Chamber Music Cincinnati: Jerusalem Quartet

“Passion, precision, warmth, a gold blend: these are the trademarks of this excellent Israeli string quartet.” – The Times, London

“Their Playing Has Everything You Could Possibly Wish For.” – BBC Music Magazine

Since the Jerusalem String Quartet’s debut in 1996, these four Israeli musicians have been on a remarkable journey of growth and maturation, resulting in a wide repertoire and stunning depth of expression, finding its core in a warm, full, human sound and an egalitarian balance between high and low voices.

Highlights of the upcoming 2023/2024 season include tours of Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland; and appearances in the quartet Biennales in Paris, Lisbon, and Amsterdam. Alongside the quartet’s regular programs, they will bring back the “Yiddish Cabaret”, and will perform a Bartok Cycle in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Their upcoming North American tours include concerts in Montreal, Pittsburgh, Providence, Portland (Maine), Houston, Tucson, Palm Beach, Miami, New Orleans, Denver, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York, and other locations. In Ann Arbor, they will be joined by pianist Inon Barnaton.

THE PROGRAM

Joseph Haydn: Quartet in Bb-Major, Op 50, No. 1 (“Prussian”), 1787, 24 minutes / Ask Op. 76

Dmitri Shostakovich: Quartet No. 15 in E Flat Minor, Op. 144 (1974, 35 minutes) / OR Quartet No. 12, OP. 133

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quartet No. 19 in C-Major, K. 465 “Dissonance” (1785, 32 minutes)

As noted above, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven all wrote works in related “sets,” including the “Sun,” “Haydn,” and “Razumovsky” string quartets, respectively, most given their nicknames by people other than the composers for a variety of reasons. Haydn, “Father of the String Quartet, wrote 68, three times more than as Mozart and four times  Beethoven, so he was able to create many more sets.  His Op. 20 “Sun,” Op. 33 “Russian”, Op. 50 “Prussian,” and Op. 76 “Erdoddy,” all with six quartets each, are the most highly regarded. (the King of Prussia.)

The Op. 50 set was dedicated to King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, an amateur cellist. No. 1 in B Flat gives the cello moments to shine, but not too terribly difficult. The cello even opens the piece alone.

For many, the fifteen string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich represent a cycle of artistic devotion and intense, intimate expression second only to the sixteen quartets by Beethoven. For Shostakovich, the quartets provided a refuge from the more public and highly scrutinized genres of opera, symphony, ballet or film score where a negative judgment by totalitarian [Soviet] authorities threatened real and serious danger…Here, he could express himself more naturally and honestly and as with late Beethoven, the music is often deeply personal, introspective, and vividly autobiographical.

Shostakovich was also a great classicist, drawn to the preludes and fugues of Bach and the transcendent quartets of Beethoven and he strove to make his contribution in these august musical traditions. He planned to compose a set of twenty-four string quartets, one in each major and minor key, but he ran out of time. Dying of an aggressive cancer, and frequently hospitalized, Shostakovich completed his 15th and last string quartet at the age of 68 in 1974, less than a year before he died.

The 15th String Quartet is one of the most intense in the history of the genre, unique in its construction and dramatic affect. While it shares many qualities with other Shostakovich quartets and does not represent any necessarily radical departure, it is nonetheless singular for its unrelenting darkness. The quartet comprises six adagios all in the key of e-flat minor, played without pause in a seamless continuum of profound gloom. With such movement titles as Elegy and Funeral March, it is bleakly clear what Shostakovich seeks to express.

– Kai Christiansen via Earsense

Mozart’s Quartet No. 19 is sixth and last in a set completed in early 1785 and dedicated to Haydn. Haydn had published his milestone Op. 33 quartets just three years before. The title “Dissonance” comes from a lack of harmony early in the first movement. His publisher is said to have returned the score to Mozart, imagining that there were mistakes. On hearing it, a Count called his musicians incompetent. Haydn famously said, “If Mozart wrote it, he must have meant it.”

Gramophone ranks the “Dissonance” as being among the Top 10 String Quartets ever.