis are known to be meticulous in their detailed study and preparation and this showed in their performance of Alan Rawsthorne’s second string quartet. Rawsthorne (best known for his film score The Cruel Sea) is a composer whose music is out of fashion at the moment. His stringent counterpoint is not easy on the ear but this performance was remarkable for the clarity of the playing and subtlety of phrasing which helped to define the thematic material. The technical control, ensemble and the quality of sound produced by these fine players was breath-taking: a joy for the eye and the ear.

Martin Roscoe joined the quartet for a fine performance of Elgar’s nostalgic, elegiac Piano Quintet. It is characteristic of the composer’s late style, full of expansive romantic melodies, rich harmonies and huge climaxes. It soon became obvious that this would be a performance to treasure. Elgar demands a big sound from all five players and it is all too easy in this work for the pianist to drown out the strings. This did not happen: the piano never overwhelmed the strings even at the powerful central climax. There was some beautiful pianissimo playing from all five players and their subtle use of rubato helped to heighten the emotional content of the music.

The sublime second movement, the emotional heart of the work, was played with great tenderness. Again, the sheer beauty of the sound was overwhelming. The turbulent finale, so full of Elgarian touches, brought the concert to a magnificent conclusion with the long thunderous coda drawing equally thunderous applause from a delighted audience.

Clive Walkley