Chamber music has made a welcome appearance in the RTE Summer Lunchtime concert series at the National Concert Hall over the last couple of years. Last Tuesday, Schubert's Trout Quintet attracted a capacity audience, larger than many which have turned up for programmes of orchestral lollipops. The RTE Vanbrugh String Quartet (minus their second violin) was joined by Chi Chi Nwanoku (double bass) and Hugh Tinney (piano).
For all its accessibility, this quintet is an unforgiving piece. It has its purely technical challenges, but is perhaps most demanding in respects which, while they are less obvious than the technical ones, are more important for making this delightful music work. The many seams between sections need impeccable timing, the contrasts within movements need to be purposeful, and the relationship between piano and strings has the sort of subtlety which is easily upset.
Most of this committed and enjoyable performance met these needs, and more. However, especially in the first movement, I wondered why the piano lid was on the long stick, for the sound was sometimes over-projected. In the arpeggio discourse the violin could not effectively answer, especially in a large venue. That was a puzzling blip in a performance which almost everywhere else was well-scaled. The musicians resisted any temptation to inflate the piece to suit the size of the auditorium, and the consequent intimacy held the attention of this large, non-specialist audience for every moment of this long piece.