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The Jerusalem Quartet appeared on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society Tuesday, with a program of works by Haydn, Dvorak, and Prokofiev.
(Felix Broede)
By MARK SATOLA
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- When a violin soloist performing a concerto with an orchestra breaks a string, it's traditional for the concertmaster to hand her instrument to the soloist so the performance can continue with barely a ripple of interruption.
When, however, it's a player in a string quartet, there's not much that can be done except exit the stage and put on a new string. That's what happened Tuesday night at the Jerusalem Quartet's appearance at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, toward the end of the last movement of Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 1 in B Minor.
There was a pop, the music came to a halt, and first violinist Alexander Pavlovsky left the stage to replace the broken string. It only took a few minutes, and then Pavolovsky returned, to appreciative applause, and the quartet picked up where they left off.
It's a good measure of the Jerusalem Quartet's supreme artistry that once they resumed playing, it was as if there had been no interruption at all.
The group's appearance Tuesday was a return engagement with the Cleveland Chamber Music Society. The Jerusalem Quartet's stature has only grown since their auspicious debut in 1996, and their Cleveland recital demonstrated the hows and the whys of their quick ascent to the top ranks of chamber ensembles.
The Jerusalem Quartet plays with artistic authority, immense energy, perfectly blended tone, and a unity of ensemble that borders on psychic. Their readings of quartets by Haydn, Dvorak, and the aforementioned Prokofiev provided one of the most substantial musical evenings in recent memory. Even the encore was no trifle; the quartet returned to give a snapping reading of the all-pizzicato fourth movement from Bartok's challenging String Quartet No. 4.
You knew you were in good hands in the opening bars of the opening work, Haydn's String Quartet in D Major, Op. 64 No. 5, which has earned the soubriquet "The Lark" for the shapely, upward-rising figure in the first violin, which was played with beguiling skill and sweetness by Pavolovsky.
Haydn's quartets do not overstay their welcome, usually clocking in at 20 minutes or so, but the old master, by the time he wrote the six Op. 64 works, knew how to pack his succinct essays with plenty of ingenious activity. The Jerusalem Quartet brought out all the quartet's brilliance with a performance full of interpretive felicity. They could have encored the entire quartet and no one would have objected.
The Prokofiev quartet was given a reading of great intensity. The players navigated the composer's kaleidoscopic shifts of tonality and mood masterfully but also with great clarity, so that one always knew where one was in Prokofiev's twists and turns. It can only be assumed that the extra measure of applause at the end was as much for the outstanding reading as for quartet's aplomb in the affair of the broken string.
Dvorak's unjustly neglected String Quartet No. 13 is one of the composer's most harmonically advanced works, as well as one of his most intellectually profound. The Jerusalem's passionate and committed reading made a strong case for its greater presence in the repertoire, especially in the emotionally complex finale, which the Jerusalem players brought to vivid and moving life.
The encore made a lengthy evening even longer, but it almost didn't matter. One suspects the audience happily would have let the quartet play another hour.