Huntingdon Hall, Sunday 25 January 2015
The Coull Quartet are one of several groups who studied at the Royal Academy under Sidney Griller, emerged on to the concert scene in the 1970s and who have since been mainstays of the British and indeed international scene.The Coull still have two of their original members – Roger Coull and Philip Galloway, the violinists, and at Worcester the other players were Gustav Clarkson viola, who had several years with the quartet and Nicholas Roberts cello, with them for the past 15 years. As one would expect the ensemble work was exemplary and the freshness I first heard from them 40 years ago has in no way diminished.
The Worcester programme opened with the finest of Schubert's teen years quartets, the E Flat D. 87 with its many memorable tunes and hints of the great works to come.
The rarity in the programme was the 4th quartet, in D Minor, by Derek Smith, dedicated to the Coulls and premiered by them in 2012 – and recorded the following year. It is a memorial homage to Derek's close friend Leonard Whitehouse and is a serious minded work incorporating elements of a fitting threnody. The Coventry Carol is invoked and there are lighter elements in the striking scherzo. To grasp its construction needs more than one hearing but its melodic aspects are immediately appealing. Derek is a keen amateur composer and player and a former President of the Club; deserved plaudits are due.
Tchaikovsky's 3rd E flat minor quartet was an appropriate choice to follow Smith's work as it too was dedicated as a memorial to a close friend, the violinist Ferdinand Laub. The third movement is in fact a funeral march but this and the serious opening movement are balanced by two lighter sections that could almost have come out of the composer's ballets. Why are these tuneful Tschaikovsky chamber works so seldom played? Maybe they are too symphonic in scale and mood to fit the conventional quartet mould.
The Coull did wonders all through especially as they, and the audience, had to survive a failed heating system in the Hall! Congratulations to Worcester for engaging the group; now the need to is to expand the audience.
Ernie Kay