East Neuk Festival: Pavel Haas Quartet

Kilrenny Church - 30/06/22 

Kilrenny Church at 8 pm on Thursday 30th June was again the venue for a programme of string quartet music.  Like that of the Elias Quartet’s opening concert, the programme combined variety with a unifying theme; here the unifying theme was Czech heritage.  It was my first time experiencing this ensemble live and it was an unforgettable experience. 

The Bohemian Josef Suk’s Meditation on the Old Czech Hymn “St Wenceslas” was written during the First World War as a gesture of Czech nationalist defiance against the Austro-Hungarian authorities’ insistence that the imperial anthem be played at all concerts.  The Suk Quartet complied, but also played this piece, recognisable to every Czech audience-member and of course understood.  The hymn theme starts on solo viola, devout and subdued in mood at first, very gradually becoming more impassioned and expressive, exploring different colours and sonorities.  There are two large climaxes, the second declamatory and defiant, before the tone subsides to a hushed harmonic glow.  I cannot imagine a more committed or moving reading of this piece than the one presented to the grateful Kilrenny audience. 

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (he of Viennese opera and American “operas without words” – his designation of his film scores) is perhaps not most people’s idea of a Czech composer, but he was born in the former Moravian capital city of Brno.  I confess that, despite being a Korngold fan and whilst familiar with his delicious Piano Quintet, I knew nothing of his string quartets before this concert and my reaction to seeing his Quartet No. 3 on the programme was “wow, there are three of them!”  However, there was much to hear that was familiar, and not only because he frequently quotes from his film scores in his instrumental music.  The main theme of the first movement recalled the “dream sequence” from the middle of the slow movement of the newly popular Violin Concerto, with the Korngold “signature” 3-note falling figure of a semitone and a diminished sixth, iteratively repeated a semitone lower.  The second movement is a hectic tormented waltz, with a slower central section in common time, recalling his music for many a Hollywood love scene.  The third movement marked “Sostenuto. Like a folk tune”, is a nocturne played con sord., like the main theme of the slow movement of the Violin Concerto, with lovely sonorities and an emotional outburst in the middle.  After a brief slow introduction, the finale is rhythmic and playful, promises (and delivers a little) fugato, slightly jazzy, recalling the spirit of the scherzo of his Symphony.  There is a brief andante interruption, with the signature figure and the slow movement theme being revisited before a dash to the finish.  In summary, this is a thoroughly engaging and entertaining work and it received a cogent, committed and engaging performance. 

Korngold’s slightly tongue-in-cheek phrase “operas without words” has perhaps a deeper applicability to the late development of the musical language of fellow-Moravian Leoš Janáček.  In his operas, he set aside the melodic, thematic and structural conventions of the established foreign (and indeed domestic) schools and followed the speech rhythms of the Czech language.  This discovery, transferred to his wordless instrumental music, lends it a directness and immediacy that commands the attention of the listener, as if actual words were being spoken in a universal language.  The music is emotionally involving, and it is impossible, even if one tried, to remain emotionally uninvested in the enfolding narrative.  I have heard the Pavel Haas Quartet in a wide range of repertoire many times on Radio 3, ever since they were BBC New Generation Artists in the late noughties, so I knew that this concert would be memorable.  I have been to perhaps a dozen performances of Janáček’s ‘Intimate Letters’ (Quartet No. 2) over the years, including by the great Smetana Quartet in the RDS in Dublin in the late 70s.  I knew that I would be captivated by the music.  I read in the programme that the performers had studied with Milan Škampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet.  I knew I was about to hear an informed and technically excellent performance. 

I knew nothing.  I have no hesitation in stating that the performance of Janáček’s ‘Intimate Letters’ that I had the privilege of experiencing live in Kilrenny on 30th June 2022 was by far the finest performance I have heard, live or otherwise, of this extraordinary work.  I am not alone.  Walking back to the car after the concert, multiple strangers shared in breathless tones much the same sentiment with me. 

There is clearly, then, much about the Pavel Haas Quartet that is very special.  But then again, the 2022 Festival has brought us varied chamber ensembles, all of them special and excelling in those qualities that define great chamber music-making.  In my review of the Elias Quartet, I outlined some of these qualities: frequent eye-contact between the players, mutually responsive phrasing, dynamic balance and a sense of shared understanding of and commitment to the music and each other.  It almost goes without saying (but it shall not) that the Pavel Haas Quartet displays all of these qualities to the highest degree.  But there is something else and I think, on hearing them play Janáček, I can put my finger on it.  It is not unrelated to technical brilliance but transcends it by adding an extra dimension to “understanding of and commitment to the music and each other”.  That dimension is deep mutual trust.  With it, it becomes possible to explore further in rehearsal and to take risks in performance, even with the most technically demanding music, such as Janáček at his most animated.  I learned something unforgettable in Kilrenny. 

It will probably come as no surprise to the reader that this recital was, for me, the highpoint of the Festival. 

Cover photo: Neil Hanna