Review: Tokyo String Quartet at Auckland Town Hall

On Friday evening, the Tokyo String Quartet introduced themselves with one of the most vivacious of all Haydn's String Quartets, the Opus 76 no 5.

Here is a work with more than its fair share of the composer's trademark surprises, the first being the way in which a guileless opening theme is surreptitiously worked through such astonishing transformations. The four musicians underlined every twist and turn with discretion and wit, from curling and curly counterpoints to a shattering storm of D minor dramatics.

While Haydn ensures that the Largo slow movement stands out through its unexpected choice of key, here it was also distinguished by some particularly songful playing from Martin Beaver. Telling contributions from the other players made one expect, and not be disappointed by, elegant musical banter in the later Finale.

Janacek's Intimate Letters Quartet is one of the last works the 73-year-old composer wrote, a score which forcefully melds, or rather juxtaposes, the worlds of the modernist Bartok with the vital rhythms and timbres of gypsy music. The Tokyo String Quartet had such a unity of purpose and ensemble that journeying through the shifting emotional states of this volatile score had the immediacy of a night at the theatre, or relaxing under the spell of a master tale-teller.

Brahms' Opus 67 Quartet set off in slightly ruffled waters as far as intonation was concerned, but it was not long before the musicians were displaying the clarity and precision that we associate with them, especially in the jaunty, Bohemian-style second theme.

Once again it was a slow movement, one of Brahms' most lingeringly elegiac, that inspired some of the best playing of the evening. Beaver's violin arched over the throbbing, insistent chords of his colleagues; phrasing and dynamics were impeccably tailored, nowhere more so than in the "dolce e grazioso" passage that ushers back the main theme.

This being Haydn year, the Finale from the first of the composer's Opus 50 was an appropriate encore, delivered with hats-in-the-air speed. Once again, Haydn was having immense fun twisting his themes every which way and the Tokyo String Quartet never missed a turn.