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Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung Masters
of the Sublime The Penderecki String Quartet Plays in the Church of the Holy Spirit Bach is the alpha and omega of all music. In their appearance in Heidelberg's Church of the Holy Spirit, the Penderecki String Quartet made arrestingly clear how Bach shines even in the genre of string quartet: in the late Beethoven quartets as well as in Shostakovitch. The Penderecki Quartet was founded in Poland in 1981; it gives authoritative interpretations of works of Krzysztof Penderecki, for whom it is named, as it does for innumerable other quartets of this century. Under contract to a British record company, the Penderecki Quartet has found its new home in Canada. The appearance in the Church of the Holy Spirit was originally planned for the Bach Festival week. Hence this conclusive program, with Bach as the starting point. Three counterpoints from his Kunst der Fuge were rendered in an exceedingly exciting way. Contrapunctus I was done as a quiet sotto voce song, as if from a great distance, drifting forward out of distance in space and time, sublimely illuminated like music of the renaissance, an interpretation that was directed completely inwardly. So also Contrapunctus VI and Contrapunctus XI. The expression of this music, with its tense chromaticism, was focused inwardly, turned toward the intimate; the introspective character found a most lovely balance to the high-arching motion in the direction of ever-arching expressivity. At the same time, the interweaving of the lines had an elastic sound with vivacious, dancing rhythm and sharply pointed dotted notes as well as intensely glowing legatos. Besides the pronounced counterpoint, it is the expressive fourth-motif of the opening, a dominating motto in the "stilo antico" that connects Beethoven's a minor Quartet Op. 132 with Bach. The Penderecki Quartet had the visionary gift of lending this opening motif a magically unreal appearance, to let it shine forth as removed as if it came from another world. The further course of the movement derived its form from this refinement, dispensing completely with any forced passions, but rather transforming seamlessly the tensely intensive into the sublime. There, to be sure, it was not left there to disappear, but was granted a new quality, so that it seemed to have been bathed in a different sphere. The members of the Penderecki Quartet are masters of the sublime. Jerzy Kaplanek and Piotr Buczek (violin), Dov Scheindlin (viola), and Paul Pulford (cello) offered an uncommonly refined sonority, splendidly rounded in tone, extremely transparent in a homogeneous blend of sound. At the same time, the playing is executed with constant attention to balance in sound and playing. It makes a great impression that this young quartet did not try to fall in place with the mainstream of Beethoven interpretation, and strived for no conventional interpretation, but bravely and convincingly put forward its own accent. This was no sentimental, overgrown playing, but music-making derived from lyrical tension in seamless alternation with wonderfully elastic relaxation. Surely this was the subtlest Beethoven that one gets to hear from the most elevated classes of quartets, illuminated with inner joy and splendid, mild sunshine. Wonderfully realized artifices of sonic relaxation were to be heard, and divinely successful pianos and pianissimos. A Beethoven for melting away, if it were not so serious (and with this seriousness provided). There was splendidly matured sound in the slow movement, the introspective character of the lydian mode sounded wonderfully sublimized, the bursts of D-major grew out of it in revitalizing freshness and playfulness. The expressively contrasting sections were not allowed to tear the movement apart, but were rather brought into resemblance with each other and conceived of as a unity grounded in sonic perfection. The fabulous first violin Jerzy Kaplanek played with an extraordinarily refined lyric tone and absolute security of intonation. The final movement came off delightfully and completely without furious stretto-stress. There preceded the String Quartet Op. 110, No.8 by Shostakovitch. The long double counterpoints of the opening Largo, modelled on Bach, were provided with warm inner ardor; enormous verve, and musicianly involvement characterized the Allegro molto, whose folkloric impetus was transposed into lightening thundering attacks and whose pianissimo passages seemed to be changed into the unheard, into etherial glimmering. Saturated in tenderness and infinite quiet luster, as when the snow on a frosty but sunny winter day achieves a quiet, mysterious magic. The quiet lament of the two largo final movements acquired here not melancholy or depression but rather tragic grandeur and a gently persistent intensity. A enchanted realm of quiet feeling and of subtle sonic values is opened here, a garden of timbres ofthe most select colours. |
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