Flinders Quartet: Inspired Czechs

The Flinders Quartet should perhaps have gone with the title Czechs and Balances for this concert, as both the program and the performance would have justified it. A good-sized audience heard work from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, beginning with the least familiar: Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet. Each movement was in the form of a dance, but with unexpected elements – for example, the opening Alla Valse Viennese would not be recognisable as such to any member of the Strauss family. Not only was it in 4/4 time, it was syncopated to the extent that it could hardly be used to accompany dancing! Yet the Flinders Quartet created the illusion of a waltz, with its smooth playing and complete absence of parody. In Alla Serenata, the first violin allowed an engaging melody to be heard over an accompaniment which at times seemed an odd cross between Philip Glass and a Czech folk dance. The quartet seemed more at home with the Alla Czeca, producing a confident attack on the recognisable dance-ground (with a contemporary twist). Schulhoff pre-dated Astor Piazzolla by some 30 years, but the Argentinean’s take on the tango has prepared modern audiences for its many moods; so the Alla Tango milonga was well-received, with the quartet producing a dark, complex sound. The movement was also notable for the sustained unison passages, the dance only coming into its own in the final bars. The final Alla Tarantella, more than any other dance, fulfilled the expectation of its title, the frenzied pace matching well with the melody in the minor key. It brought to an end a work which had been both a challenge and a triumph for the performers. Not so the introduction to the next work: Leos Janacek’ s String Quartet No.1 – Kreutzer Sonata, so named not because of the eponymous Beethoven piano work but because of the Tolstoy story of a murderous husband. The Flinders Quartet chose to have an excerpt read by the cellist, whose voice was simply not strong nor sinister enough for the task! The Adagio con moto better conveyed the darkness of the story, with fine playing (and synchronicity) from the quartet throughout the work. The final Adagio had some of the most harmonically satisfying music of the work, while being constantly unresolved. The cello was remarkable for its “galloping” rhythm while the score had all instruments seemingly struggling to break free. After the challenges of the first half, the audience welcomed the familiar strains of the well-known String Quartet Op. 96 in F – American, by Antonin Dvorak. Although only 13 years older than Janacek, Dvorak composed in a style still wedded to 19th century ideals of the development of themes, and a congruence of harmony and melody. The viola had unusual prominence with the dancing melody of the opening movement, Allegro, while the second, Lento, more conventionally featured the violin. However, the quartet’s balance always seemed exactly right, whatever instrument might be occupying the composer’s focus – notable, for example in the perfect final note of the Lento, after music that seemed infused with longing. Keeping a synchronised rhythm was the challenge the quartet met superbly in the final two movements, with Czech folk themes to the fore and the overwhelming impression being of peasant dancers with their skirts swirling. Flinders Quartet: Inspired Czechs October 25 Melbourne Recital Centre