There is that ultimate feeling of satisfaction that passes through the performances from the Zukerman Chamber Players, their self-effacing musicianship never standing between the listener and composer.
Maybe the choice of music is carefully tailored to portray the beauty of tone that is their hallmark. This concert opened with Schubert's one movement String Trio, a score of much geniality, Pinchas Zukerman charming our ears with the delicacy of his
violin playing.
It proved the perfect foil to Mendelssohn's last String Quintet, the ensemble perfectly negotiating the mood swings as it oscillates between the delicacy of the scherzo and a slow movement that seemingly foretold of the sadness of the last year of his young life.
It is an ideally balanced group with an uncommonly fine pair of violas heard to good effect in the second movement of Brahms's Second Quintet. It is a score with symphonic proportions growing from material initially intended for a fifth symphony.
The opening Allegro set it on an exhilarating course, the Germanic weight, that is never in short supply, underpinned by Amanda Forsyth's splendid cello. Dynamically vivid and crisply articulated, it was immaculately played until some dubious intonation soured the closing moments.
Royal Hall, Harrogate
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