Pacifica Quartet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pacifica Quartet は，来年，再来日が期待されていますが，アメリカでも屈指のQuartet　の地歩を固めて，昨年から　appointed quartet in residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art の地位にあります．

このQuartet は，a passion for completeness を堅持しており，これまでに in recent years have included a Beethoven cycle (in 2007) and the five Elliott Carter quartets (in 2002 and 2008；生存中) を演奏して名声を高めてきたのですが，今シーズンはThis season is devoted to Shostakovich’s 15 quartets; next season the Pacifica will revisit Beethoven’s works. という予定だそうです．　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　つまり，Beethoven cycle --- Elliott Sarter 集と来て，今シーズンがShostacovich,そして再び Beethoven を再訪しようというのです．

The first installment of the Shostakovich cycle, on Saturday evening, was a reminder of the quirks that have become the Pacifica Quartet’s signature sound.　とこのQuartet を特徴付ける音作りを想起させたと書いています．

Mainly, these musicians — Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violinists; Masumi Per Rostad, violist; and Brandon Vamos, cellist — seem drawn to extremes. The restraint and precision they bring to quiet passages can sound antiseptic at times, as if unity of gesture were an absolute value to be achieved, even if it means putting the music’s emotional core at arm’s length. Yet when a score requires more vivid expressivity — pathos, anger, terror, melancholy — they produce a sound that can sing exquisitely or throttle you with its grittiness and energy. とunity of gesture に絶対的価値を置いて， more vivid expressivity — pathos, anger, terror, melancholy を傍らに置いている所があると書いています．

Shostakovich demands that full range in his quartets. If his symphonies can seem to be ambiguous public declarations that toe the Soviet line, sometimes with hidden, contradictory subtexts, his quartets are a more intimate diary of the soul.　と交響曲では潜在させたり，矛盾のなかに読み取らせようとしたモノを，Quartet　ではもっと内面的な魂の日記として作られていると指摘しています．

The Quartet No. 1 in C was composed in 1938, はShostakovich がhis opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”　をこっぴどく批判された後，the Fifth Symphony(「革命」）で名誉を回復した後に書かれたモノで，He treads lightly at first: the opening Moderato is a sweet, graceful Neo-Classical movement that darkens only slightly. The key to the work is its second movement, another Moderato, with its plaintive solo viola opening, played with exquisite warmth here by Mr. Rostad. Shostakovich repeats this telling juxtaposition with the graceful, scherzolike third movement and the fast, angrily brusque finale.

He is more unbuttoned in the Quartet No. 2 in A, a 1944 work steeped in the pain of wartime that includes a harrowing, nondancelike Waltz movement, as well as an Adagio built around mournful, chromatic themes in a Jewish folk style.

プログラムの後半は，the Quartet No. 7 in F sharp minor, a short, dark work with a smoldering Allegro finale, and ended the concert with the monumental Quartet No. 3 in F, Shostakovich’s five-movement reflection on World War II.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　As always, the group was at its best when Shostakovich’s scoring was either assertively brash (in the Allegro non troppo, which represents the invasion of Russia) or irresistibly plangent (in the Adagio, which mourns the dead) and less striking in the comparatively bright outer movements.

それでも，結びは，the focus and passion of the performance as a whole left you eager to hear what they will do with the 11 remaining works. と今後の11曲を彼等がどう弾くのかが楽しみになったと書かれています．

あとはご自由にご渉猟下さい．なお，来年6月の日本公演では Shostakovich の第8番がフィリアホールで予定されています．

 

Music Review

Shostakovich Quartets as an Intimate Diary

Ed Ou/The New York Times

The Pacifica Quartet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday.

By ALLAN KOZINN             Published: October 26, 2010

When the Pacifica Quartet was appointed quartet in residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art a year ago, it opted, sensibly, to introduce itself to the Met audience with a season of mixed repertory. But this group has a passion for completeness: its New York performances in recent years have included a Beethoven cycle (in 2007) and the five Elliott Carter quartets (in 2002 and 2008). And now that the introductions are out of the way, it is returning to the immersive programming it prefers. This season is devoted to Shostakovich’s 15 quartets; next season the Pacifica will revisit Beethoven’s works.

The first installment of the Shostakovich cycle, on Saturday evening, was a reminder of the quirks that have become the Pacifica Quartet’s signature sound. Mainly, these musicians — Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violinists; Masumi Per Rostad, violist; and Brandon Vamos, cellist — seem drawn to extremes. The restraint and precision they bring to quiet passages can sound antiseptic at times, as if unity of gesture were an absolute value to be achieved, even if it means putting the music’s emotional core at arm’s length. Yet when a score requires more vivid expressivity — pathos, anger, terror, melancholy — they produce a sound that can sing exquisitely or throttle you with its grittiness and energy.

Shostakovich demands that full range in his quartets. If his symphonies can seem to be ambiguous public declarations that toe the Soviet line, sometimes with hidden, contradictory subtexts, his quartets are a more intimate diary of the soul.

The Quartet No. 1 in C was composed in 1938, after his opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” had been denounced as “formalist,” but also after he had reclaimed his reputation with the Fifth Symphony. He treads lightly at first: the opening Moderato is a sweet, graceful Neo-Classical movement that darkens only slightly. The key to the work is its second movement, another Moderato, with its plaintive solo viola opening, played with exquisite warmth here by Mr. Rostad. Shostakovich repeats this telling juxtaposition with the graceful, scherzolike third movement and the fast, angrily brusque finale.

He is more unbuttoned in the Quartet No. 2 in A, a 1944 work steeped in the pain of wartime that includes a harrowing, nondancelike Waltz movement, as well as an Adagio built around mournful, chromatic themes in a Jewish folk style. Here the focus is as much on solo playing as on ensemble heft: the heart of the Adagio is a series of soulful violin solos that Ms. Ganatra performed with wrenching intensity and bittersweet tone, and the variations in the finale give each player a moment in the spotlight.

The Pacifica began the second half with a leap to the Quartet No. 7 in F sharp minor, a short, dark work with a smoldering Allegro finale, and ended the concert with the monumental Quartet No. 3 in F, Shostakovich’s five-movement reflection on World War II.

As always, the group was at its best when Shostakovich’s scoring was either assertively brash (in the Allegro non troppo, which represents the invasion of Russia) or irresistibly plangent (in the Adagio, which mourns the dead) and less striking in the comparatively bright outer movements. But the focus and passion of the performance as a whole left you eager to hear what they will do with the 11 remaining works.