Brighton Year-Round 2026

Hammig String Quartet St Nicholas Church, Brighton

Hammig String Quartet

Genre: Live Music, Music

Venue: St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton

Festival: Brighton Year-Round

Low Down

Review

The Hammig Quartet formed in 1989, and named after violin-maker Wilhelm Hammig (1836-1925) have carved a fine reputation as a premiere south-east ensemble. Sarah Colley David Burton (violins), Jane Tyler (viola), and Sean Turpin (cello) now comprise the group.

Here they return with a rare, early quartet by Haydn and classical early Beethoven too.

This is a truly rare outing for a remarkable early example of the genre. Rich in dark harmonies and modulations, it’s a profound, searching work. After prentice works (Op 1 and 2) Haydn’s Op 9 written by 1771 are his first mature authenticated set. An Op 3 set isn’t by him and a famous melody in it is now attributed to the priest-composer Hoffmeister; who wrote all the Op 3.

After the Op 9 came a leap with the Op 17; but far more with the famous “Sun” Quartets Op 20 of 1772 that revolutionized quartet-writing and had a lasting impact on Mozart amounting to shock. This work prefigures them.

This Op 9 No 4 in D minor, probably from the 1760s, is an early example too of Haydn’s famed Storm und Drang (storm and stress), most evident in some earlier symphonies, from No 26 also in D minor onwards; through the 1760s and 70s.

The searching Moderato is remarkable for sounding a kind of slow symphonic introduction to the work but develops too. Much of the shading and harmonic slips are introduced. They continue in the dark Minuet where there’s little easing of tension and a shadowy way with the more rapid material. Not very rapid.

The Adagio: cantabile where the tragic heart of other dark works lies, is by contrast lit with the cantabile it suggests. It’s a song-like movement in a radiant D major. And reminds one why people thought that Haydn night have written the Hoffmeister melody. It’s not very like but inhabits the same field of grace and point. There’s some delightful song-like passagework from the first violin and viola here.

The Presto finale returns to the minor and then aerated with a skittering development that seems lighter because it’s simply faster. There’s some real heft and further developments alternating with rapid passagework. The mood gradually does lighten though and heads to a genuinely exciting finish. This quartet needs further champions. It’s early opus number has consigned it to recordings only and as David Burton later pointed out, Hans Keller did no favours by averring that Haydn’s quartet-writing really only starts with Opus 17. This work really deserves more and the Hammigs are true champions, fully doing it justice.

The Beethoven Quartet Op 18/2 in G is one of the earliest of the set (which doesn’t mean the second). He waited a long time to rival his one-time teacher Haydn and only in 1800 just before his first symphony (same applies!) did Beethoven feel ready. He’d written several String Trios (Opp 3 and 9) as essays before flinging down his great opening set of six.

A genial even sunny G major sits in the easing-in of the opening Allegro, with quiet three-note announcements as it starts up a glowing and ultimately grand development full of good homour, one might even say Haydnesque. But there’s a warmth of Beethoven’s own here and a lack of shock tactics. Just very original writing.

The Adagio cantabile (perhaps modelled on the preceding quartet) continues the same theme but is interrupted by the Allegro: Adagio of the subsequent half. It’s a remarkable two-movement movement. Full of tenebrous, layered gestures.

The Scherzo allegro comes as far more of a Beethovenian joke: full of almost rustic bonhomie. It’s an ebullient demonstration too of Beethoven breaking free of the Minuet tradition and embracing the glowering jokey scherzo as the default fast movement of a classical work. Haydn had tried this but Beethoven is its first undisputed master. There’s some light shadows too as the instruments play with less pressure in the trio, making it like a conversation overheard, laughter in the next room. Power returns though.

The finale pretty well takes up the same tempo. Returning to the good homour of the opening now led by a cello voice the instruments take up the conversation of the Allegro molto that finally speeds into a full scale Presto.

The build and development here too is quasi symphonic. The cello theme like the opening conversation is a three-note step like a question mark where everything builds from here and returns. A “good-humoured” yes but also massive build-up to weighty braggadocios (“I, not Haydn or Mozart, am the master builder here”) is never far off. Beethoven was flinging down a challenge with every technical power in his armoury.  And pushing the vocabulary – like scherzo – to a new musical language. Here he’s just within classical bounds. Though bursting them.

The counterpoint dazzles. The end is thrilling and the Hammigs deliver with pinpoint ensemble, warm inner-part playing and a thrust that never hardens too much nor overly relaxes. There is indeed here a driven but sweet-toned ensemble playing that takes them to a new level. Outstanding and the finest performance yet I’ve heard from this ensemble. A gem.

Published June 17, 2026June 17, 2026 by Simon Jenner