It is always a distinct pleasure to hear chamber music performances at UKARIA Cultural Centre with its tranquil setting and excellent acoustics. Britain’s Heath Quartet is undoubtedly one of the finest youthful ensembles on the planet with excellent reviews and awards from the prestigious Gramophone and Limelight magazines for their recordings of Bartók and Tippett. And given the warmth with which its trio of concerts devoted to string quartets by Beethoven and Tippett were received, the quartet is bound to create a sensation amongst Australian audiences.

The Heath Quartet. Photo © Simon Way

Sir Michael Tippett’s reputation has been overshadowed by his friend and contemporary Benjamin Britten and yet his cycle of five quartets, whilst rather uncompromising in their structure and purpose, have won this group of musicians wide acclaim. And upon hearing them in what is perhaps the finest of them all, Quartet No 3, it is simple to see what the fuss is all about. Written in 1945, the quartet is amongst the earliest of Tippett’s post-war compositions – a large schemed work which breaks away from the traditional quartet structure, replacing it with a five movement arc-like structure similar...