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THE members of the Herschel Quartet – Nicola Bates, Sophie Greenhalgh-Jesson, Conall Gleeson, Siriol Hugh-Jones – are Brighton-based former members of the Dartington Festival Orchestra, forming in 2012.
Regular performers at the Science Centre in Herstmonceux, they tour extensively. On this showing they deserve even more exposure. There are few Sussex-based quartets as it is.
They played the Elgar in E Minor first. It’s one of a trio of late chamber works from 1918, just before the Cello Concerto and its autumnal devastation shows. The three movements are agitated and not strikingly differentiated, even the "cavalry squadron" as Elgar’s wife described the finale. The quartet never try to force pace or expression, allowing the rich Brahmsian strands room to breathe, braided with Elgar’s wiry war-torn accelerandos, drooping with E minor’s register of loss.
Beethoven’s Opus 59/1 in F marks a massive leap in his quartet-writing, with its uncertain probing into the home key during the majestic but varied allegro. It also displayed a cheerful, lilting off-beat scherzo and extraordinary adagio.
The finale’s Theme Russe develops continually, like the third, in sonata form and comes round full circle.
St Luke’s doesn’t often host quartets but if it was only to host one, this would be enough.
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