ALINEA QUARTET AT ROBINSON COLLEGE CHAPEL
Alinea Quartet on the way up
They don’t do things by halves in Germany when it comes to classical music competitions Ten thousand euro scooped at the celebrated Ton & Erklärung Festival by the Munich-based Alinea quartet followed by a further prize from Concorso Cittá di Filadelfia. Loaded with laurels, they made a spectacular appearance at Robinson College last year and stormed back tonight to give a memorable performance for a full house. Or full Chapel - a place which frankly outclasses most music venues in Cambridge for acoustic perfection and all round tonal resonance. Just as well as we do not, aside from West Road, have a proper concert hall, a gap constantly bewailed by The Cambridge Critique .
Robinson College Chapel with its fabulous modernist style - cliffs of soaring red Swanage bricks, the plant only survived to complete the building of the College.. Flanked by Caen stone sidepieces and crowned by an imposing window by John Piper it is a great backdrop for any visiting combination..
Jeremy Thurlow’s Fantazia shone in the concert’s first few minutes. A contemporary composer, Jeremy was there to hear a scintillating rendition of his work. After a ponderous piece of gloomy Purcell Chacony, Fantazia positively sizzled. First violinist Fanny Anais Schell gave an intricate performance - a lightning command of the instrument. Breathlessly beautiful, this piece lifted the spirits into a truly magical realm of the imagination. Unpredictably modern, there is a hint of Shakespeare’s sphere of escapism within the music. It could easily conjure the world of The Tempest or A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Joyful and clever, a lovely start to a magical evening of music making.
Shostakovich came next, with his Quartet in A Flat - a dreamy Andante followed by an energetic second movement marked Furioso - good job they’re all so young in the group, this piece needs stamina.The entire work was of course wonderful.
Dvorak Quartet No. 13 followed the interval. Melodious moving - magnificent, here was the composer of Rusalka in lyrical mode - until the third movement, Molto vivace - a bit too molto for me.
Robinson College Chapel is now on any must-go venue.list With music of this amazing precision - and the will to use the work of a living composer amid the classical canon, its fame will undoubtedly grow
