"Culture is a Bridge" was the theme of the second Czech-Austrian Partnership Concert, held on Friday, 20 December at Schloss Thalheim. It was the final evening of the 5th year of the pan-European project Czech Dreams 2024, and also part of the celebrations of the Year of Czech Music and the Concentus Moraviae international music festival. Culture is a bridge that connects not only different generations and social classes, but also entire nations. And the Czech Dreams project, which in 2024 alone presented music by Czech composers in 25 European cities in 17 different countries, is an eloquent example of this. In December alone, besides the final concert in Austria, six more concerts were performed in southern Europe, from Amarante in Portugal to Varaždin in Croatia. The concert was dedicated to the Lower Austrian Governor Erwin Pröll, who has long been committed to building and deepening relations between the Czech Republic and Austria.
The castle gala evening was held in cooperation with the Schloss Thalheim Classic concert series, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Austria and the Czech Centre in Vienna. The programme consisted of two gems of Czech chamber music - Bedřich Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 in E minor "From My Life" (1876) and Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, op. 81 (1887) by Antonín Dvořák performed by the Pavel Haas Quartet (Veronika Jarůšková - violin, Marek Zwiebel - violin, Šimon Truszka - viola, Peter Jarůšek - cello) and pianist Boris Giltburg.
Few ensembles are better suited for a personal and intimate experience than a string quartet. It offers the same variety of expressions as much larger ensembles, yet it still retains a uniquely intimate character that can be fragile, lyrical and delicate, as well as painful or harsh, but always reaches straight for the listener's soul. A number of composers have found string quartets a refuge for ideas they wouldn't (or couldn't) breathe life into in an opulent orchestral setting. Bedřich Smetana, whose 200th anniversary set the tone for this year's Year of Czech Music, also chose a string quartet for his autobiographical composition. Its programme is based on Smetana's lifelong relationship to music and addresses both his exuberant and dance-filled younger days and that fateful "call of music" that made Smetana the founder of modern Czech national music.
The opening movement of "From My Life" Allegro vivo appassionato is the epitome of the romantic principle in music. The composer himself said that this movement expresses his "affection for romance in music, in love, in life in general". It is here that we find Smetana's "call of fate to the struggle of this life", which was performed with thrilling energy and irresistible ferocity by the Pavel Haas Quartet. Nevertheless, it is the ensemble's perfect (and yes, this is not just an empty superlative) grasp of dynamics that puts the Pavel Haas Quartet in a completely different league. Every slightest dynamic variation was fantastically punctuated, and even in the quietest passages the sound was brimming with expression and emotion. The musicians achieved a compact sound that was not only perfectly balanced at every moment, but above all preserved and even accentuated even the slightest emotional stirrings of the movement.
The dissolute second movement of the quartet's Allegro moderato à la Polka was imbued with cheerful lightness and frivolity, while in the contrasting B part of the movement the musicians took great care to create a sweet and endearing expression, which was also enhanced by the ensemble's flawless and beautifully musical work with dynamics and phrasing. The following Largo sostenuto is a bittersweet description of Smetana's love life, or as the author himself states: "the bliss of my first love for a girl who later became my faithful wife. The struggle against adversity, the final achievement of the goal". Here the Pavel Haas Quartet brought out the inherent melancholy of the movement, a dark foreshadowing of the tragic passing of Smetana's love. All of this culminates in the final Vivace with the exuberant joy of "learning the way of the element of national music", but this is interrupted by a sudden reversal as the composer loses his hearing, accompanied by onomatopoeic tinnitus. The reconciliatory finale and with it the last "shivers down the spine" were a great ending to the first half of the evening.
Smetana was followed by an equally important giant of Czech music, Antonín Dvořák, with his Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81. The composer's second piano quintet comes from Dvořák's period of folk inspiration, as reflected in the titles of the movements (Dumka, Furiant), but the piece itself is not exclusively "Slavic" - it represents Dvořák's compositional synthesis, which turns just as much to "national" musical elements and European compositional principles. After its première in 1888, the work was received with enthusiasm, as evidenced by a contemporary critique penned by Josef Bohuslav Foerster: "It is a work of rare value, with a fresh theme and impressive depth. No one movement stands out over the others, for the warm allegro and poetic dirge are just as entrancing as the exuberant Furiant and the whimsical Finale. There is no doubt that Dvořák's work has a beautiful sound and contains numerous interesting and original instrumental effects." A month later, Petr Ilyich Tchaikovsky also praised the work during his visit to Prague.
Although it is a four-movement piece, they could all be a stand-alone work in their own right. Dvořák perceives each of them as a separate unit, to which he gives a melodic independence and a convincingly constructed conclusion. Its length, however, makes the opening Allegro ma non tanto the central movement of the quintet, and its formal arrangement also gives the performers the maximum amount of space to work expressively with the themes. The Pavel Haas Quartet, featuring pianist Boris Giltburg, took full advantage of this space. Each musical motif was clearly developed, and the performers took care to make each exposition of new material fresh and unique. A great role was played above all by the flawless musicianship and a refined, absolutely unified musical vision, supported once again by an unprecedentedly varied array of sharp dynamic differences and energetic crescendos and decrescendos.
The second movement, Dumka, builds on a melancholic motif interspersed with fast and cheerful interludes. It follows the seven-part ABACABA rondo pattern and each time the A part returns, its rate is enriched and motif elaborated. In terms of length it is practically comparable to the opening movement, yet Dumka does an even better job of illustrating how well the Pavel Haas Quartet together with Boris Giltburg can work with melancholy and joy. In fact, the most fragile parts of the composition are found here, as well as one of the wildest. More exuberant ones appear perhaps only in the scherzo Furiant, which, although it does not contain the characteristic elements of the dance - the typical alternation of duplets and triplets - has a similarly lively character. Although it is the shortest movement, it is one of the most difficult sections of the piece and almost entirely calls for virtuoso musicianship. Especially the two fast outer movements contain a number of difficult parts, which the performers handled smoothly and with ease. The closing Finale is brimming with inventiveness and melodic freshness, and the Pavel Haas Quartet's performance was a fitting end to a flawless evening.
The quartet's association with pianist Boris Giltburg also deserves special mention. The five players managed to create a unified yet fluid ensemble in which each instrument has its own distinctive voice. This is no coincidence - Boris Giltburg and the members of the Pavel Haas Quartet are a perfect musical match, as evidenced by the recording of the aforementioned Piano Quintet No.2 in A major by Antonín Dvořák for Supraphone, which won the prestigious Gramophone Award.
The second concert of the Czech-Austrian partnership not only closed this year's pan-European project Czech Dreams 2024, but was also the icing on the cake of the Concentus Moraviae international music festival, which has been bringing together the towns of South Moravia, the Highlands and Lower Austria for 30 years. Above all, however, it is eloquent proof of how international cooperation and cleverly conceived projects help spread art beyond the great centres of European nations. The Czech-Austrian Partnership Concert confirmed that building cultural bridges between generations, social classes and entire nations should be a priority for each and every one of us. And today, perhaps, more than ever…
20 December 2024, 7:00 p.m.
Austria, Schloss Thalheim
2nd Czech-Austrian Partnership Concert
Final concert of the Czech Dreams 2024 project
Gala concert of IMF Concentus Moraviae
Under the auspices of H.E. Jiří Šitler, Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Austria
Pavel Haas Quartet
Veronika Jarůšková, Marek Zwiebel / violin
Šimon Truszka / viola
Peter Jarůšek / violoncello
Boris Giltburg / piano
Programme:
Bedřich Smetana: String Quartet No. 1 in E minor "From My Life"
Antonín Dvořák: Piano Quintet in A major Op 81
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