IT WASN'T just the frequently melancholy sound of the key of A minor. That familiar spell was cast with an extra mist-layer of wistfulness. The effect was from the period instruments under the fingers of the Erioica Quartet.
Since their formation in 1993, they have been committed to rediscovering the style and sound of performance during the romantic period and gaining new perspectives. Assisted by Dr Clive Brown, they have been exploring, among other research, the bowin
gs and fingerings in music editions from the era.
The sound was often more remote, which created an aura around the late Beethoven opus 132 that rendered the music even deeper and paradoxically ungrounded in its effect. To hear Mendelssohn's first quartet, completed in the year of Beethoven's death (1827) and undoubtedly under its influence, the atmosphere was also apposite.
Mendelssohn's probable subject was romance itself, since he quoted at the head of the score a song including the words: "Is it true that you are waiting for me in the arbour by the vine-clad wall?"
Say no more, good Sire, say no more . . .
The lighter weight of the overall sound enhanced the switch to the minor key from the major-key introduction — to hear "major-to-minor" exponent Schubert played by this Quartet would be an extraordinary as well as an instructive experience — and there was a palpable sense of the music (the lovers?) breathing in at the end of the first movement.
A Mendelssohn scherzo is rarely less than a magical thrill and sure enough, the trademark Midsummer Night's Dream feeling was served up after the slow-marching that began what the composer actually named an intermezzo. And the Eroica's approach imbued another will-o'-the-wisp ending with extra elusiveness.
With a minimum of left-hand vibrato in the string playing most marked in the themes and effects on Peter Hanson's first violin, the Beethoven came absorbingly veiled and muted.
The elongated, contemplative church chords of Beethoven's third-movement, "Holy song of thanksgiving of an invalid to the deity, in the Lydian mode", intensified the sense of privacy, mystery, and it being of another world — words that go some way towards describing the realm of Beethoven's late quartets.
And with yet another almost full-house audience attracted, so concluded the triumphant 10th season of Coffee Concerts at the Old Market.
Chief executive Stephen Neiman, introducing the morning, reflected: "Who would believe that we are entering our second decade?
"Especially after the 2000 furore when Brighton & Hove Council spent £4½m on the place — and then said we were of no strategic importance to the borough.
"All I know is they got it wrong."
The new series will commence on October 18 and include visits by the Pavel Haas, the Endellion and the Brodsky Quartets. There will also be two piano recitals, one a Chopin on January 24.
For those who have come to savour music around their coffee or sherry and indulgent cake, May 17 (11am) brings a repeat opportunity with a special programme at the Old Market in the Brighton Festival Fringe.
"Haydn In Love" features a narrator (hopefully telling us how, where and with whom), and members of the world class period instruments Hanover Band playing two of his Piano Trios and joining with fortepianist Gary Cooper in two Mozart Piano Concertos.
The trios are those in G Hob XXV (Gypsy Rondo) and A Hob XVIII, and the concertos No 12 in A and No 13 in C. With these small forces, it is a fascinating prospect. Welcome to a select upper room in Vienna . . .
Tickets (01273 736222): £20 (£16), £12 and £10; with £5 for full-time students and under-22s.
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