A capacity audience enjoyed a splendid concert at St Christopher’s Church, Haslemere on Saturday evening, 16th September, given by the celebrated Tippett Quartet with pianist, Lynn Arnold and flautist, Lisa Friend. Apart from the reputation of the performers, the music had a special local interest: the first half of the programme was devoted to works by Clive Osgood, warmly admired around Haslemere as Director of Music and Organist at the Parish Church of St Bartholomew and recognised internationally as a much-published composer.

In his String Quartet in A minor, which opened the concert, the strings burst onto the scene as if they had already been playing before we arrived. The cover photograph for the Tippetts’ recording of this piece shows a pilot’s eye view in which turrets of cloud tower up from a cloud canopy; it captures exactly the thrilling mood of this first movement. The second movement had the brooding atmosphere of a classical Adagio, as the same figure coming again and again in different registers kept us hanging in suspense. The feeling of jeopardy persisted into the final movement, where a taut theme, explored in intriguing variations, hinted only at the last minute that the hero might escape.

The quartet was followed by a Sonata for flute and piano, each movement of which began introspectively until the flute gradually picked up confidence and found in the last a rustic tune allowing a gymnastic finish.

Latin American rhythms keep appearing in Osgood’s music, often when least expected. But the title of the third piece, ‘Tresillo’, is the name of a catchy triplet found at the heart of the salsa beat. The strings played this hypnotic rhythm, the piano picked out a delicate counterpoint, a violin sang a yearning tune, broke into a passionate dance, then, just as suddenly glided back to the relaxed starting trance.

A Sonata followed for flute, violin, cello and piano. After an attention-grabbing start this unusual combination gave us a lighthearted entertainment evoking Paris in the 1930’s, closing with a spirited dance in seven time.

The first half concluded with the Incidental Music to Clive Osgood’s music drama, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. This captured, magically, the worlds of the fairies, the lovers, the rude mechanicals and the courtly shenanigans.

After an Interval the second half was filled by Sir Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet in A minor. This was written at a cottage near Petworth, which saw a late flowering of his composition. Elgar reconceived chamber music on a grander scale and this is his longest such piece. It is almost a symphony and the Tippett Quartet with Lyn Arnold succeeded in sounding like an orchestra - the resonance of their playing filling the fine acoustic of St Christopher’s barrel-vaulted nave. After a strange opening, with juddering string figures, the first movement had a pensive sigh, a bold march and a spooky dance. The quintet has become linked to a local legend about sinister-looking trees in Flexham Park. The composer himself said, “It’s ghostly stuff”. The Tippetts brought great character to the diverse reimagining of these elements.

The second movement Adagio was an oasis of calm, a serene, elegiac tune in the viola building to a soaring climax and a soothing, melodic descent. The last movement recalled the first, starting in spooky mode, but shifted gradually to the grand, noble Elgar we know and ended with a triumphant, thundering close.

An evening of fine, richly varied music was greeted with rounds of rapturous applause for this gifted ensemble.

The next Saturday evening concert for HHH will be on 19th October at 19:30, when the pianist, Hao Zi Yoh will perform Chopin, Debussy and Rachmaninov.

This recital review has been submitted by Martin Robson.