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Blackheath Sundays Blackheath Halls, London, 25th January and 1st February Alba String Quartet Two Sunday mornings, two reviews, but of first halves only of Blackheath concerts, their lengths equivalent to the whole of the Wigmore Hall's usually sold-out preprandial Coffee Concerts. The Irish born duo Morgan & Dullea (one from the North, the other a Southener) should be congratulated for their enterprising programming, and in getting a sizeable audience to Blackheath, even though there were limitations in the execution. Morgan is a (? too) busy musician, active on radio & TV and also in the pop industry. His intonation and command of harmonics were a little shaky, which made his advocacy of Ustvolskaya not completely convincing. And his accomplished pianist was inclined to be a little - dull; and did not voice chords and vary textures as much as one is entitled to expect. So Prokofiev's delightful Melodies didn't take wing and four of Shostakovich's piano preludes showed me that the originals are better than these arrangements. Mary Dullea warned timid listeners that Ustvolskaya's rare Duet was harsh and extreme, mainly very loud and would take a quarter of an hour ; it seemed like twenty minutes, and long ones! Nothing like it had ever sullied the devotioinal calm of a Blackheath Sundays audience! Not, though, a good introduction to this most iconoclastic of important 20th C. composers; readers interested to try to begin to come to terms with her should click on the link to see my comparative review of her piano music for recommendations of the best CDs. A family commitment made it impossible to stay and hear them in Stravinsky or Gubaidulina, but I fear that Morgan's Dancer on a Tightrope, with glass tumbler inside the piano, would have been no competition for Gidon Kremer's live recording on BIS-CD-898. The Alba String Quartet (Nicola Sweeney, Jana Ludvickova, Fay Sweet and Tony Woollard) made a good impression at Blackheath Halls with a well planned first half of their Sunday Morning recital. The Albas, who have taken part recently in a Brian Friel play in Dublin, hold a fellowship at Trinity College of Music, London and hopefully will give many more recitals at the college and in Blackheath. The Schubert movement was given a strong, steady performance without frills, one that renewed your certainty that this is a durable masterpiece, even though standing alone, and good enough to drive out, for the duration, other more subtle and refined accounts heard over the years. My only reservation was with the very busy leader's tone on her E string, sometimes tending towards a little shrillness, which needs checking. Otherwise, a good hour of chamber music. I had missed hearing the Albas in contemporary repertoire as PLG Young Artists 2003, so was glad that they included Robert Saxton's Fantazias. The composer was present to hear again his well-remembered set-piece for the 1994 International String Quartet Competition which I had attended, hearing the then new work most of a dozen times! And last, ideal for a Sunday morning, a selection of Dvorak's transcriptions of his love songs for his future wife, which go well on the string quartet. The original 18 songs can be enjoyed with Philip Langridge accompanied by Radoslav Kvapil on a delectable CD, Unicorn-Kanchana DKP 9115. I was not able to stay to hear Brahms no 1 because of an afternoon commitment, but in truth would only have done so out of a sense of duty, though I am sure the Albas will have given a sound account of it. But there are some canonical classics that confront critics too regularly, and for me this Brahms quartet is one of them. On the other hand, there are others of which one never tires, even after a hundred and more hearings! Why is that? Comments from readers, and lists of both categories, would be greatly welcomed?
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