Wigmore Hall
String Quintet in C major, KV 515; String Quintet in G minor, KV 516
Edward Dusinberre
Visits from the Takács Quartet are always a highlight, for me, of a Wigmore Hall season. To be joined by Timothy Ridout for two Mozart string quintets made this one, if anything, still more so. Both works from spring 1787, falling between Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, they breathe the air of those operas. It was difficult not to think of them from time to time during these performances—and why would one try? Also characteristic of both was a sense of ‘rightness’ to tempo. Rarely, if ever, will there be a ‘correct’ answer in absolute terms, though there may sometimes be something closer to that in proportionality; but this spoke of knowledge of and ease with the works, as a springboard to further exploration. It was clear that the players relished the fuller texture of a viola quintet, equally clear that this was shared by a receptive audience.
In any case, the C major Quintet opened as one sensed it ‘should’, cello and first violin duet presaging many other such passages, shared between the entire quintet, other entries propelling the first movement’s opening rhythmically and harmonically and its development thereafter. Mozart’s developing variation of the opening arpeggio figure was neither more nor less prominent than balance and motivic coherence and consequence required. Formal expectations and surprises were, similarly, equally fulfilled, simplicity and complexity shown to be not only in balance but two sides to the same coin. Pairs of instruments again came to the fore delightfully in the minuet, the two violas perhaps a special joy. Its trio threw everything up into the air, music resettling in magically restored order. Echoes of orchestral dances, both passed and to come, resounded. Taken third as it usually though not always is, the Andante benefited from judicious balance between space and momentum, harmony and counterpoint. Instrumental drama played out as if this were a scene from Figaro. Above all, the finale smiled: not in spite of the cares and tears, but on their account. As light as it was rich as it was deep, it again permitted all to fall into place, however much that were a case of art concealing art.
The turn from major to minor in the guise
of the G minor Quintet was less a turn from happy to sad – Mozart is rarely
without sadness – than from comedy to tragedy, at least to begin with. A Shakespearean
realm, or perhaps better a different such realm, had been entered, inevitably
foreshadowing the great G minor Symphony, though this particular tonality has
much wider resonance than that with Mozart. Pamina too, came to mind in a first
movement both light yet involved, seemingly effortlessly generative. If the
performance occasionally approached Beethoven, as indeed did that of its counterpart
in the C major Quintet, that is only because Mozart does. The development was
full of surprises, even – especially? – when they were expected. There have
been more vehement returns, but there are many ways to accomplish this, and
relative lightness of touch was not to be confused with lightness of attitude.
The radicalism of the minuet was furthered rather than effaced by the ambiguity
of its consolations. Its trio emerged as a dramatic necessity, instrumental
necessities ‘speaking’, or perhaps better singing, as if dramatic asides. If
Beethoven came to mind again in the slow movement, the contrasts were as
striking as any similarities, both in any case a matter of substance rather
than mere ‘style’. Its veiled quality – literally muted – seemed to hark back
to older consorts, only for an inner sigh to change everything, prophetic as
much of a Schubert song as of opera. There was likewise a far from
inappropriate hint of Schubert to the mysteries of the finale’s introduction,
before new vistas both delighted and chilled. If transition to the Allegro
partly suggested Haydn, the emergence of the first subject ‘proper’ attested to
twin fragility and strength that could be none other than Mozart’s, both born
of and liberated by the very texture of the viola quintet.
