Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 25 Jun 2026
The Doric String Quartet’s Adelaide concert for Musica Viva has been eagerly anticipated given the rave reviews they have received so far on their Australian tour, and this concert was of special interest as the quartet is touring with hometown favourite, clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff.
Their choices for the program—Benjamin Britten’s Three Divertimenti for String Quartet, Thomas Adès’s Alchymia and Beethoven’s first Razumovsky Quartet—explore the endless possibilities of the quartet form, augmented in the case of Alchymia by the inclusion of the basset clarinet.
The concert opened with Britten’s Three Divertimenti of 1936, an early work, not published until after his death, in which he was exploring the quartet form and developing his own musical language. The first of the three elements, March, does not start with an obvious march-like rhythm but later settles into a jaunty stride. It’s a light-hearted and rather witty piece that challenges the formality of the traditional march.
The second, Waltz, is another experiment, this time with the waltz rhythm, in which pizzicato in the cello set the pace. There are moments of lilting sweetness alternating with sudden changes in dynamics. The final piece, the energetic and more intense Burlesque, is characterised by rapid flurries of notes, varied use of pizzicato and some discordant passages.
What became clear from the Doric’s playing was not only their outstanding technical prowess but their ability to turn Britten’s enigmatic, exploratory score into a fully resolved whole.
For the performance of celebrated British composer Thomas Adès’s Alchymia (2021), the quartet was joined by the Elder Conservatorium’s head of woodwind, clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, on basset clarinet. This instrument is longer than the commonly used B flat clarinet, with additional keys to produce lower notes and a mellower tone.
Adès’s magical work is in four movements, and as the title Alchymia suggests, each movement represents a transmutation of musical ideas which mostly emanate from Elizabethan London.
The first movement, A Sea-Change (…Those Are Pearls…), refers to Ariel’s song in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It opens with a slow, high-pitched clarinet tune which is repeated over a quiet, motoric pizzicato that sounds like a ticking clock, before becoming unsettled and agitated, returning to the opening theme and finishing softly.
The second movement, The Woods So Wild, draws on William Byrd’s keyboard transcription of a popular Tudor song. Rather than simply transcribing Byrd’s music, Adès’s version captures the golden sounds of the woods, with the twinkling strings and the virtuosic clarinet suggesting the tuneful chirping and warbling of birds of all kinds.
The third movement, Lachrymae, refers to a poem by the seminal composer for the lute, John Dowland. The music is quiet and bittersweet, and the strings intertwine with a slowly developing clarinet melody. A crescendo emerges and then the music returns to its quiet and intensely beautiful solemnity.
The final movement, Divisions on a Lute-song: Wedekind’s Round, is a transmutation of German playwright and satirical song-writer Frank Wedekind’s (1864-1916) Lute Song in which the clarinet takes the role of the lute and imitates the sound of a barrel organ. The music begins with an ironically humorous passage, and the gorgeous, swirling tone of the basset clarinet suggests a singing voice. The clarinet ranges from the lowest to the highest notes it can produce, there are frequent changes of mood, with discordant and more strident passages, and the piece ends quietly and gently.
Thomas Adès’s Alchymia is a unique and wondrous composition.
Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 ‘Razumovsky’ (1806) represented a significant development in his writing for the string quartet as it is substantially longer, at around 40 minutes, than typical quartets of the era and is more demanding, with more sophisticated thematic development.
The Doric quartet’s exceptional performance captured Beethoven’s musical language and the way in which he establishes the music’s emotional range. The third movement, Adagio molto e mesto (very slow and sad), was especially enchanting, and resonated with Adès’s Lachrymae.
In response to audience acclamation, the ensemble gave an encore, and the choice was inspired—the Larghetto movement of Mozart’s clarinet quintet K581. Mozart wrote his quintet for the basset clarinet, and this excellent rendition again confirmed Van’t Hoff as a clarinettist of the highest rank. It also provided valuable insights into Adès’s Alchymia, as the mellifluous sound of the basset clarinet that Mozart wanted could be compared with the extended sound palette of Adès’s inventive work.
Van’t Hoff can make the basset clarinet sound as strident as a B flat clarinet, as ethereal as a flute and as resonant as a bassoon or bass clarinet, and his realisation of Adès’s sonic tapestry came into clearer focus upon hearing the Mozart.
This Musica Viva concert was not only an absolute delight but also an education in inventive musical composition and performance.
Chris Reid
When: 25 June
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
