There are those few seconds of silence between applause ceasing once the ensemble has taken their seats and the first note they play, a few seconds of excitement and anticipation of what is to follow. And even though we know the programme and know that music will follow, there are those moments when the first couple of notes make us hold our breath and press us back into our seats, feeling unprepared for the musical thunder about to roll over us.
At Wigmore Hall the audience witnessed such a thunderous beginning as the Pavel Haas Quartet started into the powerful and explosive Concertino for string quartet by Igor Stravinsky with two dissonantly superimposed ascending scales. These scales appear over and over again, forming the outer sections of the composition. In contrast to the energetic, rhythmically diverse outer part, the centrepiece has a lingering, or even static, character. The violin plays a slow cadenza that is interjected by the remaining instruments. Stravinsky made no big contribution to string quartet repertoire. Apart from the Concertino there is only the set of Three Pieces from 1914 and the Double Canon composed in 1959. Stravinsky revisited all of his string quartet compositions and rescored them for different ensembles, transforming the Concertino into a piece for twelve instruments. But before that happened, in 1920, the American ensemble Flonzaley Quartet had asked Stravinsky for a new work. And since he had been playing around the Concertino already he turned it into a string quartet.
Apart from Stravinsky coming over us like a wave, what struck the most were the dynamics between the musicians from the very beginning. Not only did they understand each other blindly, but there was more to it; you could tell by the musicians' happy faces that they loved playing Stravinsky as if it was Rock'n'Roll.
Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F was his first major chamber music work and the structure was greatly inspired by Claude Debussy's String Quartet in G minor. The prominent use of pizzicati and the cyclic form are just two elements the pieces have in common. Ravel's quartet follows the classical structure of four movements. The first, written in sonata form, has a very lyrical character and is played molto legato which the Pavel Haas Quartet turned into a legato as if they were stirring a cream pudding. The bows didn't lose touch with the strings at any point and we were pulled into the music as if into a whirlpool of self-made chocolate cream pudding. It comes as no surprise that Ravel marked the movement as tres doux though; the sweetness can be applied to the whole composition. The second movement kicks off with skipping percussive pizzicati and functions as a wake up call from the sweet tranquility of the first movement before we again slide into a dreamy third movement which incorporates references to the first movement's theme. The quartet ends with an energetic and driven finale.
After the intermission we were gifted Antonín Dvořák String Quintet in E flat major for the quartet was joined by Pavel Nikl on viola. The quintet is a typical Dvořák composition with its light, breathy dancing melodies. He composed it during his time in America where he got to know the music and pentatonic melodies of the Native Americans. But no matter where Dvořák worked, his Bohemian homeland can always be heard, only this time he added some American flavour. He created a sound that captures the vastness of the American landscape, most notably during the second movement as the staccato of the second viola takes us on a train journey, rattling across the American prairie.
This evening at Wigmore Hall was not just about listening to wonderful melodies, but also about watching musicians of the Pavel Haas Quartet being truly passionate about what they do. The audience expressed its thanks with thunderous applause and, just like the quartet let the music roll over our heads at the beginning of the evening, the applause returned the thunder to the musicians.
