VIAF 2023

THAT SPLENDID CHAGALL STRING QUARTET

Oh WHAT a performance! So thrilling, vibrant and glorious was this string quartet formation from Trieste. It was an event to which I looked forward. Simply because I am a great lover of both Bedřich Smetana (1824-84)’s and Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)’s music, with a particular fondness for the latter.

It was only when it was over that VIAF Artistic Director Fr. George J. Frendo, announced in his few words of thanks, that the cellist was an almost last-minute replacement in lieu of Ilsu Guresci. This makes it even more wondrous how so well-knit and balanced the Chagall Quartet proved to be.

The sound was beautiful, the expression, warm and passionate elements were there of course with plenty of common ground between Dvořák’s String Quartet n.12 in F Major, Op. 96, “American” and Smetana’s String Quartet n.1 in E minor, Z mého živola (From my life.”)

Every composer has his/her “trade mark” when they weave and create their own particular sound. Dvořák’s is unmistakably recognisable. When he is driven by what mattered most to him becomes very clear. There is his love of nature especially in his Bohemian homeland. His patriotism and native Czech folk music dance forms are there too, sooner or later surfacing in his music.

Op.96 is one of three great works Dvořák composed during his 3-year stint in the USA. The others are his 9th and last Symphony in E minor, “From the New World,” and his great, Second but only complete Cello Concerto in B minor.

They are all works which are full of nostalgia, homesickness, a yearning for home. The F Major quartet has all that. His love of nature was a constant reminder of home. The yearning and homesickness were exquisitely portrayed in the second movement marked Lento. The frenetic dance-like atmosphere was strongly expressed in the Molto vivace third movement was certainly lively but not an unbridled romp. The finale was in its turn vivacious but not too much either. The work was home after a longish, successful journey.

Although the church was not completely full the audience response was very, very strong and could not be more appreciative.

Smetana’s E minor Quartet is uninhibitedly autobiographical and quite a unique testament written in music. He was not the first composer to be sorely tried to the point of despair by his deafness. The Chagall Quartet provided an insight in the various major phases, relating his story by means of their crucialy sensitive interpretation.

It is a direct reference to the composer’s own words sbout this work of his. Hope and ambition; romance and love too. There is his love of dancing: the second movenent marked Allegro moderato à la Polka is every bit self-explanatory. Czech folk music is supreme to him. It is not surprising that his most successful opera “The Bartered Bride,” IS a folk opera.

This pioneer Father of Czech music, reveals his soul riven by the death of his beloved first wife. Grim hints of future tragedy and feelings of regret finally appear via the long insistent note in E minor. The ringing in his ears, resulting in total deafness and eventual insanity. The work ended in a well-sustained diminuendo fading into nothingness.

The quartet was finished in 1876, eight years before Smetana’s death.

The expected warm response of the audience provided dividends because the Chagall Quarted conceded an encore which Paolo Skabar said needed no introduction. It was an arrangement of the Intermezzo of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. I fully agree with Fr. Frendo’s parting words: ‘ Let’s hope that you will be back next year!’

Albert George Storace.