What a difference a bass makes! Though numerous string quintets have been composed over time – Boccherini himself wrote over 120 of them – they don’t often feature in concert performances, rather playing second fiddle to the far more prolific and popular string quartets. However, whether the quintet substitutes a double bass for a second cello, as in the Onslow, or the score intentionally calls for a double bass alongside the cello, as in the Boccherini and Dvorak, the impact of having the bass with the quartet is profound, delighting the senses with the depth and sonority that it brings.

Led assertively with Liu’s rock-solid intonation and beautiful tonality, the ensemble launched into Boccherini’s energetic allegro with vigour and confidence, making an early connection with the audience, and then easing gently and beautifully balanced into the lyrical pastorale before spiriting us off on the finale to its cleverly disguised surprise ending.

Webster’s contemporary Swim the Sliding Continent offered some interesting imagery, but its busy, jarring dissonances brought a marked disconnect between the lyrically rich Boccherini and the real surprise of the day that followed in the dramatic Onslow, into which the classical Boccherini would have segued beautifully but for the strident change of tonality created by the brief and discordant Swim coming between them.

Onslow’s “The Bullet” is a remarkable and intensely enjoyable musical melodrama which merges the drama of opera into the chamber music idiom. Based on a mishap in which the composer was shot in the face during a hunt at which he was a spectator, the four movements, dripping in imagery, depict in turn the impending doom of the accident, the sense of terror, pain and suffering that resulted, the feverish delirium of his convalescence, and finally the joy of his full recovery and exuberant return to normal life. The players noticeably immersed themselves fully into the melodrama, and delighted the entranced audience from beginning to end.

Following the interval, Ukrainian composer Valentyn Silvestrov’s short, evocative Postlude was an apposite prayer for peace in Ukraine that showcased Ukrainian bassist Oleksandr Gunchenko, whose heart and soul went into the performance.

The dominant and final work of the programme was Dvorak’s string quintet, which he originally composed for a chamber music competition, gaining him first prize and lavish praise for his mastery of form and his knowledge of the instruments. The piece was a well-chosen conclusion, and the ensemble brought the best of their talent and leadership to the fore in their rousing finish to the programme, earning them very enthusiastic applause and lots of smiling faces.

Aroha Music Society extend their thanks the Aroha String Quartet, Oleksandr Gunchenko, and the Dalton Trust for bringing this very enjoyable performance to Kerikeri.