International success and Czech quartet tradition – both refer to the ensemble that was named after composer Pavel Haas. The Pavel Haas Quartet received its first BBC Music Magazine Award a few days ago for a recording of quartets by Bedřich Smetana, and it collects awards of the Gramophone Magazine almost systematically. The Concentus Moraviae Festival was also an important topic of the interview. This year, it was thematically devoted primarily to the string quartet and Beethoven, and the Pavel Haas Quartet is the residential ensemble this year.
You received the BBC Music Magazine Award for last year's recording of quartets by Bedřich Smetana two days ago. How does it feel?
Marek Zwiebel: I accepted it personally and it definitely feels good. And it is also great motivation for future work. We received the BBC Award for the first time, therefore we appreciate it even more. Nothing is changing about work, it is just a certain affirmation that we are doing it well.
Veronika Jarůšková: It is important to us because the audience votes.
Peter Jarůšek: The Gramophone awards and many others are decided by critics, journalists, there is usually some sort of a board. In the BBC Music Magazine Awards, critics select three nominees and only after that there is a public on-line poll.
From earlier years, you also have five Gramophone Awards for recordings of quartets by Haas, Janáček, Dvořák and Smetana, and for Schubert. Is it a coincidence that you received most awards for Czech music?
PJ: It would be strange if we did not do Czech music well.
VJ: Despite the fact that three of us are Slovaks.
PJ: But the character is similar. I was very much surprised and I am pleased that we received the Gramophone Award for Schubert. Death and the Maiden and the Quintet have been recorded a thousand times. When we came up with Pavel Haas, it was certainly impressive that those were little-known things but there was a moment of discovery in it as well. With Dvořák, it may have worked that a Czech ensemble should feel close to him, even though by itself that would have certainly not been enough. But with Schubert, I personally did not expect it at all. We were subjectively satisfied with the recording, but the response surprised us.
The characteristic manifestation of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is also derived from the tradition of the Czech quartet. What is the Czech quartet school, what are its characteristics?
VJ: I don't know and I would like to find out.
Radim Sedmidubský: The Czech quartet school is primarily growing much broader. It has its tradition that began with the Czech Quartet in 1892, when the boys founded it – they were around 20 years old. That was the first generation and there have been roughly some eight or nine generations since then. More and more musicians learnt from them, creating a tradition. But when you say school: why do Bulgarians have such good singers or weightlifters? Even in the Slovak Republic there are better singers than in the Czech Republic when put in general terms. And here they have the quartet tradition. However, how it is played, if a Czech school exists, that is a question. In a way, yes, because it passes on a method on how to play certain songs. However, at the same time, it depends much more on what type of personalities get together in the ensemble and how they learnt to play. One person has a completely different legato than others, another person plays dynamically...when four good guys or girls get together, it will sound different than four wild men. But this is same in all countries, so there are big differences even within the Czech quartet school. There is some sort of a unifying element, but it is not dominant.
PJ: School and tradition are primarily two different things for me. Tradition is the line, along which something is passed down, but in terms of school, I do not know whether such a thing ever existed. At AMU, the course of chamber music was a necessary evil.
So where does the high-quality and world-renowned ensembles come from?
RS: In the 1970s and 1980s, members of the Smetana Quartet worked at AMU. Chamber music was taught by professors Kohout and Škampa. So, a new ensemble appears roughly every five years. And the reason is that a handful of people, who are interested, get together once in a while.
PJ: But the leadership was very strong during the Smetana Quartet era, there is no such thing now.
VJ: They worked as a huge inspiration.
PJ: But now, many people study abroad, everything is globalised. So the Czech quartet school can be understood rather historically. But if you put the old Janáček Quartet next to the Smetana Quartet and the Vlach Quartet, there are not too many common points, the character of each ensemble was totally different and very distinct. And those were the three most prominent representatives of the generation.
RS: They even had camps of supporters and opponents that were against each other.
Violist of the Smetana Quartet Milan Škampa is also one of your important teachers. Do you feel like followers of a tradition?
VJ: I came into contact with the quartet repertoire through Milan Škampa and the Škampa Quartet, where Peter used to play. But I do not think about the tradition, just music.
RS: I feel the tradition. When I remember how we were learning how to play Janáček with Professor Škampa...not that he would dictate how each note should sound but his approach, that infatuation, "Janáček crazy". He thought about every note, about what Janáček meant with it, he examined how it could have been played back then, and he influenced us with that and we have it inside us. And I am glad.
VJ: He taught us to live the quartet life. His experience is so immense that he explained to us what we were getting ourselves into. We did not have to fumble around and learn from our own mistakes, he told us a lot beforehand. His almost fanatical passion for the quartet game was inspirational.
Violist Pavel Nikl recently had to leave your quartet. He was replaced with Radim Sedmidubský from the Škampa Quartet. You have been intertwined with the Škampa Quartet since the very beginning. There has already been some movement of members before, and you are also connected through Milan Škampa himself...
PJ: I started playing in the Škampa Quartet in 1999, and it was more of a coincidence. I was sitting in a pub and a friend gave me a phone number for violinist Jana Lukášová to see whether I would like to play with them. I thought it was a joke, I had never played in a quartet and I had no desire to pursue it. And the moment, when they chose me, was crucial. Veronika started to attend our concerts and decided to start her own quartet. But the whole thing actually originated in the pub.
So this is finally a "Czech tradition..."
PJ: When I called Radim if he could help out Pavel at the Concentus Moraviae gala concert in Brno, he was also sitting in a pub. But through various coincidences, we are indeed still intertwined with the Škampa Quartet.
VJ: Pavel's departure is hard to describe with words, it is difficult and dramatic.
PJ: Radim was the only and best option in Czechoslovakia how to replace Pavel. I am not saying it could not have been someone from Venezuela, even though I do not know how I would explain Janáček to them. But we were also very lucky that Radim had the courage and desire to take that step. And it was not easy for him.
RS: It was a hard decision, but I am very happy.
You are the residential ensemble at this year's Concentus Moraviae Festival, you will play five concerts and lead master classes during the event. What attracted you about such intense participation?
VJ: It is a great opportunity because it is absolutely exceptional to dedicate a festival to such extent only to quartet music. And we were also honoured.
PJ: Something similar will hardly take place in the Czech Republic in the near future.
MZ: We were glad to make space in the calendar for it. We actually play here quite rarely so our parents will hear us play after many years.
Have you seen A Midsummer Quartet by Ľubica Čekovská commissioned for Concentus Moraviae?
PJ: Good question. Yes, we have seen it.
VJ: I talked to her on the phone and found out that it is about two pairs of lovers.
PJ: That is good for a quartet. We look forward to the composition but our tour is coming up so there is no space until early May. Then, we will get on it right away.
By when do you need to get the score, how long does it take you to rehearse a composition. Is it the same with Haydn, Bartók and a new unknown piece?
PJ: When it is an unknown thing, then we push for the earliest delivery possible, of course. Work on a composition is an endless process. Interpretation matters move along with one's development. We recorded Janáček's Quartet No. 2 for our first CD, but it will sound differently after twenty years. It was different after two years already and that is a good thing. It annoyed me already at the Conservatory when someone wanted to play, for instance, Brahms and someone told them that they were too young for it. Such pseudo-philosophical crap. It is incredible nonsense: if someone wants to play it, let them play it, and let them play it the way they feel it. I bet that Brahms himself would have never told anyone anything like that.
You will play the quartet "Z Opičích hor" (From the Monkey Mountains) by Pavel Hass in Boskovice. Why not in Vysočina which inspired its creation and where the festival takes place?
PJ: We will play in Žďár nad Sázavou the day before.
Those are already the Monkey Mountains...
VJ: That is something you have to ask the dramaturgist Aleš Březina.
Have you ever been there just to see?
MZ: We can imagine them from the music.
Ludwig van Beethoven is the "residential composer" of this year's Concentus. All his quartets will be played. What does his music mean to you personally?
VJ: He is the biggest hero among composers, a turning point in quartets and not only in them.
PJ: Beethoven is an absolute milestone in music. Mozart perfectly completed the past and Beethoven opened the door to the future, you can find him in everything. There would be no Beatles without Beethoven. He broke down the sonata form, one quartet has seven attacco parts. His life is worth two centuries of music, you can never play it or listen to it too much. He was aware of his uniqueness, which the society could not accept, but he did not care.
VJ: He rebelled in an ingenious way.
MZ: And right from the very first opuses, that is admirable.
RS: The Great Fugue is not a composition, but a diagnosis, violinist Walter Levin said. When the boys from the Schuppanzigh Quartet complained that it was impossible to play it, Beethoven sent them a message that he did not care about their problems with the lousy violin.
VJ: And he was right! His music also requires a special kind of concentration. Many other things can be played with a certain amount of professional semi-routine after rehearsing. But not Beethoven, he always takes revenge. Violoncellist from the Borodin Quartet pointed out that Shostakovich's quartets usually end up in a depression, while Beethoven's end optimistically or at least with some hope. According to him, it was due to the fact that Shostakovich did not believe in God.
What causes that composers are inspired by a string quartet for such intimate testimonies?
PJ: It is the perfect musical ensemble. Just the mere possibility of glissandi, vibrato, cross hold, there is enormous scope for expression.
MZ: The tone of string instruments is also closest to the human voice.
VJ: It is like a Swiss watch: a perfect mechanism, through which you can say absolutely everything.
PJ: A number of composers were even afraid to write a quartet, nothing can hide in it when composing or playing. In the piano trip, there is the big thing, which is noisy, and the entire ensemble is dependent on an excellent pianist. The intonation is also approximated.
RS: Because the piano is tuned – but equally, meaning out of tune.
Do you play together from sheet music sometimes, perhaps just for fun?
MZ: Very eagerly, but we do not have much time these days.
PJ: When your head is full of the consistent, or even weirdly pedantry approach, it is refreshing to play something just for fun.
And what do you play from a sheet just for fun when it comes down to it?
All: Beethoven.
MZ: It happened to us today.
What are you looking forward to in the near future – at or outside Concentus Moraviae?
PJ: We will play in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and we are really looking forward to it.
VJ: We also look forward to working with the excellent pianists Boris Giltburg and Denis Kožuchin.
PJ: At the Concentus, we will play with the Mendelssohn Octet, with the Dover Quartet and the Schumann's quintet with Christian Zacharias. And personally, I am really looking forward to the holidays. There is nothing more important for a successful season than a break. Everyone is different, for example, violinist Shlomo Mintz said that he just needs two hours off a day and does not need any holidays. However, one must have a proper holiday, a month is too short. It takes you a week to recover from the seasons and you are already preparing for the next one for a week. So you go on holiday for ten days, then you fix a leak in the water pipes and that's it.
What music do you like, in terms of specific authors or in general. What do you find important in music?
MZ: Pink Floyd.
VJ: Jazz, funky.
PJ: Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Stéphane Grappelli...I tried to get into hip-hop or rap, but I just can't.
RS: The Real Group, it is a Swedish vocal group. There must be a lot of work behind it, and it does not sound super easy, they are reminiscent of a quartet.
PJ: In terms of our favourite composers, we have nothing new to say: Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvořák, Janáček. And Shostakovich.
A year and half ago, critic Norman Lebrecht published the names of the ten compositions that he never wanted to hear again and there are more and more comments on this blog post still today. What would you never want to hear again?
RS: I would never want to hear the horn of the ice cream trucks again.
VJ: One forgets what they do not want to hear, it is a logical defence.
PJ: Šlágr TV, despite my ambivalent relationship to it. When I first saw it for the first time, I could not believe it and I saw the perfection of bad taste in it. I won't last more than five to six minutes.
VJ: I really enjoy good brass music, but the synthesizer version is something that I never want to hear again.
PJ: We were slightly deformed but we actually reject everything that is not done well – regardless of genre. It is pointless. You can accept music that is not close to your taste, but it must be well played. If you don't have at least some player qualities, it is the worst for me. For example, the Vivaldianno project.
The interview was conducted in collaboration with Týdeník Rozhlas.
