When the biographies for the instruments take up as much space in the programme as the biographies for the performers, something different is about to occur. A multi-million pound Stradivarius ensemble graced the stage at Cadogan Hall last night. Violin dealers J & A Beare celebrated its 130th anniversary in lavish style by bringing together eight of the Cremona luthier’s exceptional instruments for Felix Mendelssohn’s brilliant, youthful Octet. One shudders to think of the insurance.
But an instrument, even a Strad, is only as good as its player and the octet gathered here under the direction of Janine Jansen was as exceptional a string supergroup as I’ve encountered in the flesh. The Dutch violinist was joined by violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, viola player Timothy Ridout, cellist Kian Soltani and the Quatuor Ébène, the stylish French string quartet. Judging by the near capacity turnout, string aficionados were drooling at the prospect.
It’s remarkable to assemble eight such instruments on the same platform, especially the two violas given that there are only 12 Stradivarius violas in the entire world! Five of the performers were playing on their regular instruments, including Jansen on her familiar 1715 Shumsky, Rode, but three were loaned a Strad for the evening: Ébène violinist Gabriel Le Magadure on the 1727 Deurbroucq, Timothy Ridout on the 1720 Kux, Castelbarco and Ébène cellist Raphaël Merlin on the 1692 Segelman, which is usually played by British cellist Guy Johnston.
The evening opened with Ernest Chausson’s Concert in D major, with its late autumnal feel of mists, wet leaves and nostalgia. It was composed for Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, who had requested a violin concerto. Chausson instead provided a work on a smaller scale – piano and string quartet providing the quasi-orchestral accompaniment. The Ébènes offered a firm, muscular backing, while Denis Kozhukhin – Jansen’s regular recital partner – painted deft piano pictures. The tone of Jansen’s Shumsky, Rode, dusky in its lower register, had silky chestnut sweetness at the top, never felt forced, even in the aching phrases in Chausson’s long first movement.
The Sicilienne ideally needed more lilt and lift, but the slow movement, which opens with a long duo for violin and piano, was steeped in melancholy before the Ébènes eventually joined with what felt like a long exhalation. Jansen and friends found an almost symphonic texture for the finale, where Chausson weaves together many earlier themes. It’s a much underrated work; in these hands – and on these instruments – one wonders why.
Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat major, on the other hand, is a justly acclaimed masterpiece, written when the composer was only 16, one year before his brilliant overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Indeed, the Octet’s skittering Scherzo, with its elfin grin, seems to foreshadow the overture’s fairies. The full octet of Strads made the piece zing, a performance full of collegiate nods and smiles, none more so than Marie Chilemme, often turning appreciatively to her viola and cello neighbours. Kian Soltani – luxury casting on Cello 2 – and Raphaël Merlin launched the finale with frenetic energy but the overwhelming feel was of bright Italianate sunshine hitting one’s face, most welcome in mid-December.
A jarring crunch of gears closed the evening, a skit by comedy duo Igudesman & Joo, overlong and not to all tastes given the exodus of audience members who left before they delivered their best musical gag, a mash-up – with full Strad ensemble – of Rachmaninov and Gloria Gaynor.
