Jerusalem String Quartet at the Auckland Town Hall

By TARA WERNER

Members of the Jerusalem String Quartet have said, "we are friends, and we work well together. We've become one 16-string instrument."

What an understatement. These four musicians, all still twenty-something, play with such concentration that it is frightening to consider what they may be like in two decades' time.

The way they skilfully created an almost seamless blend throughout a solid programme of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich last Thursday night was testament to their close relationship.

But excellent technique was only one factor. The group could also communicate an intuitive understanding of each score.

A case in point was their emotional performance of Shostakovich's String Quartet No 3 Opus 73. Written, like all of his 15-string quartets, as a form of personal but coded musical diary, the Third was composed during the aftermath of the Second World War.

The bitter second movement had the viola playing the three-quarter rhythm with a heavy-handedness in total keeping with the sardonic qualities of an obsessive waltz.

The spine-tingling adagio, a highly effective passacaglia that Shostakovich wrote while contemplating the ruination of his home city of St Petersburg, was particularly plaintive.

And who could forget the cellist Kyril Zlotnikov's soliloquy during the finale?

Such deeply felt interpretations have an ethereal quality to them that cannot be explained, nor for that matter, analysed.

In comparison, their performance of Haydn's String Quartet No 5 Opus 76 was earthy and yet refined. Here, a genial Papa Haydn allows each instrument to have its own, equal voice.

On this occasion the music seemed to sing throughout all four movements, with sudden changes of mood and attractive shifts in tonality giving it an added intensity.

Finally, Beethoven's ghost seemed to hover throughout Mendelssohn's String Quartet Op 12, written when the composer was 20.

Once again it was performed just as beautifully as the Haydn beforehand, leaving the audience silent for a long moment before the applause began.