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Nick Kimberley's rating
, Swaggering encore from Simón Bolívar String Quartet
By
Nick Kimberley
7 Sep 2010
When Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra comes to town, it’s standing room only. Its smaller offshoot, the Simón Bolívar String Quartet, doesn’t have quite the same draw: the orchestra’s 180 players are a sight and sound to behold; four musicians are less spectacular. They are at the upper end of the “youth” spectrum, the youngest 25, but their spark remains undimmed.
This “family concert”, marking the start of the South Bank’s Sounds Venezuela season, drew a wide and attentive audience, from babes-in-arms to crotchety journalist. To judge from the few interjections, even the tiniest listeners were mesmerised. On the day of a Tube strike, Metro Chabacano by Mexican composer Javier Álvarez had great resonance. The piece portrays the buzz and scuttle of the underground but it was more about lively conversation than noisy trains. If intonation wasn’t perfect, there was a rhythmic momentum and a fine flourish to round things off.
A brief Contrapunctus from Bach’s The Art of Fugue was more sober but rhythms were again precise, the string-tone rich and focused. The violinists and viola player performed standing up, undercutting the formality that often comes between a quartet and its audience. Dvorak’s “American” Quartet showed the benefits: detailed interplay within well-integrated textures that still allowed individuality to shine through; the smoky timbre of Ismel Campos’s viola was particularly captivating. A medley of popular Latin American songs made a swaggering encore; tomorrow night, the quartet extends to Shostakovich and Brahms.
Information: southbankcentre.co.uk/venezuela. 0844 847 9911.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (1)
I heard them on Radio 3 In Tune where they murdered a movement of the Dvorak American Quartet by playing it very very fast to demonstrate their technical abilities.It sounded as though they'd spent too long wearing those coloured jackets and dancing around the stage.
- Margarita, London, 08/09/2010 07:29
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