Authentic and committed performances

This was the second of two concerts devoted to music by Czech composers; if you missed either one, they will both be repeated on Monday and Wednesday next week.

Last week I was a little critical of the old library as a place to listen to choral music, and I have previously not much enjoyed large orchestral ensembles. But it was very right in both visual and aural scale for the string quartet.

Although only a dozen years separate the births of Dvorak and Janacek, their music sounds much further apart. That is partly because Dvorak worked in the 19th century while most of Janacek’s best music was written in the 1920s, in his old age, after the world had changed so profoundly.

I cannot imagine more authentic or committed performances of the music of these two composers; the New Zealand String Quartet has hit top form in these concerts.

Dvorak’s Miniatures exist as romantic pieces for violin and piano and they are perfect little gems that demand a touch that is light of heart and bow, unaffected yet exquisitely balanced. That describes the performance by Helene Pohl, Douglas Beilman and Rolf Gjelsten.

Next came two Janacek works. Richard Mapp’s credentials in Schubert and such fin de siecle composers as Granados equipped him perfectly for Janacek’s violin sonata. Alongside Helene Pohl’s bright and luminous violin, he drew the most vivid contrasts from the piano, now spiky, now lyrical, now passionate, now playful.

Gillian Ansell illuminated the second string quartet, “Intimate Letters“, by reading a couple of Janacek’s letters to his friend Kamila Stosslova. They seemed to heighten the many aspects of the passion found in this vivid music, in a performance that was insightful and brilliant.

Finally there was Dvorak’s piano quartet, again with Richard Mapp contributing in a way that was unobtrusive yet beguiling. Helene Pohl relieved Gillian Ansell on the viola (Gillian has strained an arm) leaving Doug Beilman to the violin. The combination proved a marvel that expressed great affection for the music, perfect ensemble and a fluent ease with the folk idioms that underlie Dvorak’s music.