Flinders Quartet, What the Audience Said

There is a light sculpture that cascades above the upstairs foyer of The Concourse. It is striking in the modernity of its design and construction. It is the perfect visual metaphor for last night's concert. The Flinders Quartet performed three string quartets that were written over two hundred years ago, but as 'cellist Zoe Knighton said "they are each as fresh as the day they were written". Like the light sculpture, last night's music embodied many contemporary aesthetic values: purity and abstraction, ethereal weightlessness, subtety and nuance in small details, flowing structure, a sense of the joy in life and an almost playful pushing of technical boundaries.

Concourse Sculpture

"ingress" suspended light installation, Artist Warren Langley

The Flinders Quartet gave a masterful performance last night. Their Haydn quartet flowed with effortless grace and wit. Their performance of Mozart expressed the humanity and radiance of the work. Their Beethoven quartet was spirited and dramatic.

Flinders Quartet after the concert

Flinders Quartet in The Concourse foyer after the concert

We spoke to some of the audience members about the concert, this is what they said.

At the CD sales table "Where is the CD with the works from tonight's programme?.....What, there's no CD?............Well they should record those works!"

"Wasn't that marvellous."

"Top class performance."

"After tonight, Shane Chen is my new favourite violinist. He really gets Mozart."

"It was quite a concert. I left the concert hall feeling great to be alive."

"I've listened to recordings of the 'Joke' quartet, but never actually understood the joke. In a live performance, it works. It was fun watching the performers, listening to the music and trying to figure out when the music would end."

"The Haydn shone with brilliant clarity and playfulness."

"The Melbourne team were fantastic I thought! I really do enjoy the pure strings. I especially liked the Mozart and the Beethoven."

Here are our favourite photographs of the group rehearsing before the concert.

Flinders Quartet Rehearsing