Sacconi Quartet review – new Freya Waley-Cohen work reveals ensemble at their finest

Marking 25 years since their formation, Dances, Songs & Hymns for Friendship was informed by the composer’s observations of the four musicians both in and out of rehearsal

Founded at the Royal College of Music in 2001, the Sacconi Quartet celebrated their silver jubilee by looking forward as well as back. If Haydn and Beethoven represented the bedrock upon which their musical sensibilities were grounded, it was a newly commissioned work by Freya Waley-Cohen that revealed them at their finest.

Impeccably crafted and full of rhythmic and harmonic invention, Dances, Songs & Hymns for Friendship is a six-movement string quartet informed by the composer’s observations of the four musicians both in and out of rehearsal – she even watched them making tea! It opened with Spin, in which bold unison passages dissolved into fragmentary solos. Waley-Cohen’s musical fingerprints here were spicy, but rarely ventured beyond a world that Bartók, for example, would have recognised. It suited the Sacconi’s tightness of ensemble and muscular tone, especially in the lower instruments.

Subsequent movements included the pensive Sing, with an aching melody reminiscent of a deconstructed folk song; Play, where dancing syncopations hinted at eastern Europe; the hypnotically skirling Step; and Pray, a luminous meditation in which a beautifully finessed violin line floated over hushed chords to end in a delicate pizzicato coda. The concluding Be, saw a lyrical fragment passed around the quartet before intricate textures transitioned into a gentle simplicity. A striking new work – and one that fellow ensembles should eagerly consider adding to their repertoire.

Seriousness of intent was in plentiful supply elsewhere, which rather pulled the rug from under Haydn’s carefree C major String Quartet, the third in his Op 33 set. Subtitled The Bird, its jaunty chirruping felt a little muted with the Sacconis more intent on texture and blend than playfulness. Beethoven’s late A minor quartet, No 15, was more in their line with its frequent air of brooding melancholy. The playing throughout was admirably organic, despite an occasional lapse in intonation, and there was an impressive weight to the sound. The famous Heiliger Dankgesang movement evolved with an unhurried nobility and a finely sustained build in emotional intensity.

The encore, a pair of folk tunes – Old Molly Oxford and Christchurch Bells – handsomely arranged by Jon Boden, proved the perfect digestif.