Vim, vigour and whimsy embrace Vanessa Perica premiere No Feeling is Final with ASQ at WA Museum Boola Bardip

Vim, vigour and whimsy embraced the premiere of WA jazz composer Vanessa Perica’s No Feeling is Final with Australian String Quartet at WA Museum Boola Bardip Hackett Hall on Thursday. Beethoven broached the bill — no pressure, Vanessa — his “Serioso” String Quartet No.11 in D major the first of four programmatic works themed on Rapture. “Serioso” opened in scurrying phrases giving way to moody flourishes breaking to runs and back, with ASQ as ever in lock step and violinist Dale Barltrop a decisive lead. Melodic flows spilled across the quartet, focused in a frenzy then resiling in silence. Michael Dahlenburg’s mellow cello led in the Allegretto second stanza, drawing down a melancholy muse in higher strings, the whole interlaced lattice-like in delicate balance. Christopher Cartlidge’s viola changed up the mood, followed by violinist Francesca Hiew then cello in slow fugue-like sequence, melting to a solemn procession through the cello range with a silky fringe on top. Sudden attack into the Allegro third movement quickened the blood, executed with tight timing; falling back to lyricism then re-engaging with vigour. This, the core of the piece, ended in sudden drama before flowing on to a syrupy Larghetto finale, ebbing and flowing towards a taut conclusion. Beethoven set a stark tone which Perica met in drama from the get-go, her first string quartet seeming to wrestle within itself, striving for expression while sustaining a steady façade of order. Broad intervals followed by close harmony explored possibility while indulging a euphonious middle. Traditional minor melody and portamento twists paid homage to convention before breaking to a modernistic tone in the Allegro second movement; furious and frenzied, fleeing rather than seeking finality. Perica linked the core of the work to a health crisis in married life amid a disordered world. A jump cut to more unsettled drama seemed to clinch that, each mood swing inexorably demanding another. Constant change evoked challenge, yet not without beauty — a paradox played out in lush phrases and urgent rushes before a rippling, rhythmic figure calmed the farm for the Adagio third movement. Lilting violin called up percussive cello and tender viola as if heartbeats and tears were bound in sympathetic tension while febrile imagination worked out in anguished violins, drawing on fresh energy for the Prestissimo finale. Strident bowing summoned programmatic cityscapes — think Gershwin — with a mechanistic edge as the foursome chased through highways and byways. Harmony and discord danced together with virtuosic verve down to a dramatic dismount and fervent applause, graciously fielded by the composer and quartet. Perica’s personal edge found an echo after the interval in Janacek’s String Quartet No.2, Intimate Letters; a paean to obsessive love. “We have some more intense music for you,” Cartlidge explained. Florid fiddles and staunch cello dropped away to solo viola then cello in meditative mode. Urgent interludes broke to viola then back to ensemble, skittish in delivery yet always focused; obsessive, even. Where Beethoven or Perica might have taken a breath, Janacek had no pause button. Viola boldly led out the Adagio second stanza, echoed in violin; an elegiac episode to assuage the urge, elegantly captured by the quartet in honeyed yet spiced tones of the Vivace second figure, then restless in the conclusion. Sparser harmony announced a more carefree phase in the Moderato third movement though ASQ’s timing kept us guessing — playful yet poignant in equal measure. Soaring, insistent lines emerged from torpor; pleading, perhaps, in agile passages alternating with whimsy, resiling always to viola. By contrast the finale was a suggestive romp. Cartlidge’s viola sweetly tolled out emotion while the others danced attendance; the draw of romantic distemper just within range yet ever out of reach. Rasping pizzicato contrasted with lush bowing and clockwork strokes in a complex pot-pourri resolving again to viola before time ran out in a riot of striking chords. Finally, toning down the lights for Golijov’s Tenebrae, ASQ also brailed back tempo and timbre to a darker space; closing the evening with Baroque balm and leisurely ornamentation. Each part carolled in turn over undulating harmonies, morphing to mystery in viola with an oriental edge. Cello smoothed the ambience with drawn-out notes to sustain high strings, driving the rhythm forward to deeper shadows, then back to Baroque in the afterglow. ASQ’s Rapture tour continues nationally until May 22.