For the second time this season Perth Chamber Music have offered a magnificent concert in St John’s Kirk by a superb international string quartet: the Italian Quartetto Noûs . ‘Noûs’ from the Greek implying thought and refinement.

Throughout their corporate togetherness was to be admired, partially helped by technology in that each player had the score of all four instruments on their i-Pad, so each knew exactly what the others had.

They began with an unusual Haydn Quartet, Op.64 No.2 in b minor; serious and sonorous, near tragic in the development, mellowing amicably. Their Adagio had a low, warm start; the cello, Haydn’s humour, always having the last word, often after the others. Their Minuet was bright and chirrupy, the song-like Trio having noticeably sweet playing from the Leader, Ekaterina Valiulina. The Finale was quite serious, changing after a pause to lightened smiles.

Another rarity, superbly presented, was Dvořák’s Slavonic Quartet in E Flat Op.51. It had dance-like, pleasant-to-the-ear melodies, as well as formidable quartet sound. The Dumka second movement began elegiacally. The nostalgic tune replaced with sudden smiles by a vivacious furiant. The Romanze had fine, rich sound and most expressive playing, before the abrupt change to a Finale of fun and high spirits with moments of Slavonic heart.

Their Schubert ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet was dramatic and devastating. The dramatic summons became an alert, vehement Allegro with lyrical counterthemes. Their playing had symphonic breadth and heightened emotion: the double coda a defiant rushing then deathly despair. The variations of the Andante played masterfully on the emotions. The Scherzo was back to driving intensity, its Trio graceful, sublimated to the major. The Presto Finale was a triumph: relentless, slammed chords – here the acoustic gave even more effect. Schubert’s music disintegrated, exhausted, to reiterated rhythm then started up as bad (ie excellent) as before.

Ian Stuart-Hunter