Doric String Quartet

Haydn, Brahms and John Adams make a wonderful Festival programme. Adams’ oddball ‘Alleged Dances’, two with electronic click tracks, are short and fun and showcased the performer’s amazing virtuosity. We savoured this again in their subtle lightness of touch in the Brahms, aided perhaps by their special transitional bows (and Mammoth ivory?). They made an intense work so accessible.

Haydn’s quartets are witty and it’s comparatively easy to identify his musical jokes: the hesitations, the sliding notes, tip-toe passages, croaky sounds. However, it’s magic when performers can make them funny, and I was in real danger of laughing out loud!

All Saints’ Church, Hove, 26 May 2017

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