Concert review: Chiaroscuro Quartet, Zeb Soanes (narrator)

Led by Alina Ibragimova and performing with historical bows on gut strings, the Chiaroscuro Quartet last year became an all-female ensemble after being joined by violinist Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux. In Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross the ensemble appeared alongside narrator (and former BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer and newsreader) Zeb Soanes, who interspersed Haydn’s seven slow ‘sonatas’ – each responding to one of Christ’s final words, or expressions, uttered on the Cross – with readings of texts (surprisingly unadvertised) by Andrew Motion, written in 1999 for the Endellion Quartet.

In Motion’s scheme, a man taking stock of his life is in dialogue with some guiding figure, possibly even his own conscience. Soanes pitched the pacing just right and naturally pointed up the moments of drama and interaction. But with more text than music the feeling overall was rather of a monologue with incidental music than vice versa.

The players, all standing save the cellist, projected an ideal balance of soloistic character with refined ensemble playing, though their impressive energy didn’t always translate to genuine passion. This said, the Introduction had the raw, elemental tone of Chaos from Haydn’s The Creation; the seventh sonata (muted) was played as a whisper; and the concluding ‘Il terremoto’ (The Earthquake) brimmed with sheer power.

EDWARD BHESANIA