Tchaikovsky: String Quartet nr. 1 - Shostakovich: String Quartet nr. 7 - Schubert: String Quartet nr. 14

On Thursday the Pavel Haas Quartet was passing through Brussels. I've been mightily impressed by their recordings of the Janacek and Prokofiev quartets. Together with the Belcea Quartet they count amongst my favourite ensembles. Although I really can't point out an obvious shortcoming from the Quartet's side, this concert didn't quite capture my imagination. Maybe I was preoccupied, maybe it was the uncharacteristically unfocused and restless audience, maybe even it was the Conservatoire hall's acoustics which are generally generous towards chamber ensembles but now seemed to rob the Haas from the filigree textures and wonderful plasticity I've come to expect from them. They didn't sound as softly grained as the Jerusalem, and not as marvelously layered as the Belcea. On the whole the Haas' tone struck me as full-bodied and virile, but also a trifle prosaic. Maybe it was also the dynamics amongst the quartet members, which didn't seem to communicate overly generously amongst themselves. Or maybe it was just the repertoire. The highlight was Shostakovich's Seventh Quartet (op. 108; 1960), which is sadly also his shortest. It is dedicated to his wife Nina, in memoriam. In its combination of terseness, wistfulness and violence it's characteristic for Shostakovich's later work. The Haas' X-ray like reading went to the bone, unlike the Jerusalem's more cultured and cosmetic approach to the Tenth Quartet a few weeks ago. Tchaikovsky's String Quartet nr. 1, op. 11 was the first piece on the menu. Although it's a lovely piece in its own right, it's not really the kind of music I'm now tuned into. But the first movement impressed me by its lyrical ebullience and it's hard not to fall, at least for a moment, under the spell of the warmhearted Andante cantabile. In the Scherzo my thoughts started to drift however, and they didn't regroup until the lacklustre applause at the end of the piece. After the break we heard Schubert's most loved quartet, his Death and the Maiden (D810; 1824). I must say it is a work that for some reason I have never been able to fully embrace. And that didn't change on Thursday night, whatever the merits of the Haas Quartet's performance. As an encore we were treated to the slow second movement of Dvorak's American Quartet.

Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony - Takemitsu: Requiem for Strings - Tchaikovsky: Symphony nr. 6

Another week without serious listening went by. Several reasons for that. Submitted my thesis on Monday and then had to throw myself headlong in three project that are running in parallel. So little time. Further, I am still exploring this whole streaming concept so I am reading up on it as much as I can, whilst trying out snippets here and there. With this, my interest in the audiophile side of the listening has again reared its ugly head, so I have been sampling a few things purely for comparative purposes. And, finally, I haven't settled down yet on what I would like to in the next few weeks. Shall I continue with the Bartok project which is still incomplete? What about the stack of string quartets that is waiting for me? Or maybe it is a better idea to relax and just hop between genres until I feel the gravitational pull from something or other?

Anyway, I do need to catch up on a few things I did listen to in the past few weeks. From the BP Digital Concert Hall I have not heard a lot yet. In fact I have limited myself to just one concert. A rather odd affair as it was a memorial concert on the occasion of 25 years Chernobyl (April 26, 1986) that brought together several ensembles in the Berliner Philharmonie: the strings of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Berlin and a Ukrainian mixed chamber choir Credo.

The programme consisted of a long introductory part in which Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony op. 110a was played by the strings of the BPO, altercating with three pieces for choir, and then also texts declamated by two readers (Therese Affolter and Christian Brückner). The whole thing had a theatrical aspect with the strings arranged in a semi-circle (without conductor), backed by the speakers and choir. Despite the unconventional setup it was a gripping performance. The Chamber Symphony was brought with appropriate gravitas without sounding morose, the choir pieces were heartstoppingly beautiful and ravishingly sung and the speakers did quite well (particularly Affolter stood out).

After the break it was the Staatskapelle's turn, conducted by Andrei Boreyko. Allegedly it was his debut performance with the orchestra. I have one Boreyko CD in my collection: Schnittke's Faust Cantata complemented by Bach pieces (with the Hamburg Philharmonic, on Berlin Classics). He is known for enterprising programming. (Soon we will be able to hear more of that as the Belgian National Orchestra have been able to lure him as chief conductor from the 2012-13 season onwards. Next year, in April, he will make his Bozar debut. With Boreyko in Brussels and De Waart and Herreweghe in Antwerp it seems our orchestras are finally getting serious.) First there was a brief but beautiful piece, unbeknownst to me: the Requiem for Strings by Takemitsu. Up to this day I haven't quite fallen for Takemitsu's music which sounds like a somewhat diluted impressionism to me. But this early piece (1957) is very striking, almost Bartokian in the dark suppleness of its long lines. It put the young Japanese composer immediately on the map when it was (accidentally) auditioned by Stravinsky during one his visits to Tokyo. I thought the performance by the Staatskapelle was quite successful.

The concert was brought to a close by Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique". I was rather less impressed by this reading which didn't seem to plumb the depths of some of the others I know. Altogether a very unusual but well received concert on the DCH.