On Sunday, November 10, 2024, the fabulous Pražák Quartet played the group’s 19th concert for Friends of Chamber Music since the first in 1986. And it was the first concert with the current lineup that includes only one of the Pražák’s original members, violist Josef Klusoň, who helped launch this great Czech string quartet 52 years ago.
The musicians arrived in Vancouver ahead of time so that they could give a chamber music masterclass on Saturday, November 9, 2024, at the VSO School of Music. This class was open to the public in person and online, part of the International Master Teachers program at the School. This was the first masterclass by Friends of Chamber Music artists at the VSO School of Music and we hope there will be more to come.
Three music-student ensembles played for the Pražák musicians. The third student group was the string quartet that won the Friends’ Young Musicians Competition senior prize in April 2024. Offering discerning praise for each student group, Josef Klusoň, cellist Pavel Jonáš Krejčí, first violinist Jana Vonášková, and second violinist Marie Magdalena Fuxová demonstrated how to change phrases, intonations, bowings and bow placement, remarked on tempos, sometimes to help make the students’ playing less tense, or add colour, emotion, and deeper understanding of the music for the students – and for the audience. Carla Birston, Director of Strings at the VSO School, commented that the class was excellent for everyone present. She was struck by the insights given to each student by these sensitive and articulate chamber music specialists.
On Sunday afternoon, November 10, we were treated to a wonderful Pražák Quartet concert of firsts. Although the group has been here many times, this was the first time with these musicians. And the first half of the concert presented two pieces of music never before played for Friends of Chamber Music in Vancouver. The concert started with Darius Milhaud’s String Quartet No 1, Opus 5 (1912). This delicately spirited music from early in the French composer’s career was played with lightness and panache, as well as exquisitely pure tone and balance. One longtime subscriber told me at the intermission that she reacted so emotionally to the music that she had tears in her eyes almost from the start. Once again, we were in the grip of masterful, confident music-making. And as has been true with recent concerts, the Pražák Quartet have a distinctive burnished tone that gives their interpretations a different quality from many other groups on the concert scene and is wholly persuasive in all the music they interpret.
Bedřich Smetana’s String Quartet No 2 in D Minor was the next piece given its Friends debut. This music has been overshadowed by Smetana’s String Quartet No 1, “From My Life”, which has been played a dozen times for us over 76 seasons. And, while popular opinion may favour that first quartet, we enjoyed hearing the composer’s second quartet being given a great performance. The applause for this meltingly beautiful interpretation was enthusiastic.
After intermission, the Pražák gave us their first Vancouver performance of Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No 12 in F Major, Opus 96 “American” – although it was the 15th time it has been played for Friends in 76 seasons. This was a lean, muscular interpretation where it fit, and always with a clean and delicate singing tone and balance for suitable moments in the music. The emotional heart and idiom of Dvořák’s writing was clear throughout. We could feel that these players knew this music in their bones, that it is part of their cultural DNA.
The musicians sported smiles in response to the standing ovation they deservedly received. The afternoon concluded with an encore, another short piece from Dvořák: the 4th of his Waltzes, Opus 54, arranged for string quartet by the composer. Fortified by the beauty of this music-making, our audience left the Vancouver Playhouse smiling on an otherwise cool, damp, and grey November afternoon.
And now we look forward to the next Friends concert that will feature the ever-popular Takács Quartet playing music by Haydn, Britten, and Beethoven. This will be our second matinee this year – and just in time for the holiday season.
