Jan Bedřich SMETANA (1824-1884)
String Quartet No.1 in E minor ‘From My Life’ (1876) [28:32]
String Quartet No.2 in D minor (1882–83) [19:03]
Pavel Haas Quartet [Veronika Jarušková, Kateřina Gemrotová (violin),
Pavel Nikl (viola), Lukáš Polák (cello)]
rec. 2014 ?
SUPRAPHON SU41722 [47:35]
My high appreciation of the Pavel Haas Quartet’s earlier
recordings prompted me to stream this from Qobuz
as soon as it became available. Unfortunately and unusually they don’t include
the booklet, so I can’t give you the recording date – I presume it was the
summer of 2014 – and venue.
Their earlier recordings have all received praise, often the very highest:
• SU38772 Janáček String Quartet No.2; Pavel Haas String Quartet
No.2 – review
• SU39222 Pavel Haas String Quartets Nos. 1 and 3; Janáček String
Quartet No.1
• SU39572 Prokofiev String Quartet Nos. 1 and 2: Sonata for 2 violins
–
review – DL
Roundup April 2010
• SU40382 Dvořák String Quartets, Op.96 and 106: Recording of the
Month – review
– review
– DL
Roundup November 2011/2
• SU41102: Schubert String Quartet No.14 and String Quintet: Recording
of the Month –
review – DL
News 2013/14
Let me say at once that the new recording lived up to all my expectations
and that my only reservation concerns the short playing time. On LP the two
Smetana quartets made a reasonable pairing but on CD we have come to expect
rather more. Even at super-budget price the Talich Quartet recordings from
1991 are coupled with Janáček’s String Quartet No.1, Kreutzer,
and Suk’s Wenceslas Meditation (Alto ALC1079 – review).
There are two other Talich Quartet recordings of these works on the La Dolce
Volta label: LDV255, with Fibich String Quartet No.1; and LDV267 offering
just the two Smetana works. Both are available to download from eclassical.com
in mp3 and lossless sound but, as there are no notes, I’m not sure of the
provenance of these recordings. LDV267 seems to be a reissue of a Calliope
recording from the 1980s and LDV255 a later recording in better sound from
2003, released in 2014 to celebrate the group’s 50th anniversary,
albeit with different personnel. You should be able to find the CD for around
Ł9, which makes the eclassical.com download rather expensive at $15.35, though
for dollar purchasers it represents a small saving on the CD.
The very fine performances of these works by the Dante Quartet on Hyperion
are supplemented with the Sibelius String Quartet (CDA67845 –
review and DL
Roundup). I very much like those performances on Hyperion, especially
as the odd pairing of Smetana and Sibelius works well, but this new performance
by the Pavel Haas Quartet just has the edge. As I wrote
with reference to their Dvorák recording, you don’t have to be Czech to perform
Czech music, but it helps. Right from the arresting opening chord of No.1
these are performances that make you take notice. It’s the fourth movement
of the first quartet that presents the acid test, starting in a jolly fashion
reminiscent of the dances from The Bartered Bride before, at about
two minutes in, the mood begins to darken, modifying the dance rhythm while
still maintaining it.
As with Ravel’s La Valse – not a work that I like, but I appreciate
how Ravel constructs it – the mood must not darken too perceptibly before
the manic scramble that leads into the tragedy of that awful sustained note
at just after three minutes, representing the all-pervasive tinnitus which
almost destroyed Smetana’s creative career and restricted him to an hour’s
composition a day. As someone who suffers from a mild form of tinnitus, which
has restricted my enjoyment of music slightly since it occurred, I can imagine
all too well how terrible the full-blown version must have been for Smetana.
The Dante Quartet and the Pavel Haas Quartet see this movement in similar
terms. By direct comparison the Dante Quartet perhaps hint at the sadness
to come even in the opening bars, but you notice that only by playing one
performance after the other. Otherwise there is very little to choose.
Sometimes the First Quartet is offered on its own. Though it’s undeniably
the more immediate in appeal, not least for containing the autobiographical
elements that give it the subtitle, I’m pleased that Supraphon offer both
quartets together, as they did with their earlier recording by the Škampa
Quartet, which remains available on SU37402.
The Pavel Haas Quartet give a very fine performance of this much sterner-toned
quartet, too. Gone is the light-hearted music: even the second movement polka
struts rather than dances. The Škampa Quartet chose it rather than its better-known
predecessor for their concert at the Wigmore Hall, preserved on Wigmore Hall
Live with Mozart and Shostakovich (WHLIVE0019) and I listened to them for
comparison. If they capture the wistful dance-that-might-have-been slightly
better than the Pavel Haas Quartet – though slightly faster, they actually
manage to sound more hesitant in launching into the dance – there’s very little
in it. The Dante Quartet, on the other hand, strike a slightly lighter note
in this work.
Having listened to the Talich Quartet (Dolce Volta), Dante Quartet and Pavel
Haas recordings, I’d be happy with any one of them for my putative Desert
Island. If pushed to a choice, however, I’d plump for the new Supraphon.
Only the addition of the Sibelius and Fibich quartets speaks for preference
of the alternatives.
The new Supraphon recording is very good, as is the Hyperion, and the Dolce
Volta is only slightly less so. It’s a lot to ask full price for a 48-minute
CD, but if you are prepared to forego the booklet you can download the new
recording from Qobuz
in lossless sound for Ł6.29, about half the price of the CD. If you are happy
with top bit-rate mp3 (320kb/s) subscribers to emusic.com
can obtain the download for Ł3.36 or less.
Brian Wilson
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