{TABLE} Quartet in C minor, D703 ........................ Schubert Quartet in D, K499 .............................. Mozart Quartet in E minor, Op 59 No 2 .................. Beethoven {/TABLE} THE Brussels based Danel String Quartet, founded as recently as 1991, is very much a family affair. Three of the players are from the family after which the quartet is named, the odd man out being the second violinist, Gilles Millet.
The group has scored a number of international competition successes, claims an especially close relationship with the quartets of Shustakovich and takes an active interest in new works for the string quartet medium the Danels managed no less than six world premieres in 1995.
However, their programme for the AIB Music Festival in Great Irish Houses on Friday steered well clear of the present day, concentrating on three works written within 20 years of 1800.
In the dry acoustic of the heavily carpeted Freemason's Hall the group's tone was small at times almost ethereally sweet (most notably so in Schubert's Quartet movement in C minor), but inclined to an ineffective roughness under pressure (very pronounced in the finale of Beethoven's Op. 59 No. 2).
Whether it was a matter of the acoustics, or the repertoire not revealing the players at their best there was not a great deal to cherish in this concert. The playing often sounded strained (the leader has one of those disturbing on/off vibratos that can play havoc with phrasing), dynamics were not always finely controlled and the speeds chosen (especially in the slow movements) didn't always readily convince. A disappointing debut.
