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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 1^st 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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