Edward Bhesania hears the performance of Haydn and Brahms at London’s Wigmore Hall on 18 January 2026
This wasn’t quite the UK debut of the New York-based Isidore Quartet – that had taken place two days earlier, in Halifax, West Yorkshire – but at its Wigmore Hall debut, this all-male ensemble keenly displayed precisely the qualities that led to its winning the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022.
In Haydn’s ‘Sunrise’ Quartet in B flat major op.76 no.4, the musicians combined a range of tonal colouring (including sometimes minimal vibrato) and attack with pristine cohesion, always underpinned by joy and naturalness.
Occasionally it felt as if leader Phoenix Avalon could dial up his expression in line with that of his fellow players, including in the dance-like outer sections of the Minuet; but the musette-like Trio section came over with a raw, rustic drone, and there were high spirits in the finale, especially in its Più presto coda. Most memorable, though, was the group’s command of atmosphere in the Adagio, in which time seemed suspended.
Second violin Adrian Steele and violist Devin Moore were the attuned hunting horns in the first movement of Brahms’s Third String Quartet op.67. The theme-and-variations finale lacked nothing in cosy congeniality. As an aside, cellist Joshua McClendon’s apparently effortless physical movement – which translated into the sound – was a tonic in itself.
EDWARD BHESANIA
Read: Sharing the spotlight: The Isidore Quartet at Honens 2025
Read: Promise and possibility: the Isidore Quartet
Read: Isidore Quartet scoops victory at 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition
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