28th March 2026: Kleio Quartet

Last night's programme was perhaps one of the most varied that we've experienced for several years.  The fiercely energetic Kleio Quartet performed four very different pieces, as if to demonstrate their astonishing range.

(Apologies for the mis-match between the only publicity photo used by us for several months and the apparent change of sex undergone by two of the players yesterday evening.)

By Beethovenian standards this powerful Opus 95 is highly condensed — though hardly minimalistic.  As the excellent programme notes informed us, it foreshadows the innovations to emerge later on in the composer's last quartets.

Like most younger players these days, the Kleio favour a leaner, dryer, perhaps even more abrasive a timbre than some older listeners like to remember; but this is, of course, utterly appropriate for Webern or Saariaho, the two 20th century composers whose work they celebrated, with appropriately dazzling performances: sometimes glacial, sometimes harsh and grating, sometimes so soft and silky that the music could only just be heard.  Occasionally the first violin spun out notes of a silvery gossamer thinness and intensity that pierced the heart; while at other times all four string players unleashed chords of such a dense complexity that pulses were set racing, and breath came quick and short.  Exciting stuff.

The programme ended with an explosion of joy from Felix Mendelssohn (apart from the melancholy Adagio): the technically demanding String Quartet in E flat  major, op. 44, no. 3.  The cellist ruefully explained that eight hands seems to be too few for this difficult piece.  But he needn't have worried.  These four players rose to the challenge with aplomb.

Peter Andrews