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Chief and Petty Officers' Mess, CFB Esquimalt
February 18, 2023
"I listened more than I studied...therefore little by little my knowledge and ability were developed."
Whatever other qualities he may have possessed — and the jury keeps adding new ones to the list — there can be little doubt that Joseph Haydn was one of history's most modest composers.
And yet few others can approach him when it comes to the number of undisputed masterpieces which flowed from his pen. Bach, yes; Mozart probably. I struggle to think of anybody else.
And, of course, many of Ha ydn's masterpieces are in forms that, if he did not actually invent, he certainly made his own and laid down a pattern for others to follow.
This is nowhere more the case than with the string quartet.
Here I must acknowledge my personal preferences, for while music critics must of necessity sometimes write about music for which they do not particularly care, or even — and, yes, I am referring to your piano quintet, César Franck — actively dislike, the heart undoubtedly soars at the prospect of attending a performance of a favourite work.
And, for this critic, the list of string quartets which rank in my affections higher than Haydn's Op.76 No.3, universally known as the "Emperor" (or "Kaiserquartett"), after its used in the slow movement of Haydn's "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser", is very short indeed: Ravel's sole quartet and Haydn's own "Lark" (Op.64 No.5). For that reason alone, if for no other (and there were many others), I should have been very disappointed to miss this.
I have written in these pages before about my general dislike of pre-concert talks; this is mainly because I have shown up to hear the music, not somebody telling me things about it which I already knew or even, on one or two memorable occasions, things which I already knew to be erroneous.
This event, though, was different: firstly the spoken introduction was advertised and therefore did not come as a surprise, pleasant or otherwise. But the main reason is that Robert Holliston is an exceptionally good speaker, knowledgeable and informative, jovially informal, and not one to invent things simply because they sound interesting or entertaining.
Although I was already aware of a good deal of what he said (I'd have no business doing this job if that were not the case), he did manage to supply a few choice nuggets which were new to me. Moreover, the illustrative examples played by the quartet were entirely appropriate and just the right length to make his points.
Speaking of length, Holliston's talk also struck me as being, like baby bear's porridge, "just right": neither too short and thus disappointingly superficial, nor too long and thus in danger of becoming tedious. However, I could not tell you exactly how long it was, because I was too engaged to check my watch.
And so to the performance itself.
I have always enjoyed the Emily Carr's Haydn and this was no exception.
The first movement opened with a distinct spring in its step and the music was given extra momentum by the inner voices of Cory Balzer's violin and Mieka Michaux's viola. Happily they observed the exposition repeat — when the playing is this good, you simply want the music to go on for as long as possible — and the tempo contrasts in the coda were extremely well managed.
The slow movement, which gives the quartet its nickname, is a masterpiece of variation form; in this case it is the accompaniment which varies, as the melody — and what a melody it is — remains unchanged throughout. I appear to have been so overcome by the quartet's playing here that my notebook contains but a single word to describe it, that word being "exquisite": and I see no reason to qualify it any further.
The minuet was taken at a steady tempo, yet the music never dragged and had plenty of (my notebook again) "bounce". The trio was particularly eloquent.
After the arresting opening of the finale, the Emilys indulged in a brief, unmarked, luftpause, which proved singularly effective. The entire movement was full of life and sent at least one listener (although I suspect it was actually all of us) out into the mundanity of a somewhat gloomy Saturday with a smile on his face.
Difficult though it may be to believe, the Emily Carr Quartet have now been together for almost seventeen years, yet they continue to improve and have never once disappointed.
Long may they flourish.
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