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April 24, 2009
Jerusalem Quartet delights
Israeli group performs perfectly in unison at a recent concert.
DANA SCHLANGER
When taking the stage to introduce them, Leila Getz, artistic director of the Vancouver Recital Society, called them the "Jerusalems." What better proof that they are becoming a household name? They are young and hip, fun and relaxed, belying stereotypes of the classical music world. In our celebrity-obsessed culture, they seem to fit the profile – and then they start playing, and everything superficial vanishes.
The artistry of the Jerusalem Quartet – Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, violins; Amihai Grosz, viola; and Kyril Zlotnikov, cello – is such that it stares you in the face like an absolute truth. They transport the listener directly to the heart of the music, in the exact and perfect style of each of the featured composers. There's no hesitation, no doubts in their perfect unity, yet it's fully alive with emotion and communication, gripping and often breathtaking. The Strad, a magazine for and about string players, said of the quartet, "Musical electricity may be unfathomable, but one thing is for sure – they have it."
One of their most outstanding features is their versatility and the program chosen for their April 19 recital in Vancouver highlights it at its best. In 2006, when they performed all 15 string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich here, I thought there could be no better understanding and interpretation of Shostakovich's often dark, angular and highly charged music. It felt as if they had it in their blood, breathed its reality and lived its truth. Any quick Internet search on their name will reveal numerous and raving reviews of their Shostakovich performances, wherever they took place in the world. But this is an artistic force to be reckoned with and cannot be labelled easily: a program of Joseph Haydn, Claude Debussy and Johannes Brahms proved that to the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts audience, who rose to standing ovations at the end of each piece.
The opening of Haydn's F Minor Quartet, Op. 20, No. 5, revealed that soft-spoken and more restrained playing comes just as naturally to the Jerusalem Quartet as the blistering intensity to which they have accustomed us. This is a relatively early Haydn work, written around 1770: very romantic in mood, it's a wonderful representative of the composer's Sturm und Drang period, the stormy and expressive style that pervaded German poetry and literature at the time and influenced musicians as well. The give and take of the players' rubato, their flexibility, sounded as natural as could be; their dialogue was flawless, completely balanced within the style, as in an old partnership. The musicians seem and are very young, but they've been playing together, in this osmosis, for 14 years – and it shows.
Fast-forwarding to the late 19th century (1893), when Debussy composed his only string quartet. It's a surprisingly modern work and one whose complexity clearly appeals to the Jerusalems. Their ability to achieve vigor and vitality in the music without ever producing a harsh sound, always attuned to each other and the composer really singles out the top quartets from the rest. This subtle, style-conscious balance of their sounds is also conveyed in a body language of expressive movements and meaningful glances, as if inviting each other to take their turns at shining, directing the emotional traffic while keeping it under harmonious control.
Clarinetist Martin Fröst, internationally recognized as one of the most exciting wind players of our time and featured by the Vancouver Recital Society in a previous concert, joined the Jerusalem Quartet for the exquisite Brahms Clarinet Quintet. This was yet another stylistic switch for the versatile ensemble: into a rich, dense, dark sound suitable for this autumnal work composed by a master of complex, orchestral textures. The clarinet tone dominated the entire interaction, especially in the dialogues with the cello, their sounds matching in burnt honey hues – it was a joy to hear artists of this stature coming together in one of the essential masterpieces of all chamber music.
Getz mentioned in her introduction that she had toiled for a couple of years to make the Jerusalems' and Fröst's respective tours "collide" in Vancouver and those of us at the Chan Centre were at the receiving end of the fireworks created by the collision. Splendid colors, smouldering intensity – a musical experience to be cherished forever.
Dana Schlanger is a Vancouver freelance writer and director of the Dena Wosk School of Performing Arts at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
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