ON THIS return visit to the Dorset County Museum Music Society, the Navarra String Quartet opened their programme with Mozart’s Quartet in B flat.

Written in Italy when Mozart was 16, this youthful work was an ideal piece to begin the concert. The Navarras displayed their very accomplished playing, while getting used to the excellent acoustic and large audience.

The next piece was the ever popular second string quartet by Borodin, who was a chemist, and only did music in his spare time.

However in this piece, composed in the 1880’s, he certainly found the formula for success, and this was the perfect quartet to hear on a wet and windy night. The Nocturne is perhaps the most famous movement, containing themes used in the 1953 Broadway smash-hit musical Kismet. This was played with great elegance and we sat back and enjoyed the impeccable intonation and warm generous sound.

The one piece in the second half was Beethoven’s Opus 74 Quartet in E flat, The Harp, and was composed in Vienna in 1809 when the town was occupied by Napoleon’s army.

Sadly, it is thought that the noisy bombardment the Viennese suffered hastened Beethoven’s deafness. I particularly enjoyed the wonderful section in the first movement where the first violin plays a very fast series of arpeggios over a pizzicato accompaniment; it is this use of pizzicato, or plucking the strings, which gives the piece its title. The fourth movement, a theme and variations, gave each player the opportunity to display their talents, which they all seized with relish.

The next concert in the series is on March 19. It will be a return visit by Zum 3 who play tango music from Argentina and Eastern Europe, plus original compositions by violinst David Summerhayes not to be missed!

RUSSELL DAWSON