Emerson string quartet, Queen Elizabeth Hall - music review

Some accuse the Emerson Quartet of having all the soul of a well-oiled machine but last night’s performance had passion, energy and wit. Perhaps some credit should go to British cellist Paul Watkins, who joined the quartet last year. He comes relatively fresh to their repertoire, which the otherwise all-American Emersons have been exploring for 40 years. No doubt his exuberance has refreshed his colleagues.

In Haydn’s string quartet known as The Joke (not Haydn’s title), there was suave cheer in the playing, briefly marred by some scratchy intonation. When we reached the “joke” (“When’s it ending? Are we there yet?”), the Emersons were at their best, the touch light so as not to overplay the humour. Ravel’s String Quartet followed, its ebb and flow expertly caught, the second movement pizzicatos a dazzling array.

The concert ended with Beethoven’s String Quartet No 13, complete with the Grosse Fuge (“great fugue”) that so perplexed audiences that the composer agreed to write something more ingratiating. Here, the odd harsh sound was entirely appropriate. Not that everything was of heart-baring intensity. In the third movement the playing took on the timbre of human weeping, while the Cavatina was songful and inward-looking.

As the last moments of the fugue sounded, violinist Eugene Drucker all but staggered backwards as if he’d been seared. So had we.