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The
Globe and Mail, Toronto Tolstoy tribute is fresh, odd and astute The Penderecki String Quartet does not compete in co-ordination and virtuosity with such others as the Takacs, the Tokyo or the St. Lawrence, and perhaps is does not intend to. It nevertheless enjoys its work and communicates much of its enjoyment. And Thursday, in its concert for Music Toronto, it made itself more interesting than it might have been by the freshness and oddity of its program. It
began with Leos Janacek's First Quartet, referentially subtitled the
Kreutzer Sonata -- its four movements, on this occasion, interleaved
with readings by actor Colin Fox from its principal inspiration, Leo
Tolstoy's novelette The Kreutzer Sonata. And finally, after intermission, it played an anonymous 1832 transcription for string quintet (Antonio Lysy sat in as second cello) of Beethoven's Sonata in A for piano and violin, the Kreutzer. The Beethoven is the musical work which figures prominently in Tolstoy's novelette and gives it its title. As an entertainment, this musically disparate but thematically interrelated program worked surprisingly well. The Janacek is an arresting, idiosyncratic piece. Fox portrayed Pozdnyshev, the first-person narrator and central protagonist of Tolstoy's remarkable tale, with aplomb and conviction, bringing him vividly to life. The new Ryan quartet sets out to see Pozdnyshev's bizarre murder of his pianist wife from the viewpoint of her violin partner and possible lover, Trukhachevski. Obviously stimulated by both the Tolstoy and the Beethoven, Ryan's quartet was better than we had dared to hope. And the Beethoven -- although it would have been more relevant and compelling in the original (as Beethoven left it, and as it occurs in Tolstoy's story) than in the anonymous arranger's redistribution of its two dazzling roles across the spread of five strings -- was still music of a calibre to provide a finale that made everything else on the program, however enjoyable, pale by comparison. The
Penderecki did what was probably its best work, idiomatic and heartfelt,
in the Janacek, though I was among those in the audience who would rather
have heard the music uninterrupted, with the Tolstoy readings before
it instead of mixed in. They also made a fine job of the Ryan quartet, really putting their backs into it and obviously pleasing the composer, though they were unable to compel unwavering attention in the slow, central section. The Beethoven, they played with evident relish and commendable brio. The
ultimate success of the evening, then -- and success it was -- lay principally
in the coherence of its musical components: its astute theatrical design. |
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