Last year’s City of London Festival began in the skies, Stimmung ringing out under the Gherkin’s glass roof. How do you top that? Not that the earthbound Middle Temple Hall lacks presence or history. This year’s festival carries the tag “Trading Places: London — Tokyo”; and the famous Tokyo Quartet, resident for four concerts, are fitting ambassadors. The current personnel are more international than before: two veteran Japanese, one British cellist (Clive Greensmith), one mercurial Canadian (Martin Beaver, first violinist). Their programmes cross frontiers, too, each marrying Mozart and Brahms with something Japanese and contemporary.
Even their playing might be called diplomatic: careful, humane, no necks stuck. Beaver provides the only waywardness, scooping notes in passing. Obviously he’s a romantic soul. Or perhaps it’s his