Sydney Art Quartet have made it their mission to present compelling programming alongside broader sensory experiences – from their project Butt Naked Salon, which saw a life-drawing model painted before them, or Remember Me, which paired each piece of music with a curated scent. 

Their latest venture, Spring Awakening, continued this multidisciplinary current. Celebrating the changing of the seasons, on showcase was the work of Sogetsu Ikebana floral artists Paulina Rosa and Junko Daniels. Their flower arrangements were prepared live on stage, and across the evening the musicians of Sydney Art Quartet – Thibaud Pavlovic Hobba, Anna Albert, Andrew Jezek and Andrew Hines – were progressively surrounded by a delicate array of florals.

Sydney Art Quartet. Photo supplied

Their program was a thoughtfully apt accompaniment – the evening opened with Mozart’s String Quartet No. 14, ‘Spring.’ Light and joyous, the quartet brought a sunshine warmth to this work, detailing the intricacies of Mozart’s weaving melodic lines and capturing a playful sense of grace. 

This was followed by an effective contrast: the György Kurtág’s Aus der Ferne III, a subdued miniature commanded by the steadfast pizzicato in Hines’s cello, over which the violins and violas distantly tremble. The quartet’s enchanting sense of ensemble shone, although the work’s charged silences were slightly diminished by the rustle and movement of the Ikebana artists. Nonetheless, it was a powerful prelude to Toshio Hosokawa’s Blossoming, inspired by the deep roots and unfurling petals of a lotus. Emerging from a gritty whisper, this work revealed the quartet’s exceptional breadth of colour, as they balanced on the knife-edge between a sense of haunting and comfort.

It flowed into the romantic passion of Anton Webern’s Langsamer Satz, richly melodic and sweetly meandering. After the exceptional care given to the Hosokawa, I was hoping for a little more intimacy to the work’s tenderness, but it was an artful contrast to the rest of the program. 

Like a bookend, it was Haydn’s String Quartet in D major, Op. 76 No. 5 that concluded the evening, a nod to the opening Mozart, and a warm homecoming. While there was one more Ikebana arrangement to be completed, by this point the stage was surrounded by a brilliant array of flowers, from which the opening of the Haydn appeared to dance through with captivating lightness.

The finale was virtuosic and vibrant: the conclusion to a striking celebration of spring.