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Christ Church Cathedral
November 6, 2020
"The quartet begins with the composer's monogram, DSCH, followed by quotations from his earlier works, and ending with the folk dirge, 'Tormented by Grievous Bondage'. The composer dedicated the Quartet to the victims of fascism to disguise his intentions, although, as he considered himself the victim of a fascist regime, the dedication was apt. In fact he intended it as a summation of everything he had written before. It was his farewell to life. He associated joining the Party with a moral, as well a physical death. On the day of his return from a trip to Dresden, where he had completed the Quartet and purchased a large number of sleeping pills, he played the Quartet to me on the piano and told me with tears in his eyes that it was his last work. He hinted at his intention to commit suicide. Perhaps subconsciously he hoped that I would save him. I managed to remove the pills from his jacket pocket and gave them to his son Maxim, explaining to him the true meaning of the Quartet. I pleaded with him never to let his father out of his sight. During the next few days I spent as much time as possible with Shostakovich until I felt the danger of suicide had passed."
It would seem that, at least in part, we have Lev Lebedinsky, musicologist, folklorist, co-founder of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers — and, clearly, good friend to Dmitri Dmitriyevitch Shostakovich — to thank for the music of the last decade-and-a-half of the great Russian composer's life.
Nobody with two ears and even the slightest sensitivity could fail to understand the composer's despair after writing one of the twentieth century's bleakest works — indeed, it is difficult how the widely-held perception in the West of Shostakovich as a Soviet hack could have survived afterwards. And yet it did.
On Friday evening the Emily Carr Quartet closed the third instalment of their Portraits series with a superbly-focused and emotionally wracking account of what many consider to be Shostakovich's greatest quartet, possibly his greatest single composition.
The intensely concentrated opening movement was conveyed with rich and appropriately-dark-hued tones, the lacerating second featured excellent dynamic control and the quartet clearly felt no compunction about allowing the sound to become less than pleasant at times — again, this was as it should be.
The danse macabre that is the central movement had a distinct lilt that in no way undermined its essentially mournful nature. Whether or not Shostakovich intended the fourth movement, with its droning violin and violent interjections to portray the firebombing of Dresden is a moot point, when played like this its effect is devastating. Finally, the bleak, desolate last movement was eloquent indeed in its grief. One could not help but recall Gustav Mahler's words to Bruno Walter regarding Das Lied von der Erde: "Can this be endured at all? Won't the people kill themselves afterwards?"
An outstanding performance.
Ralph Vaughan Williams composed comparatively little chamber music; the Phantasy Quintet is a product of his early maturity, composed in 1912, two years after his "breakthrough" works: the Sea Symphony and the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
The work was commissioned by Walter Wilson Cobbett, businessman and amateur musician (the Elizabethan spelling "phantasy" was his preference) and, remarkably, adumbrates many of Vaughan Williams' particular musical moods.
The work opens with a glorious solo from the first viola — and how generous of the quartet, and especially violist Mieka Michaux, to give this rôle to guest Jessica Pickersgill, who played it to the hilt and indeed, meshed perfectly with the quartet throughout. The movement, with its echoes of the inwardly spiritual mood of the Tallis Fantasia, was cast in ethereal tones and, for once, the cathedral acoustic was absolutely perfectly suited to the music.
The second movement scherzo, in 7/4 time, summoned forth memories of RVW's folksong works, conveyed with considerable vigour and a wonderful interleaving of lines.
The Alla Sarabanda found us in "Pastoral" territory and was exquisite. The finale begins as a passacaglia (foreshadowing the last movement of the fifth symphony) before seamlessly developing into a buoyant dance only to be interrupted by the work's opening gesture; this is in turn interrupted by the dance which, in turn, finally subsides into its gentle close.
Vaughan Williams did not compose a great deal of chamber music and, listening to a performance of this stature, one can only regret the fact.
A remarkable evening's music-making.
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