The prologue to the Concentus Moraviae festival took place, unusually, in the Italian city of Cremona – home of the Walter Stauffer Foundation and Academy, which nurtures string teaching and the city’s traditions – as early as mid-April. This year the Foundation concluded a memorandum of cooperation with the festival, resulting in the String Quartet Master Classes project in Kroměříž on 16–18 June. The stage was set on 15 June at Pernštejn Castle, where the Italian Quartetto di Cremona joined forces with cellist Peter Jarůšek for a memorable concert.
The Quartetto di Cremona, which is also associated with the Walter Stauffer Academy, has been performing a classical and contemporary repertoire around the world for over 25 years. For the Monday concert they prepared a masterpiece of chamber music by Franz Schubert (1792–1828). Together with Peter Jarůšek, they rehearsed the String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 of 1828, the last chamber work by Schubert. Unusually for its time, the Quintet replaces the second viola with a second cello, creating a richer sonority and lending the melodic lines a distinctive tonal colour. This quintet enriched the festival programme with its theme Being a Quartet, just as soloist Peter Jarůšek enriched the four musicians of the Cremona Quartet: Cristiano Gualco and Paolo Andreoli on violin, Simone Gramaglia on viola, and Giovanni Scaglione on cello.
Although best known during his lifetime for his songs and piano music, Franz Schubert filled his only string quintet with the most innovative musical ideas of the age, showcasing extraordinary mastery of motivic and thematic development. He did not live to see its premiere, which took place 22 years after his death; fortunately, it is inextricably linked today with Schubert’s finest chamber music. The first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, is built on free sonata form extended by a sweet introduction. The main theme in C major in the violins and the secondary theme in E-flat major in the cellos carries a playful and sustained melody seasoned with diminished seventh chords in the modulations. Their development is, by contrast, dramatic and dotted, with a striking figure of a chromatic progression in tremolo across all voices evoking a swirling tornado. Tense passages of driving triplets alternate sharply with light, ornamental melodies in a perfect interweaving that the quintet managed without a moment’s hesitation. At the close, the main and secondary themes return, pierced by a solo cry from the cello, which stirred the instruments into an unprecedented sonority followed by gradual tempering.
The acoustics of the castle’s Hall of Knights allowed the small ensemble to fill the space at full strength and to let the delicate nuances of the second movement’s dynamics ring out. The ABA-form Adagio opens with a lyrical melody in the first violin, beautifully played by Cristiano Gualco, before being answered by Peter Jarůšek’s richly ornamented pizzicato cello line. The contrasting B section moves into triple metre, unleashing a flurry of swift, impassioned motifs in every direction. As section A returned, the hall’s silence was shattered by a ringing mobile phone and bouts of coughing, disrupting the atmosphere and undermining the concentration of the musicians’ beautifully shaped pianissimo dialogue.
A fresh start was provided by the cheerful Scherzo, full of fanfares and temperament. Here, in a superhuman tempo, the players brought freshness and enthusiasm to their expression, which radiated above all from Peter Jarůšek. The soloist played as though his instrument were a living extension of his body, in perfect unity and with extraordinary ease. The ensuing Trio had a serious and melancholic character, supported by the lower register of the instruments, in which the quintet built phrases of great breadth suggestive of the sound of a full orchestra. To close, the pompous fanfare from the Scherzo rang out again, preparing the listener for the final movement. The Allegretto presents a rondo with a Hungarian melody in dancing triple metre, oscillating between C major and C minor. The first violin part contains several virtuosic passages, and although not all of them were particularly resonant, Cristiano Gualco handled them with ease. The middle sections opened up into a duet, with the cellos singing a sustained, expressive melody in their upper register. A fresh, dance-like return signals the finale, which Schubert dramatically stretches out through a rapid coda and an even swifter conclusion, interweaving major and minor harmonies until every ounce of their energy is spent. The magnificent finale was delivered with outstanding precision, the quintet maintaining a perfectly steady tempo throughout. Peter Jarůšek proved a truly valuable addition to the Quartetto di Cremona. He brought precisely what the quartet had been missing—an extraordinary energy and passion that made the work come alive for the audience.
Performers:
Quartetto di Cremona
Cristiano Gualco, Paolo Andreoli – violin
Simone Gramaglia – viola
Giovanni Scaglione – cello
and as guest Peter Jarůšek – cello
Programme:
Franz Schubert
String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
Monday, 15 June 2026, 19:30, Pernštejn Castle, Hall of Knights
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