Magisterial Sacconi performance

It seems only yesterday that it was impossible to mention the Sacconi Quartet without the word "young". They still look young, of course, and they still are young compared to many quartets of a similarly high standard. But let's remember that they came together over 20 years ago. In that time they have bonded and matured impressively, and suddenly it doesn't seem wrong to match them with "magisterial".

A magisterial performance is what they gave us last night. One of Mozart's six 'Haydn' quartets led into the gloomy and mysterious splendour of Schubert's 'Rosamunde' quartet. Ravel's (only) string quartet filled the whole second half of the concert, its pizzicato second movement a reminder of how radical a work can be while still being utterly familiar. The Sacconis paced it beautifully. 

Three big, emotionally demanding pieces, yet the players still had energy to play a lovely Danish wedding song as an encore. Not so very old, then!

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