Whenever I attend a concert in WA Museum Boola Bardip’s Hackett Hall, my eyes are always drawn up towards the leviathan memento mori, in the shape of a 24-metre blue whale skeleton, suspended above the audience.

My ears, of course, are drawn towards the music – in this case, the title work, Australian composer Elizabeth Younan’s String Quartet No. 1, Interwoven (2016-18, revised 2019); Haydn’s String Quartet in A major, Op.20 No.6 (1772); Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 92 (1941); and Éric Mouret’s arrangement of Clara Schumann’s solo piano work, Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 39 (1853).

As Younan writes, “At the heart of my compositional practice is the concept of organicism, where small musical ideas – called motives – are developed and transformed throughout the piece … Each change serves to push the music forward and maintain a sense of unity while creating contrast and excitement.”

Australian String Quartet: Interwoven. Photo © Kane Moroney

True to her word, Younan takes her motif – the listener’s proxy – on a three-movement journey through rolling homophonic and contrapuntal soundscapes of extraordinary tonal and rhythmic dynamism. The playing – rhapsodic, whispered, dancing – is such that the subsequent works register as catalytic consequences.

This is important, because this performance of Interwoven makes such an impression on the memory – on the soul even? – that it offers itself as a meta-motif by which we can make better sense of the Haydn, the Prokofiev and the Schumann.

Haydn’s jokes are apparently more apparent nowadays than his innovations. I rate him above Mozart. But who am I to proffer such heresy? Jokes aside, read against the Younan the fugal finale sounds as though it were written yesterday rather than harkening back to the Baroque.

Or is this just the ASQ’s sleight of hand? Whatever. The inner tensions between voices forge a frisson-electric concord, the cognitive dissonance of which is blissfully disorienting. 

Australian String Quartet: Interwoven. Photo © Kane Moroney

Trust Prokofiev to get us back on track with a marvellous melange of Kabardino-Balkar folk-theme-inspired modalities and sweet-sour modulations – at which the ASQ throws everything.

This is followed by the apotheosis of Clara Schumann’s pianistic variations, which summons forth the ghost of one of music’s great romances, nay partnerships, courtesy of some warm, affectionate and erotic playing (in the all-encompassing Audre Lourde sense of the word) and takes us straight back to the sensuous complexities of the Younan. 

Interwoven tours to Perth; UKARIA Cultural Centre, Mt Barker; Adelaide; Canberra; Brisbane; Sydney; and Melbourne from 11-21 May. For information and bookings, visit asq.com.au