Music / Mendelssohn – Ginastera – Pink Floyd, Phoenix Collective Quartet. At the Wesley Uniting Church, June 14. Reviewed by IAN McLEAN.

The innovative Phoenix Collective Quartet provided an evening of exciting and most enjoyable entertainment with the second concert in their 2024 touring program. 

These excellent musicians, Dan Russell and Pip Thompson (violins), Ella Brinch (viola), and Andrew Wilson (cello), play with real passion and the genuine love they have of both their craft and the music they perform is strikingly obvious. 

On a cold Canberra evening the quartet wrapped an audience of devotees in a warm blanket of beautiful music with a performance that was technically outstanding, with meticulous attention to dynamic contrast and control, a mastery of complex rhythms and intonation of the highest quality.

The concert opened with four songs from the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon album grouped into a classic string quartet format. It was astounding to discover that the album was released 51 years ago and that the British psychedelic rock band was formed nearly 60 years ago. Much of Pink Floyd’s music deals with mental illness. It was this connection that was explored during the concert.

The relentless rhythm of the second movement became overly repetitive and lacking in tonal and rhythmic contrast but, otherwise, the rock charts sat well with the string quartet. 

Moods varied from sobering and meditative, with the cello a fine alternative to the bass guitar, to lush and emotive with the soaring 1st violin melodies quite brilliant.

I found the concert highlight to be the String Quartet No 1, op 20 by the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. New music to me, it is based on traditional folk music with pulsating rhythms, a slow movement nod to the classical guitar and rural dances. 

Such music allows the imagination of the listener to roam freely. The composer had been a protester against the Peron government so the helter skelter first movement seemed to signify the wildness of a revolutionary spirit with the dramatic sounds bordering on scary film score music. 

Despite its quiet dynamic, the energy of the second movement painted a picture of relentless running from the authorities, staying ahead but always in danger of being caught. 

The slow third movement produced an image of a man struggling to maintain balance on slippery rocks before finally escaping to some soft sand at ocean’s edge before a finale of more running, darting in and out of dark streets with no knowledge of danger that could be just around the corner.

The Felix Mendelssohn String Quartet No 6 in F minor, op 80 completed the enthralling 90-minute performance. It was written soon after the death of his beloved sister Fanny and not long before Mendelssohn himself passed away as a result of a stroke. 

After a dynamic start the first movement contrasts momentum with reflection and a feeling of loss, then some peace and moments of thanksgiving. Despite being somewhat bright and breezy, turmoil returns in the second movement with a question of the need for life to end. The slow and dreamy adagio reflects on loss before a dark and foreboding finale which, despite its rapid tempo, is punctuated with harsh, crying chords.

This was a high-quality concert of many moods and colours. The Phoenix Collective Quartet ensured that all present were rewarded with a memorable and uplifting experience.