Bennewitz Quartet with Arsentiy Kharitonov, Piano presented by Friends of Chamber Music
Our 2023-2024 season of 10 concerts wrapped up in style on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, with a return engagement featuring the wonderful Bennewitz Quartet from Prague, who were joined after the intermission by the elegant pianist Arsentiy Kharitonov. We are grateful for the financial support that we received to present this concert from the Mission Hill Family Estate.
This was the third Tuesday in a row with a Friends concert, and the fourth that we enjoyed in the past six weeks. Some people might think that the sounds heard from these groups would start blurring together. Those of us who heard the music at each of these events know that this is not possible because each group has such a distinct sound, even when playing music by the same composers.
Last week, the Signum Quartet played music by Czech composers Edwin Schulhoff and Leoš Janáček. When the Bennewitz Quartet started this evening’s performance with Schulhoff’s String Quartet No. 1, the difference in timbre and attack from the Signum’s approach a week before was palpable. On this night, we were hearing the gorgeous, burnished string tone that characterizes the Czech musical tradition. The music was phrased with absolute beauty in both the grand and delicate phrases and in its shifting rhythms. While we are fully aware of the differences in interpretation with similar music played differently from week to week this spring, the Bennewitz performance of this score felt somehow definitive. The musicians may be demonstrating a sonic kinship with this music that is related to the cadence and rhythm of spoken languages that they share with these composers. That said, other interpretations from different string-playing traditions are equally valid and similarly enjoyable. However, this delightful performance led to our audience responding with great enthusiasm.
Second violinist, Štěpán Ježek, told us from the stage that 2024 marks a special year for celebrating Czech music, and the quartet were pleased to give us an all-Czech programme. Ježek pointed out that many great Czech composers were born or died in the fourth year of a particular decade. Schulhoff was born in 1894, and Janáček was born in 1854. The programme continued with the older composer’s String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters”. The Signum Quartet had played Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata” for us on April 2, so this was a chance to hear both quartets played by fine ensembles within only one week. As with Schulhoff ‘s music, Janáček’s piece in the hands of the Bennewitz Quartet sounded different from that heard the week before. The group has a warm, rounded, and golden tone in building the phrases and structures of this music. The difference between these two performances brings to mind an odd analogy: comparing the experience of hearing English spoken by a native speaker with hearing the same words spoken by somebody who has learned English very well, but for whom it is not a first language. There will be subtle differences in tone and emphasis. And so it is, likely, with this music. On this night, the Bennewitz performance of the Janáček work felt like a direct line to the composer’s intention and brought a standing ovation from our audience.
After the intermission, Russian (and long-time Texas resident) pianist and composer, Arsentiy Kharitonov, joined the Bennewitz Quartet to play Antonin Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A major, Opus 81. The Takács Quartet with pianist and composer Stephen Hough were the last artists to play this piece in concert for us, at a concert in early 2022. This time, we enjoyed a spirited performance that led with beauty of tone, subtle blending, and muted power, with an ideal balance and interplay evident between the piano and the string players. (After the concert, Mr. Karitonov complimented the piano, generously loaned by the Vancouver Recital Society, calling it a notably fine instrument.) A wonderful way to wrap up a season of great concerts, this galvanizing performance will echo across the months until the start of our next series in the fall.
The applause and bravos that followed the final notes were enthusiastic and so prolonged that the musicians returned for an encore, playing the Scherzo movement from Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major, Opus 44 to end the evening. Audience members left smiling and satisfied with the artistry that they had once again experienced at a Friends concert.
