Music/ Rapture, Australian String Quartet. At Gandel Hall, National Gallery of Australia, May 11. Reviewed by MICHAEL WILSON.

In the Australian String Quartet’s 40th year, capturing a theme of rapturous love could have been syrupy, but this concert program was instead highly varied and original.

Part of the ASQ’s draw is to experience luthier Giovanni Guadagnini’s full family of instruments, built in the mid-to-late 18th century. Each has a clear, treble-dominant resonance, well suited to the intimate acoustic of Gandel Hall. In the hands of four master musicians, nothing seemed impossible, and the ensemble was consistently tight, energised and meticulous.

The quartet arranged itself in a tight semicircle, first violin and viola on the outside, flanking the cello and second violin, probably to give cellist Michael Dahlenburg – who anchored key parts of each work for tempo and harmony – the best opportunity to blend.

Beethoven’s Serioso String Quartet No.11 in F minor is his shortest, but it is incredibly concentrated. Full of different ideas, changes of pace and mood, it also contains surprises that are out of character for both the classical and romantic periods, which he straddled.

The ASQ performed the initial attack with perfect precision, and maintained this clarity throughout. The group has mastered the technique where the beginning and end of bow strokes aren’t heard (unless needed for effect), the bow already in motion before it touches the string, producing a silky fade-in/fade-out character.

Leader Dale Barltrop made the 1784 violin sing atop the velvety blanket of harmonies and interplay of melodic lines below.

A newcomer to classical music, jazz composer Vanessa Perica’s String Quartet No.1 Feeling is Final, was a revelation at this premiere.

Commissioned by the ASQ, the work commences conventionally, reminiscent of Dvořák or Ravel, with variations on repeated themes. The work moves to a more modern attitude, with tempestuous chord clashes, high yelps by the first violin, and close jazzy rhythms. By the third movement, a minimalist tinge emerges with repeated chord patterns, one element changing in each repeat.

The final movement is all-in modernist, with complex discordant passages, moving into gypsy dance motifs, and then a sudden rising portamento finish.

Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No.2, Intimate Letters, is a work of obsession, sketching his longing for a married friend. Violins at their highest reaches climb down in the Moderato, until all four instruments charge off in different directions. The discordant duels in the allegro then introduced a sea shanty feel, including strumming by Francesca Hiew on second violin, moving to an oom-pah band motif. Distorted trilling gave way to pretty harmonies in a spring-like colour change.

The final work, Tenebrae by Osvaldo Golijov, was another highlight. Named for the last Christian service before Easter, where candles are progressively extinguished to total darkness, the quartet sat in half light. A rich meditative cello played over the viola (Chris Cartlidge on a 1783 instrument) and violins playing impossibly softly. Somehow the textures evoked a sense of being inside a Bedouin tent in the desert at dusk, drapery billowing gently in the breeze. An intensely delicate first violin soaring over the other strings made for a magical final gesture.