Cellophilia: Piatti Quartet at the Razumovsky Music Studio
Piatti Quartet and Oleg Kogan
Razumovsky Music Studio
Thank you, Hugh, for bringing me along
5 June 2018
Programme
Schubert, String Quintet in C, first movement
Britten, String Quartet no. 1, first two movements
Turnage, Twisted Blues with Twisted Ballad, third movement
Mendelssohn, String Quartet in F minor
I felt like a privileged insider and something of an imposter at the Razumovsky Music Studio, a former shop (I guess) in Kensal Rise that has been endowed with a super snazzy downstairs recording studio cum performance chamber, which looks out onto a smart patio where I imagine talented young musicians have impassioned awkward debates about Mahler. The performance was to raise funds for the Piatti’s new commission from Turnage, who was in attendance, and was followed by a buffet dinner accompanied by a performance from a seven-year-old violinist accomplishedly playing music that raised the odd heebie-jeebie spectre from my own violining days. I even attempted to engage in some out-of-my-depth hobnobbing about other private performances my interlocutor had been to.
So it was an interesting space with a very classy acoustic that was perhaps rather too revealing for the Britten but worked brilliantly with everything else; the only downside was that the nature of the event led to a celebration of the snippet over the complete work, which I can’t imagine was the preference of the performers or the audience. Alright, maybe the performers would prefer that, but selfishly I would have cut the Turnage (I know, the entire raison d’être so that’s not going to happen) and the Britten (a piece I love but which really didn’t display the Piatti to their best advantage) and indulged in a full rendition of the Schubert alongside that of the Mendelssohn.
Which is to say that the first movement of the Schubert made for a very punchy opening, perhaps a bit ludicrously intense for an offing but on the other hand it celebrates what is best about the Piatti, i.e. its cellist, Jessie Ann Richardson. She is on a different level from the other three, serenely carrying all before her, driving the rhythm and securing the pitch for her occasionally wayward companions as they excitedly rush and ensharpen away. Just as the Schubert, the Mendelssohn similarly was performed with great passion and recognition of its genius, all crucially held together by Richardson.
I’ll sound cutting when I say it was good to be reminded of what a difficult piece the Britten is to perform, but it’s true. It really is merciless to the violins and I wonder how their later performance at the Aldeburgh went, for which this was presumably something of a rehearsal. The Turnage pleasantly passed the time, titillating me with some cool chords – but not knowing beyond one or two listens Led Zeppelin’s A Stairway to Heaven I feel a lot of its knowing funk was lost on me.
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