According to Christopher Beach, La Jolla Music Society’s president and artistic director, who had been visiting with them back stage prior to their Friday recital, the Jerusalem Quartet had a free day on Thursday, during which they discovered La Jolla’s seals. A resident since last December when he took up the organizational reins, Beach admits he has not seen them yet, but intends to do so.
Beach has been extremely busy, booking artists, visiting area venues, attending concerts hither and yon, and meeting with local artists and arts promoters around the county.
As for the Jerusalem Quartet ” first violin Alexander Pavlovsky, second violin Sergei Bresler, viola Amihai Grosz and cello Kyril Zlotnikov ” they are astonishing. Seldom does one hear a quartet that plays with such tight unity and style. All shy of 30, they met in school in Jerusalem, formed in 1993, came out of the BBC’s New Generation Artists program, and came to note when they won the first prize at the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Music Competition in 1996. They received the first Borletti Buitoni Trust Award in 2003 and issued their first CD for EMI in 2001.
This season, in honor of Dmitri Shostakovich’s centenary, they’re playing all 15 of the composer’s string quartets on their recital schedule, which includes Amsterdam, London, Berlin and Vancouver, among others.
Friday night in La Jolla, the Jerusalems played Beethoven’s String Quartet in B-flat major, Opus 18, No. 6, startling in its clarity; and Mendelssohn’s sunny String Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 12, characterized by bursts of great beauty in the Andante espressivo section, where Grosz’s tone was burnished and vivid. His viola has a way of asking, then answering itself, the whole, romantic and filled with suspenseful urgency.
One departed for the interval eager to experience their Shostakovich and having returned, was not disappointed. They played Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Opus 68 with assurance and unalloyed élan, maintaining their concentration even when Pavlovsky broke a string during the wry, off-kilter waltz section, occasioning a pause. Pavlovsky’s playing of the work’s Recitative and Romance movement was ravishingly beautiful. It features two plucked chords that go straight to one’s soul. The work concludes with a Theme and Variations that embraces a marvelous Shostakovian fugue. This is absolutely delightful, riveting music.
It’s odd indeed that many concertgoers departed prior to the playing of this phenomenal work, the evening’s highlight. This suggests that chamber music as a whole may be ” to some ” like including vegetables in one’s diet. We know it’s something we should do and we attend the banquet knowing it’s good for us, but we insist on abdicating the feast before the cruciferous are served. Pity.
La Jolla Music Society presents the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with pianist Leon Fleisher at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 13 at the Civic Theatre, 202 C St., San Diego. The program includes J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1, BWV 1066; Joan Tower’s “Chamber Dances”; and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major (“Emperor”). Visit www.lajollamusicsociety.com for more information or call (858) 459-3728.