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In the ANAM Quartetthaus, the barrier between audience and performer disappears. You are close enough to a string quartet to see everything: their sheet music, the beads of sweat on their brows, the swift movement of their fingers and bows. The stage rotates so slowly you don’t even notice, until you realise your view has changed, and so has the sound. It’s live classical music turned up a notch.
The ANAM Quartetthaus looks unremarkable from the outside, but its magic is revealed once the audience enters.Credit: Darrian Traynor
The 52-capacity portable venue, which was created by Ben Cobham of Melbourne lighting and design studio Bluebottle in collaboration with the Australian Academy of Music in 2011, returns for another season this month. Six string quartets from Australia and Britain come together for 56 concerts over 11 days, celebrating chamber music from both countries.
Cobham, who once constructed and lived in a cardboard house with his family, knows a thing or two about unusual structures. With a background in theatre and circus, he took inspiration from German Spiegeltents to design the space, replicating the intimacy of historical string quartet performances that had been lost over time.
“There’s no embellishment built into the acoustic of the space – it’s very dry – so the idea is that you hear the sound directly off the instrument into your ear, which is different to a big concert hall,” he says. “It’s such an intimate experience, and very theatrical.”
Made mostly of lightweight timber, with some steel in the floor, the ANAM Quartetthaus is a unique building. The 11×11-metre cube takes about a week to assemble, then a few additional days to attach the roof and fit out the interior. Everything you see inside, from chairs to music stands, is custom-made and purpose-built: “There’s no off the shelf parts,” Cobham says.
The Oriole Quartet perform in the intimate space of the ANAM Quartetthaus.Credit: Darrian Traynor
The venue looks unremarkable from the outside, but its magic is revealed once the audience enters. Replicating the body of an instrument, it provides a different perspective on performance and sound. Seated in two rows in a circle, audience members are sometimes as little as half a metre away from performers.
Sophie Rowell, violinist and head of strings at ANAM, performed in the space herself during its last season in 2015. “I remember it being a very intense experience,” she says. “Because I was seated so close to my colleagues and looking at them and we were facing each other, we really created something that was its own world.
“At the end, when the lights came up, I remember looking up and realising that I had moved about a quarter of a circle around the audience, but I had no idea because it was moving so slowly as we played, and I was concentrating on that.”
The upcoming season at ANAM Quartetthaus was originally slated to be performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2022, marking the venue’s international debut. But plans were scuppered by freight delays and the Queen’s passing, with her funeral taking place just as the season was about to commence.
But the show must go on, and it will at Melbourne Museum. Professional, early-career and emerging quartets from both countries will present concerts performing music by celebrated composers such as Peter Sculthorpe, Benjamin Britten and Liza Lim. Two pieces, by Sydney’s Jack Symonds and London-born, New York-based composer Hannah Kendall, were written especially for the space.
Entering the ANAM Quartetthaus feels like stepping inside a musical instrument. Credit: Darrian Traynor
The performers’ endurance will be pushed, which will make for a memorable experience for both spectators and musicians. “I think this is going to be a real test of fortitude, playing so often and so many times in such an intense situation,” Rowell says. “But as a performer you really gain energy from situations like this – so I think that it will be demanding but exhilarating for them.”
Cobham is pleased that his creation has stood the test of time, after some initial trepidation after almost a decade away. “I was feeling a little bit nervous … I was wondering if it would still make sense,” he says. “As soon as it took shape I was like, ‘oh yeah, it’s really special’. It’s a pretty timeless thing.”
The return of ANAM Quartetthaus will mark a milestone for Australian classical music. “It’s the biggest celebration of string quartet music ever presented in Australia,” Rowell says. “Isn’t that amazing, in this tiny little plywood box?”
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