The Bath Festival programme this year included something postponed from 2020: a complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets. (Beethoven didn’t do very well out of his anniversary year really, but then no one’s going to forget that he exists.) We went to two of them.
First up were the Heath Quartet playing Op.18 no. 5 and Op.131. The first of these quartets was not well known to me and I felt there was good reason why others in the set are more often performed. Perhaps it was chosen so as not to distract from Op.131. This received a lively and coherent performance, though I didn’t take very much to the tone of this quartet, finding it on the harsh side. Apart from the cellist, they played standing up.
On Sunday the Carducci Quartet had another heavyweight programme, Op.95 and Op. 132, the latter a long-time favourite which haunts me for days after I hear it. I was not disappointed with this performance and preferred the quartet’s rather sweeter tone to the Heath’s.
The seats were arranged (and sold) in pairs, and the staging was less elaborate than usual, without the baldacchino-like construction that is often used. (In fact the stage itself, rather patchily painted black, would not have looked out of place in a school hall.) It was perhaps a mistake to have two screens on it advertising the Festival and the number to ring to buy tickets – these were a distraction and I expect most events sold out anyway because of the limitations on space.