A graceful exit: the Pražák Quartet bows out at Prague Spring

By Frank Kuznik, 20 May 2021

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“gave the music a regal quality, a performance fit for a king’s court”

Reviewed at Church of St Lawrence, Prague on 18 May 2021

Feld, String Quartet no. 4

Haydn, String Quartet no. 67 in F major, Op.77 No.2, Hob III:82

Stravinsky, Double Canon

Dvořák, String Quartet no. 14 in A flat major, Op.105

Pražák Quartet

Das Pražák Quartett zeigt lebendige Volksnähe in Lugano

Rolf Kyburz, 21st April

Das Quartett präsentiert romantische Frühwerke von Webern und Schönberg und widmet sich dem tschechischen Nationalkomponisten Smetana.

***11

Text and textures in New York premieres by The Crossing at Zankel Hall

David Wolfson, 24th March

Donald Nally’s much vaunted chamber choir The Crossing give a program of three New York premieres at Zankel Hall.

****1

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Buniatishvili in Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 24th March

Jonathan Nott and the OSR bring surgical precision to Debussy’s vivid sketches, while Khatia Buniatishvili’s Brahms evokes the soulful, improvisational warmth of a pre-war piano legend at the Elbphilharmonie.

****1

Concertos – for violin and for orchestra – from the Hallé

Peter Connors, 22nd March

Viktoria Mullova is a superb soloist in Brahms' Violin Concerto, while an orchestra full of soloists play Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra with Kahchun Wong presiding.

*****

Chopin and Franck reframed with elegance and insight in Dublin

Andrew Larkin, 20th March

In Dublin, Jean-Luc Tingaud and Louis Lortie bring clarity and purpose to two composers often ill at ease with the orchestra.

****1

Kristiina Poska makes an exciting return to conduct the RSNO

Simon Thompson, 20th March

Kristiina Poska directs the RSNO in gripping Tchaikovsky and Pärt, but words and music only occasionally match in Elena Langer's new song cycle.

***11

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Frank Kuznik

Frank Kuznik is the former Editor-in-Chief and Culture Editor of The Prague Post, Central Europe’s premier English-language weekly newspaper. He currently divides his time between Prague and his hometown in the US, Cleveland, where he covers northeast Ohio's dynamic classical music scene. In Prague he is an habitué of the Rudolfinum, National Theater, State Opera and other storied classical music venues, and an unabashed fan of Czech music.