Genesis – Nils Henrik Asheim
Quartet in E flat K 428 – Mozart 
Quartet in B flat Op. 130 – Beethoven

Asheim’s Genesis hardly lives up to its Biblical inspiration; it is short in time and meagre in material. In its six minutes the opening chord gradually expands with minimalist flurries of notes but the six days of creation, if they are what is represented, are surprisingly featureless.

The fourth of the quartets that Mozart dedicated to Haydn, that in E flat, finds the composer once again so at even with the conventional structures he uses that he appears to transcend them, effortlessly. And the playing of the Oslo Quartet also seems effortless; the music is never forced but flows in its appointed course with every appearance of freedom. The quality of the music was matched by the quality of the performance, every mood, whether cheerful or yearning or solemn, finding its just expression.

The performance of Beethoven’s op. 130 was equally rewarding. There was no forcing of tone or pace; the intensity of Beethoven’s vision shone through the transparency of the playing and each of the movements had a touch of the sublime. The fifth movement Adagio molto espressivo seems to bring time to a stop and the joyfully Finale is inevitably an anti-climax, though the Oslo Quartet made it sound more profound than usual. The original Finale, the Grosse Fuge, is perhaps not the perfect ending either, but one would have liked to hear the Oslo Quartet play it.

Douglas Sealy

The Irish Times, March 17 2003

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