Music/ Alma Moodie Quartet. At Wesley Music Centre,  July 22. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

The Alma Moodie Quartet is named after an Australian born violinist who spent most of her life in Europe, becoming well known as a performer in Germany between the wars, although making no recordings.

This quartet was formed during the covid lockdown by four young Canberra musicians who had been living in Europe, had returned to Australia and were unable to return to Europe.

The two of the original members are still with the quartet, violinists Anna da Silva Chen and Kristian Winther. James Wannan on viola and cellist Miles Mullin-Chivers have replaced the others in the intervening years.

The naming of the ensemble after Alma Moodie highlights their desire to focus on the music played in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s and, in particular, music that Alma Moodie performed herself.

From the beginning this ensemble has never been afraid of tackling big and challenging examples of the quartet genre and this concert was no different. The concert consisted of the Tchaikovsky String Quartet No 3, written in 1876, Bartok’s String Quartet No. 3 from 1927 and the Shostakovich Quartet No 9 first performed in 1964. In all, around 90 minutes of grim concentration from all four to produce a most excellently played concert.

While the playing itself was very impressive, there was little smiling on stage and no-one seemed to be taking very much pleasure from it. The program of three very solid works might have been leavened a little, perhaps with the inclusion of something lighter in the middle to allow the two Russian works to be better absorbed.

A small disappointment was the minimal information about the music played. The concert program was an A5 piece of paper with the names of the performers and the titles of the works played. The spoken introductions from Kristian Winther were brief and added no insights into why they were chosen or where they fitted into the musical world of the time. A little context can help the audience’s enjoyment.

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