The Concentus Moraviae festival presented its sixteenth concert of the year, thematically dedicated to the number four, at Valtice Castle on Sunday, 7 June. This year’s international showcase brings together quartets of the most varied instrumental combinations and genres, presenting programmes across Moravia and Lower Austria centred on the quartet repertoire. In this spirit, the Baroque theatre of Valtice Castle hosted, in collaboration with the Young Classical Artists Trust, a concert focused on world music performed by the international Fibonacci Quartet. The young quartet – specifically Kryštof Kohout and Luna De Mol on violin, Elliot Kempton on viola, and Findlay Spence on cello – chose masterpieces by Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) and Béla Bartók (1881–1945).
This quartet was formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London; despite its short time together, the quartet has already garnered numerous awards. It is currently quartet-in-residence at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, and until 2027 is also Grand Résident ensemble of ProQuartet in Paris. Their first Moravian concert paired two seemingly distant yet deeply connected works by great composers. The first of these was String Quartet No. 5 by Béla Bartók. Composed on commission from patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge in 1934, it reflects Bartók’s research and collection of folk songs alongside a synthesis of modern elements of the “new music”.
The Fibonacci Quartet had set themselves a formidable task – the work makes no concessions in its irregular metre, rapid modulations, and contrasting dynamics. All the greater, then, was the pleasure when the opening rhythmic motif of the first movement rang out in perfect unison, gradually unfolding into a duet of chromatic progressions without a moment's hesitation. The first movement, Allegro, alternates these rhythmic episodes – in progressively greater dissonance – with driving chromatic melodies. One might speak of a free sonata form, in which the themes from the exposition descend tonally in the development and are heard in melodic inversion at the close.
A breathtaking opening to the evening demonstrated the players’ concentration and genuine virtuosity. The contrasting Adagio molto followed, unfolding over trembling, dissonant piano chords and a solitary, sustained violin melody that gradually swelled to a powerful climax before ebbing away like a wave into an uneasy pianissimo. The picturesque wooden hall of the theatre allowed for an intimate atmosphere, which the quartet exploited to the full in the most fragile moments; unfortunately, any movement in the auditorium caused loud creaking. This was no hindrance, however, in the lively and spirited Scherzo, where dance melodies inspired by Bulgarian folk music gained in dynamic intensity and tension like an enraged swarm of bees, culminating in a sharp Bartókian pizzicato from the cello. The fourth movement, Andante, revisits motifs from the second movement while raising the technical stakes, building to a fierce and acerbic climax. Densely chromatic, it found its stability only in the very final bars, where sustained tones in the violins were coloured by probing glissandi in the cello, and a harmonically open ending prepared the listener for the Finale. The return to themes from the first movement layers melodies and rhythmic passages one upon another, adding intensity at a diabolically fast tempo.
An iconic moment was a brief lightening of mood with a gentle folk melody, which promptly disintegrated harmonically and melodically, and after one last statement – like an unstoppable surge – a line of chromatic runs closed in a final unison. The Fibonacci Quartet delivered a top-class performance, and such a complex work had both vitality and delicacy in keeping with technical precision and the musicians’ attunement to one another.
The second half of the evening moved into a more lyrical mood. String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters” by Leoš Janáček from 1928 was performed. This last completed work is a declaration of unrequited love for Kamila Stösslová and a personal confession of his inner longing. The opening Andante brings a lyrical theme in the viola (originally written for viola d’amour), full of warmth, which transforms and swells into defiant trills across all voices before returning to the solo viola. Similarly, the second movement opens with a sweet, songful melody from which despair erupts and rises to the surface in sobbing trills and descending chromatic runs. The Moderato movement bore a more serious character, disrupted by harsh outcries mirroring the composer’s inner conflict. As with Bartók, it grants the listener no harmonic release, maintaining tension to the very end of the movement. The concluding Allegro, with its dancing introduction, synthesises the preceding motifs and expressive means in passages both impassioned and tender, where passion and fury are entwined before being anchored by a gripping final cadence. The Fibonacci Quartet displayed a rich variety of expression, excellent declamation, and an overall flawless performance; indeed, the enthusiastic audience demanded two encores, simply to prolong the evening. They played a suite of Moravian folk songs in their own arrangement, followed by “I Got Rhythm” and “Fascinating Rhythm” by George Gershwin.
Performers:
Fibonacci Quartet
Kryštof Kohout, Luna De Mol – violin
Elliot Kempton – viola
Findlay Spence – cello
Programme:
Béla Bartók
String Quartet No. 5
Leoš Janáček
String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters”
Sunday, 7 June 2026, 19:30, Valtice, Castle Baroque Theatre
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