Review: Endellion String Quartet ****

At The Venue, Leeds

Janacek's Intimate Letters quartet was his musical response to several hundred love letters the old man had written to a young married woman with whom he had become infatuated, yet knowing that this was as far as his affections could go.

The Endellion Quartet remembered they were about love, and pulled back from those overly-aggressive performances that have become common currency, yet retaining sufficient pent-up angst to show his inner frustrations. Technically it was superb, the balance between instruments brought a high degree of inner detail, and if intonation went a little wobbly at times, it was their understanding of the work that was important.

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It was the closing item in the first of the Endellion's annual season at The Venue, this time including a work by Haydn in each of the four programmes opening with the one nicknamed "Fifths".

They brought an admirable symphonic weight to the outer movements, and were suitably unhurried in the central sections of the score.

A relaxed mode coloured their account of Schubert's Rosamunde quartet, the songful cantabile writing was presented in tender playing.