The third Sunday morning Coffee Concert series was launched in style by the young Jubilee Quartet at the Corn Exchange with a varied programme that showcased their versatility and virtuosity.
After a vibrant account of Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in C, opus 54 no. 2, one of his most original and surprising chamber works, the Jubilee gave us Leos Janacek’s Intimate Letters and Franz Schubert’s Death And The Maiden.
Janacek’s Intimate Letters, composed in 1928 (the year of his death) is an impassioned reflection on his complicated private life. It gives all four musicians moments of prominence and expressive freedom in which the Jubilee excelled while always being a disciplined ensemble.
Death And The Maiden is one of the best-known string quartets, and many quartets approach it as a challenge to be overcome with strident and even astringent playing.
But Schubert’s music does not need manufactured drama to be added, and the Jubilee allowed the music to speak for itself. The result was sublime and convincing, and the tricky final bars were quite brilliantly played.
The Jubilee Quartet, formed in 2006 at the Royal Academy of Music, comprises Tereza Privatska, their leader, and Amy Tress, violins, Stephanie Edmundson, viola, and Lauren Steel, cello.
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