Chiaroscuro Quartet, Lakeside, Nottingham, 26 October, 2023.

5*****: William Ruff

Music isn’t just about sound and we need more than our ears to experience it. The Chiaroscuro Quartet know this, their name the mission statement of an ensemble whose art is centred on the most subtle use of light and shade, like those old master painters who knew exactly how to illuminate sainthood amid the surrounding darkness.

They are the latest world-class chamber group to appear at Lakeside. Thursday’s concert was always going to be a sell-out. The Chiaroscuro Quartet have many critically acclaimed recordings to their name – but they’re the sort of group that really has to be experienced live. They play on period instruments appropriate to their repertoire, which involves gut strings and using different bows. It takes the ears a few seconds to adjust but then hearing them becomes an almost tactile experience, their sound an essential part of their interpretation. And they stand to play, becoming almost balletic in their gestures, making their passing and receiving of musical ideas from one to the other part of what makes their playing so compelling.

They started with Haydn (Op. 33 No 6): transparent textures with elegant, perfectly judged, constantly shifting dynamics. The opening movement was like witnessing a conversation whose participants change unpredictably from agreeing with ideas to mischievously trying to undercut them.

Then came Mendelssohn’s early (he was only 18) String Quartet No 2 in a performance which left you wondering why this music isn’t better known. The Chiaroscuro Quartet relished its delicacy, extrovert passion and intricacy of texture. The 3rd movement Intermezzo seemed to sum up their approach: an exquisite start, control of dynamics down to a mere whisper, a lighter-than-air approach to the elfin central section, all whilst exploiting the possibilities of the gut strings, especially when creating some wonderful buzzing effects.

After the interval clarinettist Matthew Hunt joined them for Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. He used a copy of an 18th century instrument, explaining (in an entertainingly informative introduction) the challenges of playing a clarinet which lacks modern keys and whose unevenness of sound has to be tamed. He also opened ears to the operatic influences on the Quintet, a point which really illuminated the performance. Their playing was full not only of elegance but of character, wit and the sort of attention to minute detail which breathed life into every phrase. It really reached into the heart of what chamber music is all about.

Chiaroscuro Quartet: Alina Ibragimova (violin), Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux (violin), Emilie Hörnlund (viola), Claire Thirion (cello)

Matthew Hunt (clarinet)