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SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
Pavel Haas, Smetana
and Dvořák:
Shai Wosner (piano)
Pavel Haas
Quartet
(Veronika
Jaruskova and Eva Karova (violins),
Pavel Nikl (viola), Peter Jarusek (cello)),
Wigmore Hall,
London, 26.2.2009 (BBr)
Pavel Haas:
String Quartet No.3 op.15 (1938)
Smetana:
String Quartet No.1 in E minor, From my life (1876)
Dvořák:
Piano Quintet in A, op.81 (1887)
A well planned concert this, of some fine Czech writing for strings
– with
Dvořák
adding a keyboard for one of his best chamber works.
Pavel Haas is one of the lost generation of Czech composers who were
murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. Although his output was small it’s a
very significant body of work which includes an unfinished Symphony,
an opera and three Quartets. The last of his Quartets is in three
compact movements , is beautifully laid out for the instruments and
is full of interesting things, not least the discreet use of
dissonance as an emotional force and a slow movement of great depth
and subtlety. The eponymous quartet played it superbly, relishing
the many singing lines, the jokes of the finale and the integrity of
the middle Lento. This is a work which should be heard in
repertory and not as a special event.
Smetana’s 1st Quartet charts his life, from youth
to the deafness which afflicted him from 1874. It’s a very dramatic
work, almost symphonic in its scope and orchestral in its full and
rich textures, but not without moments of lightness – the polka
second movement brings some relief to the proceedings. Tonight we
heard a performance of extraordinary urgency, the players pointing
every nuance of this disturbed work and when the musical depiction
of the deafness came – a high harmonic on first violin –it was as if
I’d received a kick in the solar plexus. This was a magnificent
interpretation.
After the interval things got even better with a glorious
performance of Dvořák’s
Piano Quintet in A, one of his sunniest inspirations. The
piano part is very full, indeed at times I wondered if this was a
Piano Concerto, so full is the music, but Wosner understood that
this is not a piano versus ensemble work but a true quintet with
everyone equal partners and he knew when to step back, so to speak,
and allow the strings to take the lead. There was an excellent
understanding of the drama and release of the various sections of
the first movement – which was given with the exposition repeat –
and the many moods of the variations of the second movement were
well placed and paced. The dance of the third movement and the
helter–skelter finale were sheerly joyous, and the beautiful
restraint of the final pages, before the up–tempo conclusion, was
heart rending in its simple intensity.
This was a magnificent show, everything was just right, the playing
excellent, the interpretations intelligent and insightful and the
musician’s joy in the music making was evident in every bar they
played. If you missed it I feel sorry for you for you missed one of
the very great concerts which we are privileged to hear from time to
time, but fear not, for BBC Radio 3 recorded the show for future
broadcast.
Bob Briggs
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