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| Brachi Tilles and husband Spiros Rantos |
In 1995 I reviewed Ensemble I's concert for Pro Musica and finished with "please let's have Ensemble I back again soon" - so enthusiastic was I about their first concert. I certainly wasn't disappointed with this further offering although I do have some reservations about the group's intonation - more on that later.
Let me start by saying that the group's pianist, Brachi Tilles, is one of the most outstanding musicians I have heard. Easily one of the best small ensemble pianists in Australia, I found myself yet again entranced by her poise, style, technical accuracy, emotion, tonal beauty and general adoration for the art of making music. As you will read from my thoughts on other concerts elsewhere in this publication, quality music making in the last few months of 1996 was indeed dominated, for me anyway, by the ladies.
The program featured Mozart's Piano Quartet in E flat major, K493, Turina's Piano Quartet in A minor, Opus 67, Theodorakis' Sonatina for Violin and Piano and finally Dvorak's Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op 87.
The Turina came off the best with good intonation, fine ensemble balance and a seemingly intuitive understanding from all players of the emotion and fire required for Spanish music. The Sonatina for violin and cello was a nice inclusion, displaying music from the homeland of violinist and leader of the ensemble, Spiros Rantos, whom I first met in 1977 when he was guest violinist with the Frankston Symphony Orchestra.
Whilst the Mozart and the Dvorak were most enjoyable, I found the intonation from the string players to be lacking in places which in a more resonant environment might have gone almost unnoticed, but in the comparatively dry (but still good) acoustics of the National Gallery Theatre, all is revealed in full nudity (like some of the paintings).
Originally published in Muse Magazine (Canberra), November 1996
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