Swiss composer Jürg Frey has arrived at his Biblical maturity, his three-score-years-and-ten, with a strong reputation for exemplifying what Keats called “slow time”. He is known for composing works of very long duration and which move at the pace of glaciers when there was still something left of them. At hcmf// Frey had a day all to himself, and brought along some of his friends to demonstrate that he is not Morton Feldman, nor Arvo Pärt, nor Henryk Górecki. Those estimable friends were vocal ensemble Exaudi (conducted by James Weeks), pianist Reiner van Houdt, and Quatuor Bozzini – Alissa Cheung and Clemens Merkel (Violins), Stéphanie Bozzini (Viola), and Isabelle Bozzini (Cello). Exaudi gave very concentrated performances of three short works illustrative of Frey’s fascinating way with words, and Houdt mesmerised his audience with ethereal readings of two pieces which spoke eloquently for his affinity with the intricacies of the composer’s writing for piano.
The main event of the day was a sublime exposition of String Quartet no. 4, receiving its UK premiere. Lasting a mere 65 minutes, this stunning piece embodied the essence of Frey’s mature aesthetics, which is a rich and potent amalgam of silence, colour and time. He has said that “silence can... be the sound itself”. Here that contention was palpably demonstrated by Quatuor Bozzini. They ‘articulated’ the silence with the same studied concentration as were applied to other utterances. Colour can be conceived as static blocks of sound, as in some of Messiaen’s works; for Frey it is sound moving through time. Across the span of the piece it is the ‘granularity’ of colour, and the palpability of the silence that surrounds it, which held the attention of the listeners.
Like the other artists marking Frey’s achievements, Quatuor Bozzini brought its own sense of wonder to performing music for which it has an obvious reverence. That reverence is not piety, nor is it adulation; it seems to consist of a deep understanding of what the composer aims to achieve with the intensity of his writing. As an ensemble they are near-telepathic, speaking to each other as they play, through the minutest of physical gestures, with graceful actions. Other quartets will play this work, in their own way, but will reference the Bozzini's artistry, much like that foursome references the Ardittis.
About 15 minutes into the Keatsian slow time of the piece I think I must have fallen into a trance, because I immediately knew what the final paragraph of this review would be. Back at the hotel, and fortified by a large glass of Rioja, I sat down and typed it.
Our successor species, unearthing the fossils of the Anthropocene, will find the bones of long-vanished giants – the symphonies of Mahler and Bruckner, the operas of Wagner – and use them to construct approximations of those beasts, for the delight and wonderment of children visiting museums. But there will also be a learned society of specialists devoted to studying the sedimented remains of the glaciers that will overtake the burning fiery deserts that we, alas, so fear; and from those sediments they will extract the precious minerals that once were the sounds of Jürg Frey, laid down by the Quatuor Bozzini. Neologisms will be created (if that is the right term) to name the techniques for rescuing (not mining, please note) those wondrous materials, and “Bozzini” will be the instinctive etymological root from which all other relevant terms will be derived.
