EIF: Pavel Haas Quartet
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 28/8/26
Pavel Haas Quartet
The eagerly-awaited return of the Pavel Haas Quartet to the Edinburgh International Festival happened in the Queen’s Hall concert of 28th August, presenting a programme of works by Martinů, Korngold and Dvořák. The concert was recorded for later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Attendance was close to capacity. I noted with pleasure that, in these days of encroaching digital technology, the musicians played from sheet music.
Four years ago, the Pavel Haas Quartet performed Martinů’s neoclassical homesick last quartet, his 3-movement Seventh, in the Queen’s Hall. Today, we heard his 1929 Third Quartet, also in 3 movements, but a very different piece. The first movement was in the character of a brisk, breezy, spiky waltz with a more lyrical second theme, a lot of playful syncopation and even fugal elements, with exploration of texture and timbre taking precedence over pure thematic development, and the tempo relaxing for the cheeky pizzicato end. The central Andante is a piece of muted night music distantly emulative of that of Bartók, but with bluesy elements and a particularly characterful viola part. The Finale is an exciting, virtuosic high-speed chase, interrupted by some high-register rhapsodic singing for the cello before a final hectic dash. At about 12 minutes duration, the work is compact and engaging and a super concert opener. It received a characterful outing with the fullest advocacy.
Seven weeks before introducing me to the quartets of Martinů in the 2022 EIF, the Pavel Haas Quartet did the same for those of Korngold at the East Neuk Festival, in the form of his Third. Today I heard his Second String Quartet (1933), written shortly before he left for the US to begin a second career as a writer of iconic film scores. Culturally Viennese, Korngold was actually born in Brno, the Moravian capital, and so he was “technically” Czech. The first movement is an interesting mix of schmaltz and quirky dissonance, its three main themes with different metres (the second is a waltz). The second movement is a light-hearted ternary-form gavotte with the same blend of charm and whimsy as that found in his incidental music for ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. The slow movement’s nocturnal surrealism is a slightly disorienting dreamscape more reminiscent of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, with some soliloquies, both pensive and idyllic, notably for cello and first violin, finishing with a delicious delayed cadence. The Finale is a somewhat shabby-genteel waltz that struggles to keep up appearances but keeps slipping and tending towards “organised chaos”. The witty helter-skelter coda serves up another teasingly delayed cadence. Super piece, stylishly delivered.
I’ve known Dvořák’s 1893 Quartet No.12 in F, Op.96, the so-called 'American’ quartet, since primary school age, it being a piece I often heard practised by the amateur string quartet led by my father. Hearing a piece I know so intimately performed by a professional ensemble of the highest calibre, for whom challenges of intonation and balance are all conquered, liberating the players to make chamber music together with all the joys of chamber playing, is a special pleasure. When that ensemble is the Pavel Haas Quartet, the experience is sublime. And it was. Packed with folk melodies from the composer’s three-year stay in the US, with more than a scholarly fascination with African-American and Native American music, there was much to hear afresh. In the tuneful first movement, teasing rubato and tenuto at the bridges between themes lent additional elegance to the phrasing, allowing the melodies to glow. The slow movement’s moving African-American spiritual was spellbinding, with the cello solo at the end channelling Paul Robeson. The playful scherzo-and-trio alternated a syncopated dance with a teasing breeze across the prairie. The finale’s agile scampering merriment, with achingly pensive cantabile interludes and a joyous coda, rounded off a memorable performance.
The Pavel Haas Quartet were already my go-to ensemble for revealing the gems of Martinů and Korngold. I can now happily add: unveiling afresh the tuneful beauty of Dvořák. Sealed by the encore: No.8 of ‘Cypresses’. Magical.
Link: https://www.eif.co.uk/events/pavel-haas-quartet