Search - Prokofiev, Haas, Jaruskova :: String Quartet 1 & 2: Sonata for Two Violins

A new recording that aims to be a game changer

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 03/12/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A good review of this CD attracted me because I can't decide if Prokofiev's two string quartets, still rarely recorded, much less presented in concert, have gotten a fair shake. The more accessible one is No. 2, written in 1941. Despite the harrowing conditions of war, Prokofiev had been flown to safety in the Caucasus, and as you'd expect, he readily conformed to Soviet musical restrictions that were anti-modernist and pro-patriotism. The music here is based on folk tunes (the subtitle is "On Kabardinian Themes") and proceeds with off-kilter rhythms reminiscent of dances by Bartok, only a good deal more soulfully. Quartet no. 1, form twenty years earlier, is harmonically darker in the slow movement but hardly challenging by comparison with the string quartets of Bartok and Schoenbrg. Shostakovich might come to mind as a closer rival, and although Prokofiev might be accused of using uninspired materials in his first quartet, Shostakovich often used vapid tunes as ironic counterpoint to despair.



What matters here is that the young Pvael Haas Quartet, who are rising stars, attack this music with passion and conviction. On hearing the version recorded by the famed Emerson Qt., I called both works "glib failures of the imagination." The Pavel Haas players tease out so much more flavor and variety that I feel I spoke too soon. Relatively weak works like Schumann's quartets and piano trios can be revitalized with the right performers, and although I'm not quite a true believer, that could be true here. Prokofiev hardly lavished his best melodies in the first quartet, but it demonstrates the whole range of his ingenious writing for strings. the second quartet has some haunting moments, especially in the ghostly middle movement, yet one can't escape the impression that Prokofiev was reaching into his second drawer.



This CD aims to be a game changer for some under-appreciated music, and in that regard is succeeds on all fronts."