Prague string quartets.

Jupiter Quartet

Arco Diva

ITotal time: 63:40

This CD is actually a profile recording of the Quattro group of composers. These are four Czech composers (only three are still alive today), who despite differences of generation found a common language. The main theme of the recordings could be described as the search for a balance between accessibility to the listener and intellectual and musical complexity. Each composer tries to solve this dilemma in his own way, each with a different degree of success. Lubos Fiser (1935-1999) wrote his only String Quartet in 1984. The one-movement piece abandons the traditional formal scheme and works principally with the alternation of differently structured blocks of music and silence. Indeed, it is the treatment of silence and pauses that is the source of the dramatic quality of the piece. Sylvie Bodorova (1954) called her 4th String Quartet Shofarot, since it was inspired by the musical instrument, the shofar, used in the Jewish liturgy. Apart from imitation of the various techniques of play on this instrument, the piece clearly shows the influence of the melodics of Jewish folk music, a source that the composer often draws on elsewhere. While with Fiser and Bodorova the balancing act between originality and accessibility produces interesting music, the String Quartet by Otmar Macha (1922) and the 4th String Quartet by Zdenek Lukas (1928) produce a rather awkward impression. In both cases we can hear the folk inspiration and both employ a wide register of tonality, but there seems to be a lack of courage and therefore a loss of interest.

The Jupiter String Quartet was founded in 1990 by students of the Prague Conservatory. It is pleasant to find young musicians who are not afraid of taking on works that are difficult and do not offer the prospect of quick success.