Music / Inner Worlds, Phoenix Collective. At  Wesley Music Centre, April 29. Reviewed by NICK HORN.

At the core of this absorbing program was the contrast between the anxious introspection of Dmitri Shostakovich’s eighth string quartet and the generous sound world of Robert Schumann’s piano quintet.  

Before an appreciative audience, the Phoenix Collective – Dan Russell (artistic director/first violin), Pip Thompson (second violin), Ella Brinch (viola) and Andrew Wilson (cello)), with Zen Zeng on piano for the Schumann – performed strongly and with conviction.

First on the program was contemporary Italian Giovanni Sollima’s quirky Sonnets et Rondeaux. The “sonnets”, with their ethereal, floating harmonics and pizzicati, alternated with sometimes rambunctious folk tune variations, building in intensity and groove, in the “rondeaux”.

The Shostakovich quartet, a dark modern masterpiece, was addressed with notable commitment, strong contributions from the violins matched by muscular playing from the viola and cello.

The work returns obsessively to a four-note motif based on the composer’s signature, tossing and turning in the first movement as if in a restless sleep. Suddenly, there is an outburst of violence signalling the second movement, a kind of panic attack, out of which emerges an impassioned rendition of a Jewish folk tune.

The third movement, a waltz, offers relief. It is a world in itself, quietly introduced (perhaps a little tentatively), gathering rhythmic intensity and power, eventually shrinking to nothing. The fourth movement shatters our rest, with three dissonant chords “knocking on the door” – the outside world (perhaps the Soviet secret police) bursting into the artist’s inner world.

Finally, in the fifth movement, the signature returns, reharmonised, some sort of resolution from a black night of the soul. After the last notes fade, we slowly let out our breaths during the long silence that follows such an intense and moving performance.

In an inspired stroke of programming, Schumann’s piano quintet then takes us from the introspective C minor tonality of Shostakovich’s quartet to the expansive world of the related major key of Eb.

In place of Shostakovich’s neurotic four-note signature, the quintet opens with four grandly stated major chords, sturdy columns supporting the whole work. The mood lifts, with smiles all round for music that gives more scope for relaxed, lyrical expression.

Zen Zeng contributes a sparkling performance, justifying Schumann’s pioneering of the piano’s role as an equal partner in chamber music. Most striking is the funeral march in the second movement. The first violin leads with a starkly dry statement of the march theme, matched by the rest of the group, then balanced by a lyrical second subject with rippling piano accompaniment. Overall, we were treated to a fine performance of a classic work, not without its moments of darkness, but with faith in the power of music – a faith which, in its own tortured way, the Shostakovich also seemed to be seeking.

After such a demanding program, the Phoenix Collective and Zen Zeng rewarded us with a charming rendition of Icelander Ólafur Arnalds’ Happiness Does Not Wait.