I'm just back from Wigmore Hall, where I watched the Kopelman Quartet demonstrate chamber music playing at its best: exquisite refinement, complete togetherness, impeccable attention to detail. All with their lustrous sound and a whole lot of humour, although possibly a wee bit comfortable. And watching the Russian bow hold in action is a whole violin lesson in itself.
It's interesting to me that Russian players rarely use the palette one associates with Russian music - the Prokofiev no.2 and Shostakovich no.4 were all in glorious, golden tones, rather than the harsher, drier sorts of sounds one often hears.
The highlight for me was probably the Tchaikovsky Andante Cantabile: Mikhail Kopelman had the audience wrapped around his little finger - it's rare to hear cheering at the Wigmore!
Here the group is performing Tchaikovsky's F major Quartet.