GEORGE NEWS - On Sunday afternoon, 24 March, an almost full Dotsure George Arts Theatre greeted the Viridian String Quartet as they came on stage.
The members are all local musicians - Stefan Conradie and Calvin Steyn (violins), Ingrid Robinson (viola), and the cellist Cornèl Engelbrecht.
The programme opened with a sprightly rendition of the first movement of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
The quartet makes a very pleasant sonorous sound and obviously enjoy what they do best. The Mozart was followed by the second movement of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata, arranged for the quartet by Louis Sauter.
Here we needed more volume from the first violin who was being drowned by the accompaniment, although the balance improved as we went along.
Anton Dvorak wrote his American quartet for strings in 1893 when he was residing in America. He set out to capture the spirit of American folk music and in this first movement all the instrumentalists had a turn to play the melody. We heard the sombre second movement as an encore.
Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune, arranged by Tony Kime was, frankly, too slow and we struggled to hear the melody at the beginning.
Bartok's Romanian folk dances, arranged by Cornèl Engelbrecht, fared much better. These dances were lively and we could imagine the stomping feet and the whirl of skirts.
This was followed by Samuel Barber's famous Adagio for strings. This is a work that starts quietly and builds up in intensity as the theme is thrown from one instrument to the next to reach a triumphant 'high' before sinking into a quiet repose. Here the quartet didn't reach the intensity needed to make sense of the ending.
Cornèl Engelbrecht's arrangement of Be our guest from the film Beauty and the beast was a lively work that got faster and faster.
It was very apparent that the players were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Bésame Mucho was given a suitably seductive performance, especially by the cellist who wrote the arrangement.
The programme ended with Koos du Plessis' Gebed. Engelbrecht read out the prayer before the quartet launched into the lovely, peaceful music that received a well-deserved standing ovation.
We must congratulate the Music Society for bringing us this talented group of local musicians and I hope that this will be repeated.
‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’