March 16, 2009: Over two centuries of local (and neighboring) music

Chamber Music San Francisco began its 2009 Season with a recital by the Prazak String Quartet;  and, as might be imagined from an ensemble created by students at the Prague Conservatory, the program had a decided Czech flavor.  Prague itself was represented by Antonín Dvorák, whose A major (Opus 81) piano quintet was performed with pianist Menahem Pressler.  This was preceded (before the intermission) by Leoš Janácek's first string quartet ("Kreutzer Sonata").  The program began with Joseph Haydn's "Frog" Quartet (Opus 50, Number 6, in D major).  Whether or not it would make sense to view Eszterháza as a "Czech neighbor," the Opus 50 quartets were actually composed of the King of Prussia in 1787;  so, notwithstanding the title for this review, it may be a stretch to declare this "neighboring music."  A closer relationship might be found in the selection of Johannes Brahms for an encore (the Andante, un poco Adagio movement from his F minor Opus 34 piano quintet), since Brahms was one of Dvorák's champions, to the point of assisting him in getting his music published.

The title of the Janácek quartet is based on Leo Tolstoy, rather than Ludwig van Beethoven.  Wikipedia provides the following background:

"I was imagining a poor woman, tormented and run down, just like the one the Russian writer Tolstoy describes in his Kreutzer Sonata", Janácek confided in one of his letters to his young friend Kamila Stösslová. In the music of the quartet is depicted psychological drama containing moments of conflict as well as emotional outbursts, passionate work rush towards catharsis and to final climax.

In the Tolstoy novella a performance of the Beethoven sonata becomes a platform for intense passion, raging jealousy, and murder.  Those familiar with Janácek's operas, particularly those in the vein of Jenufa and Kátya Kabanová (both recently performed by the San Francisco Opera) know his penchant for raw emotion and will not be surprised to encounter it in this quartet.  I am not sufficiently familiar with Tolstoy's text to establish whether or not the quartet has a narrative structure based on Tolstoy's;  but, as I wrote on my blog in January, San Francisco has been an excellent place to become acquainted with both the structures and sounds behind Janácek's approach to composition.  Indeed, the quartet displays a close "family resemblance" to the violin sonata that Christian Tetzlaff performed last January.  As might be expected, this was the most emotionally intense part of the program.  The Prazak Quartet was not shy about bringing these emotions to the surface, providing a performance that not only satisfied those familiar with Janácek but also could win him more followers.

This is not to say that the Dvorák quintet lacked emotion.  The composition is the passionate work of a passionate man, but it is also the work of a composer with a more refined sense of nuance.  Since the members of the Prazak Quartet have been performing together since 1972, they have a keen sense of bringing nuance to their execution;  but it is also important that they have collaborated with Pressler in the past.  Through his work with the Beaux Arts Trio, Pressler has developed his own approach to Dvorák's refinements;  so it was a real delight to see how well his "visitor's" take on Dvorák meshed with that of his "hosts."

The Haydn quartet, on the other hand, had less to do with any Czech passions and served more to establish the performers' bona fides.  In his monumental Haydn:  Chronicle and Works, H. C. Robbins Landon never explains the "Frog" sobriquet.  He cites a bouncing cello motif in the first movement;  but he compares it to "a child's skipping rope."  To my ear the trochaic (accented-unaccented) rhythm of the Menuetto was Haydn's ranarian inspiration.  Regardless of your point of view, there is no denying the wit that Haydn brought to this trio, making it an excellent way for the Prazak Quartet to present their calling card.  Given Brahms' own fondness for Haydn, his selection for the encore felt all the more appropriate.