Sacconi Quartet in Bollington

Its over a week ago now but here's a quick reaction to seeing the Sacconi Quartet perform in Bollington. Due to the job situation I've not been to the Bollington Chamber Concert series for some time - when we arrived we found that the proscenium arch has been removed and the performance area is (apparently) much closer to the audience - I gathered that this was the first of these concerts since the change - I welcomed the lack of distancing and I think audibility was better. This was apparently the quartet's 4th visit to Bollington - I'd not seen them before - so obviously they were enjoyed on their previous trips.They performed the first of the Haydn Op 77 quartets and then the Bartók Quartet No 3 - I know this well (bette rthan the Haydn) and have loved - if you can love it(!) - for many years. There appeared to be a certain nervousness and a statement that it was new to their repertoire - comfirmed later that this was the first public performance for them - even the page turns looked hairy - I've never seen it performed and the live performance showed how difficult it is - bits where I thought where all 4 instruments are playing turned out to be just 2 of them. Only just over 15 minutes but what an intense work it is. After the interval came the Schubert Death and the Maiden - far longer but it didn't seem so, the rapt silence of the audience at the end of the slow movement (the variations) showed how much the audience were involved by the performance.

They had cds available at the interval but after persuading a friend to get their Ravel/Lalo/Turina disc I then discovered that there weren't any more of that one - still I see that the Sacconi's repertoire is on emusic - I expect to be downloading...