Haydn String Quartet, Op. 50 No. 5 ‘Dream’; Berg Lyric Suite for String Quartet; Ravel String Quartet Op. 35
This String Quartet was founded in Berlin in 2019 and in 2022 they were awarded first prize at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition. The name means ‘Lionheart’ in Esperanto……..
This was a varied concert. The Quartet interestingly all stood to play apart from the cellist. This gave, I think, an extra zing particularly to the Ravel and Berg. I was also reminded what a nice hall the Stoller is and how good its acoustics are.
The highlight for me was the Ravel Quartet. I am sure I have got this in my CD or MP3 collection but have never consciously heard it before. It’s an early piece and clearly influenced by Debussy – but in the use of old modal folk song sounds it also seemed uncommonly akin to Vaughan Williams – I had not realised that RVW was actually older than Ravel when he studied with him before the First World War. Somehow I have never really got that enthused by Ravel – I like the two piano concertos, La Valse and Les Enfants et des Sortileges but Daphnis and Chloe leaves me a bit cold, I am afraid. Anyway it was good to find another Ravel work I liked, with its wistful first movement and quirky scherzo. The Quartet- not that I am very expert in comparing one quarter with another – seemed to have a very wide dynamic range and the ability to play softly yet distinctly together. I particularly enjoyed the work of the lower strings.
The Berg piece I found hard going. The violin concerto and Wozzeck both have stories with which to frame the 12 tone music and also use late Romantic tonal harmonies in a shadowy way at times – distant, through a glass darkly….. Adorno spoke of this piece as a latent opera – not so profound really given the title of the work….and indeed it was discovered 50 years ago that a secret coded theme in the music revealed the initials of Berg and Hanna Fuchs Robettin, sister to Franz Werfel, Alma Mahler’s third husband, who had an affair together in the 20s. So this is also framed by a story – of an intense and doubtless unhappy affair (they were both married to someone else). But despite that correlative for the music I lost track of what was happening and I couldn’t sustain my interest. Perhaps I’ll give it another go….The Quartet played it well I thought, with a lot of passion
The Haydn quartet I thought was of course enjoyable but maybe a bit under characterised by the players. Overall I am pleased I went – all these works were new to me…….And the turn-out was good, with enthusiastic cheering at the end. The Quartet played a brief piece as an encore, a sardonic shorter version of La Valse, maybe by Ravel or ?Korngold.
John's musical journey 