ENF Closing Concert

Bowhouse, St Monans 29/6/25

Pavel Haas Quartet, Elias Quartet, Castalian Quartet, Belcea Quartet

Billed as ‘Beethoven Late Quartets 5’, the closing classical concert of the East Neuk Festival 2025, on the afternoon of 29th June, was not merely the completion of the cycle with the Pavel Haas Quartet performing Op.135, but also a celebration of the Festival’s 20th birthday, with 3 other world-class string quartets, all with long association with the Festival, joining the party.  Thus the concert opened with the Elias, Castalian, Belcea and Pavel Haas Quartets joining on the stage of the Bowhouse, all except the 4 cellists standing, in a performance of Sibelius’ 1922 ‘Andante Festivo’, originally written for string quartet.  As his 1938 arrangement for string orchestra includes a timpani part, I suspect that what we heard was the original with 4-to-a-part.  The mood of the music was wistful, nostalgic and heart-warming.  The rich, warm tone of the ensemble sound was absolutely glorious.  Before the concert was over, we would hear the 4 quartets in ensemble again.  The huge colourful Esme McIntyre mural that was a backdrop to the Opening Concert was still in place, adding to the festive mood.

Beethoven’s Op.135 returns to a simplicity of traditional form, directness of expression and, at least initially, a genial narrative demeanour that sets it apart from the other late quartets.  The Pavel Haas Quartet allowed gentle dynamics, subtle use of tenuto in the phrasing and adherence to Beethoven’s dynamic and tempo markings to deliver a lightness of texture and a first movement suffused with F-major sunshine, the one moment of encroaching anxiety elegantly sidestepped as the composer intended.  The utterly bonkers scherzo, a riotously drunken, syncopated rustic dance, mostly feather-light, but full of dynamic contrasts and a central section where the key shifts to G for a rhapsodic first violin solo, and then A for cavorting, egged on by raucous cheers from the other three, was absolutely superb.  I have known the slow movement of Op.135 for over 5 decades and I still know of no other piece so achingly beautiful or quite so certain to summon my tears.  A slow tender D-flat major song of devotion is sung sotto voce, with simple polyphony.  Then, in C#-minor, slower, quieter and haltingly, as if choking back tears, a secret sadness is confided homophonically.   D-flat major then returns in the original tempo, relieved of its burden, the consolatory melody soaring free.  For the last 12 bars, the first violin sings a lullaby of such touching tenderness that I find it impossible to hold back tears.  Every time.  Including this one.  Perhaps because of the less intimate venue and the fact I was expecting it, I was perhaps not quite as incapacitated as by the Belcea’s encore in Craill Church, but it was up there.  The troubling and insistent (but non-specific) Grave F-minor ‘difficult question’ that opens the finale, “must it be?” is answered (for now) “it must be!” and the sunny F-major Allegro sets off.  A lyrical A-major bridge and the second theme is introduced on the cello and picked up by the first violin.  After an exposition repeat, things start to go awry in the development, with fragments, including the bridge, developed in remote and unsettling keys.  Just as things are falling apart, the “question” returns with a peremptory vengeance and refuses to be fobbed off.  Perhaps all is lost?  But no.  After a moment of indecision, an even keel is established and F-major is re-established, older and wiser.  A moment of harmonic hesitation and the tripping gleeful coda (one of the happiest passages I know)  affirms that all is well.  Beautifully played with every detail clearly pointed.

After the interval, a special treat in the form of a world premiere of a piece commissioned specially for the Festival, Sally Beamish’s ‘Field of Stars for four quartets’, performed by the 4 string quartets participating in this year’s event and written specifically with them in mind.  In addition to their instruments, the four seated cellists each had a suspended bell to tap, tuned to (in German notation) the notes H, E, C and B, the initials of their respective quartet, also representing 4 stars associated with navigation in the Northern Hemisphere.  As the other 12 musicians walked towards the 4 corners of the Bowhouse, one from each quartet played fragments of melodies associated with their cultural roots, starting with Donald Grant of the Elias Quartet playing fragments of a traditional Scottish fiddle tune.  A sense of déjà vu hit me: this was exactly how the opening concert in the same venue had begun – a rather pleasing conceit.  The fragments coalesced into arrangements of the whole melodies, each associated with a sort of pilgrimage (Compostela can be interpreted as ‘Field of Stars’).  As bells ‘rang the changes’ each group then played Sally’s arrangement of folk tunes they themselves had suggested from their respective backgrounds, over cello drones.  The piece concludes with a medieval hymn to St Andrew,  This tickled me, as attending the East Neuk Festival has become an annual ‘pilgrimage’ for me.

The Festival concluded with Mendelssohn’s evergreen Octet, played by the Belcea and Castalian quartets (and, with 4 string quartets on the premises, as my brother would say. “Sure, ‘twould be rude not to”).  The optimistic and confident E-flat major first movement launched with a rich warm sound (but pleasingly open-textured) and a sense of forward motion without any sense of being ‘driven’.  Sweet tone conveyed the youthful romanticism and the astonishingly mature musical argument of the 16-year old’s sonata form was cogently argued.  The relative C-minor of the slow movement’s yearning serenade conveyed a hint of melancholy, offset by the idyllic cascading major scale episode that occurs twice and was exquisite.  The mischievous energetic light-footed scampering of the Scherzo was a joyful romp, despite the minor key setting.  As if a starting pistol had been fired, one cello with another in hot pursuit launched from the blocks in the fugato dash that is the Presto finale, chased by the others up the stave and I don’t know when I’ve heard it so fast.  Fabulously ingenious counterpoint and quotations from the other movements, especially the Scherzo, were swept up in the chase as it hurtled to its gleeful close, wrapping up another East Neuk Festival.  Full marks from me.