How do you make a lawn? You water it and mow it every day for three hundred years, and that is it. How do you make a string quartet? You take four young, talented, promising soloists, sit them down, give them a challenging repertoire to work on, send them to greatest ensembles to learn from and after thirty years you got it.
It was great idea to form a chamber ensemble featuring the artists represented by Ludwig van Beethoven Association and trust the demanding chamber music into their hands. However, for the greater quality to emerge it would be good to decide about few things. First of all, it has to be decided if the ensemble is about to continue its existence beyond 2010. Then, which musician would play which part, a difficult choice. The strings under Maria Machowska have noble, dark and expressive sound that is rich, full-bodied and very dense. With Agata Szymczewska leading, the tone is brighter and more expansive one, and the playing of the ensemble is more dynamic and energetic. Then there are two excellent cellists, Rafał Kwiatkowski and Bartosz Koziak, each of them adding a different quality to the sound and expression. Finally, there is a need to have a viola player, as currently Artur Rozmysłowicz was announced as guest appearance. The promising talents united for two successful chamber concerts may be developed into a first-rate string quartet. This would require time and care though.
Sunday concert was scheduled for noon sharp but it was delayed due to Warsaw Half Marathon that made reaching the Royal Castle a mission impossible. The programme listed Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor Op. 57, Gustav Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A minor and Alfred Schnittke’s Piano Quartet. The piano part, as during Saturday’s concert, was performed by Korean pianist, Ian Yungwook Yoo.
Szymczewska was able to create the dark tone of the strings, a very appropriate sound to the Shostakovich’s work. The first movement was played with emotional density. The piano was noble and refined and the sound of viola was particularly beautiful and distinctive. The pianist was able to adapt to the sound of strings, but seemingly he did not want that for every section of the music.
The large form of the Piano Quintet was build upon contrasting elements with demoniac, grotesque Scherzo sandwiched between expressive first and lyrical third movement. The work was crowned with abruptly ending finale that was received with warm applause. After the short intermission, during which the ensemble was restructured, we were enjoying beautiful movement by Gustav Mahler, an unfinished Piano Quartet, certainly among the most charming pages in composer’s output. It was followed by Schnittke’s own Quartet, based upon the 24-bar sketch of the Scherzo that Mahler wrote as a planned second movement of his Piano Quartet. Schnittke only draws the musical substance from the sketch, but composes a full-blooded contemporary piece, very expressive, sound-oriented, and well equipped with beautiful colours, timbres and subtle effects. A masterpiece of our times and a work of immediate appeal. It was very well received by the audience. The successful group offered few bars of Mahler’s Quartet as an encore.
Did we witness the birth of an excellent chamber ensemble that Beethoven would be proud of? Only the time shall tell.

Krzysztof Komarnicki