Music

Pavel Haas Quartet

Queens Hall, Edinburgh

Hazel Rowland

four stars

THE AUDIENCE were treated to a varied programme at Monday night’s concert, from Arvo Part’s transcendental sparseness, to the fraught excitement of Bartok, and to Schubert’s heart-wrenching lyricism. Opening with Part’s Fratres arranged for string quartet, the Pavel Haas Quartet had no difficulty in evoking the atmosphere of reflection that this plainchant-inspired piece asks for. They played with considerable delicacy, maintaining the work’s holy air, even during louder passages. But it was the pianissimo close that was most magical. Barely touching their strings, the quartet sounded as though they were coming from elsewhere.

Any tranquillity was quickly swept away, however, as the Pavel Haas dived into Bartok’s intense Fifth String Quartet. It was thrilling to watch the four players come together for the first movement’s pounding rhythms, which was matched by the ferocious final movement. But they showed off other aspects of their playing too. First violinist Veronika Jaruskova’s drifting melodies during the slow second movement were mesmerisingly haunting, while cellist Peter Jarusek’s pizzicato in the third movement’s Scherzo encouraged the group to throw themselves into its energetic dance.

Bartok’s uneasiness seemed to rub off onto Schubert’s String Quartet in G that followed. Although the first movement contains numerous moments of utter lyricism, the Pavel Haas chose instead to highlight its underlying disquiet. Even when the more melodious second theme entered, this was taken at a brisk tempo, creating a melody that was more tentative and less rooted. This is not to say that the Pavel Haas misunderstood the composer – quite the opposite. For these players were masters of Schubert’s unexpected shifts, convincing their audience they were going in one direction before seamlessly taking us somewhere else.