Goldner Quartet: Child’s Play

The Strad Issue: June 2026

Description: An Australian quartet bows out with style

Musicians: Goldner Quartet, Dimity Hall (violin) Julian Smiles (cello) Umberto Clerici (cello) Piers Lane (piano)

Works: Vine: Piano Quintet ‘Fantasia’; Strutt Sonata; String Quintet; Piano Trio ‘The village’; String Quartet no.6 ‘Child’s play’; Harbour reverie

Catalogue number: HYPERION CDA685212 (2 CDs)

This is a fine showcase for the string music of the Australian composer Carl Vine, given by several of his close collaborators. The Piano Quintet ‘Fantasia’ demonstrates his complex but attractive harmonic language and facility with sinuous melody. It also shows, for most of the works here at least, his practice of running movements together into a continuous whole. The Goldner Quartet’s playing is clear-toned and understated as the work flows its continuously unfolding way, gently atmospheric with a rhythmically vital final section. Cellist Julian Smiles and pianist Piers Lane capture the frequent emotional urgency of the Strutt Sonata, and play the aria at its heart with singing sensitivity before the high-spirited final section, with Smiles making deft work of its technical challenges.

Vine wrote his String Quintet as a companion piece to Schubert’s Quintet, with two cellos and four (continuous) movements. The first is busy and wide-ranging, played with agility and a general lightness of touch; the slow movement is given with deep feeling. His Piano Trio ‘The village’ is a cornucopia of arresting ideas jostling their way through the three movements, with quiet contemplation at its centre. The Sixth String Quartet ‘Child’s play’ is in five linked movements, each with names such as ‘Friendship’ and ‘Running’ as they evoke aspects of a child’s world and experience, played with beguiling sensitivity. There is magic in the fourth movement ‘Sleep’, with its breathy chords and quiet floating solos. The final work, ‘Harbour reverie’ for string quartet, neatly imagines a friend crossing Sydney Harbour on her way to work. It rounds off an album of constantly inventive music, beautifully played. The recording has excellent balance and clarity.

Tim Homfray