The string quartet Nostalgia Quartet was founded a quarter century ago by the players of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra but they focus on jazz. We talked about the history and present of the ensemble with its founding member, violoncellist Radan Vach. The current line-up consists of Jakub Výborný (first violin), Bohumír Strnad (second violin) and Otakar Salajka (viola).
When the Nostalgia Quartet was established in 1991, it was not too common in the world for a string quartet to be playing jazz. But I think that the Turtle Island String Quartet of David Balakrishnan already existed...
Yes, David Balakrishnan founded the "Turtles" about four years earlier and I think that he was an inspiration for Honza Beránek (today Dalecký, Ed.) who founded our ensemble. We started, of course, from ragtime and a simpler swing repertoire, but then Honza brought some Balakrishnan's things that were much more difficult and on which we were really learning to play jazz in the cast of a string quartet. The Prague-based Apollon Quartet was founded in the Czech Republic in 1993. It played classical and modern classical music and its repertoire also included some songs of the Turtle Island Quartet. And the Epoque Quartet, which specialises both in modern classical music as well as in jazz songs, was founded in 1999.
It is generally known that Jan Dalecký (Beránek) is our leading jazz specialist. But how was the expertise of the rest of you in the early 1990s? Did you have any relationship to jazz?
I will speak for myself. I had liked jazz since childhood, I listened to it on the radio and on records but due to my specialisation in violoncello I never knew that I would actively play it. When Honza came up with the offer, it made me very happy and it made my dreams that jazz music can be also played on string instruments come true.
How great was the interest in your quartet in the 1990s? You came up with something new, unusual, and exotic in a good sense of the word. Did you have places to play and people for whom to play?
We were lucky that Honza Beránek, as an old experienced jazzman, had many contacts that could be used. We had places to play from the beginning but the expectations of the audience always presented a question mark. The audience saw a classical string quartet line-up and they did not know what to expect. However, they came to talk to us after concerts all excited. They liked that it was acoustically listenable music – the intensity of sound may be disturbing in large orchestra or electrical instruments – as well as that arrangements of ragtime, jazz standards and swing music for strings were a very pleasant experience for them. Therefore, we had a positive response probably to all our concerts. And the more aware people were of us, the more people there were who wanted us to come play for them.
Today, you are far from playing only ragtime and jazz standards. How was your repertoire developing?
Over time, Brno jazz bards such as Jaromír Hnilička, Mojmír Bártek, Zdeněk Novák and Milan Vidlák, i.e. people primarily from Brom's orchestra, who knew Honza and liked what we were doing, started to write for us. Therefore, they customised some things for our needs that were originally composed, for example, for four saxophones or other instrumentation. Then came the great composers of the younger generation such as Richard Miller or Leoš Kuba, who were writing their compositions directly for us.
Where do you, a classically educated violoncellist, see the difference between playing classical music and jazz? And it is not as much about the playing technique for me. Rather, I am asking about what you experience internally on stage.
The difference is major. Classical music requires studying the accurate score, while jazz gives you a certain freedom and you can put your emotions into it. Each performance of every song is different. You feel it differently, you are in a different environment, you get a different response from the audience. From our perspective, it is very good relaxation compared to classical music that we play at work.
You talk about a certain freedom. I assume that you work with improvisation as an ordinary jazz ensemble?
Yes, we always proceed in interpretation according to a certain order. We play the theme, then we alternate in improvisations either in the order of the first and second violins, viola, cello, or depending on how we agree when studying the composition. We agree on the form, the number of times and then we follow the harmonic score which is usually given only in notes.
You also mentioned the response from the audience. Is your communication with the audience during a jazz concert different from classical music?
During concerts, we have made a certain "educational" impression since the beginning because Honza Beránek used to accompany all our concerts with words. He had a comment regarding the author, period or the composition itself for each song. This created a very close relationship with the audience, who did not always know exactly what we were presenting to them, already at the beginning of the concert. They were grateful that they learned something extra. And then we saw their reactions that had a positive effect on us.
Do you have experience with educational concerts in the actual sense of the word?
We used to go to Hollabrunn, Austria, where we had a contact at the local secondary technical school. We did a cross-section of the history of music from Baroque to Romanticism and only then, to show the contrast between classical and jazz music, we added one or two jazz standards.
We have mentioned Jan Beránek-Dalecký several times as a person who founded the Nostalgia Quartet, led it for several years and guided it in its direction. I assume that the moment he announced that he was leaving the band was not easy for you.
It was a surprise for us, of course, and a loss, of course, because Honza was our mentor and a person who pushed everything forward. He did arrangements, taught us jazz phrasing and actually everything that we learnt in this genre, we have from him. When he decided to leave then, because he moved and he was struggling with time, we were thinking about what to do next. Whether to continue on the same path or close the chapter. We had nearly ten years of playing under our belts and we thought it would be a shame to quit. We were thinking about how to complete the ensemble. The former second violinist Jakub Výborný took over the role of the leader on the first violin. We contacted a colleague from the Philharmonic Orchestra Bohumír Strnad whether he would be willing to go for it with us. First of all, he had to undergo the entire period that we all had to go through – a different playing technique, different phrasing, different understanding of music. Fortunately, we found a colleague who was very adaptable and fitted right in the quartet after a short period of time and we were able to pick up where we left off after some six months and continue. By the way, the situation repeated itself a few years later in the position of the violist when Emil Machain was replaced by another member of the Philharmonic Orchestra Otakar Salajka.
Over a quarter of a century, the music scene around you changed. If you compare the situation in the 1990s and today, is it easier or harder to succeed?
Jazz music has made great progress in the fact that you hear about it a lot. We have two major festivals in Brno, music is played in clubs and the audience found their way to jazz. The genre regained its popularity from the 1960s and 1970s. Our options are therefore broader because more organisers are interested in our music. And the combination of classical artists and jazz repertoire is interesting for many people.
Meanwhile, other string quartets with a non-classical repertoire were established in the Czech Republic and abroad. The relatively avant-garde Radio.string.quartet.vienna performed in Brno a few years ago. And the much older American Kronos Quartet also had a concert here. They do not play straight jazz but they also go significantly beyond the boundaries of classical music. Do you see these ensembles as an inspiration?
We stick to our line, we have our repertoire, which we change, of course, but we mainly see jazz of the 1950s and the 1960s as the basis. We do not get ourselves into great extravagance, we stick to jazz classics.
What do you personally like to listen to when it comes to jazz?
I like the period of Duke Ellington and, for example, Chick Corea from the younger era. I was at his concert in Brno and it is immortal music, you can listen to it anytime.
You celebrated your 25th birthday in January in the Meeting House (Besední dům) as part of the Jazz & World Music concert series. How did the concert go?
We put quite some effort into making sure that it went well and based on the response we probably succeeded. But when you have a full house, it is always fun to play. The response of the audience was friendly and even after the concert we were getting texts and e-mails with thanks for a lovely evening. This was also due to our great guests – a jazz trio consisting of Vincent Kummer, Jiří Levíček and Kamil Slezák accompanied us in the second half of the evening and they contributed to the programme with their songs. Therefore, it was interesting for the audience that they did not listen only to a string quartet the whole time but they also experienced our cooperation with the jazz trio.
I see those 25 years of the Nostalgia Quartet as a continuum interrupted by one break which was the departure of Jan Beránek and searching for a new leader. What do you personally consider to be the greatest success of the ensemble?
I think that great success is that the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra accepts us like this and that we also played in its Jazz & World Music series. Some other achievements include, for example, a short tour in Switzerland where our performances received a good response. In addition, we had a few performances in Austria and Germany. So also the fact that one can present their music abroad represents good credentials for the entire ensemble.
What are you planning next?
We were thinking that twenty-five years is certainly a milestone but we would like – our health permitting – to continue. We would like to play new songs, if the authors think of us. I am also excited to play with other great musicians, of which there are plenty in Brno. So there are still some future prospects.
And what does playing jazz give you personally after so many years?
It is still mainly relaxation. Classical music is sometimes hard mentally and it is hard on the body. Some people walk in nature, some people read and to us jazz is such a relaxation. We think about other things, and even though we are still playing, it does not exhaust us.
