From The Package (New Zealand)

Basic proposition: the Shanghai Quartet are fantastic; they have a dynamic range that swoops and soars, and the texture of their sound is emotive and rich. If that comes from their Eastern musical heritage, it worked for their mostly Western repertoire. On the night, this consisted of two works by Beethoven, one early, one late; and four short pieces by the quartet?s Yi-Wen Jiang that set traditional Chinese folk songs in a Western quartet arrangement. These settings mimicked traditional arrangements, even mimicking the sounds of flutes by bowing over the bridge. Although the settings were obviously Chinese in origin they also reminded me of Westerners such as Dvorak; one piece even made me think of Gershwin. Common ground, I guess. I have one complaint about the settings: there were so few performed, they barely covered a quarter hour of the programme. The quartet handled both Beethoven works convincingly. In the later work (the C sharp minor) they became riveting: it?s a strong work to begin with, but I thought they brought out an emotional side to it I hadn?t heard elsewhere. Perhaps it?s a product of the cultural fusion that they have different ways of saying ?emotion? in music to most Western- schooled players? Whether or not that?s valid (their cellist, after all, is American), they served to remind me why this is a masterpiece by making it new.

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