Review: Carducci Quartet****

Philip Glass wrote string quartets in moments of

introspection. "String Quartets have always functioned like that for composers," he has said, and it was certainly true of the Carducci Quartet's programme.

However, Glass's Second Quartet of 1983 is beyond introspection. Its pulsating rhythms under sweet melodies fizzle out into the ether.

The Carduccis also have a special tonal resonance – a kind of sound aura that seems to hover about them.

The end of its first movement echoed the emotion of the Beethoven which ended the concert, and Glass's dissonances echoed those of the Haydn that began it.

The Carduccis played Haydn's E flat Quartet, subtitled The Joke, with sparkling relish, particularly the introspectively whimsical glissandi in its trio, and rose to the challenge of Beethoven's F Minor Quartet, subtitled Serioso.

The Carduccis' care in expression ensured that we missed nothing of its range of emotions compressed into short length.