The Jack Quartet - Ligeti / Pintscher / Cage / Xenakis - Wigmore Hall - 30.07.11

[Guest]

The programme ran:

Ligeti - 2nd string quartet
Pintscher - Study IV for Treatise on the Veil - Interval -
Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts
Xenakis - Tetras

More than three-quarters full and a respectful house but something of a puzzle of a concert. Does anyone know these pieces and can you suggest an alteration to the programme? The playing seemed to be wonderful but I think the length and order of the programme meant my attention wavered and the audience seemed a little tired before the end of the Xenakis.

The highlight was the Pintscher piece which was soft as breath and sonically novel. Unfortunately, to a degree, its reverence was followed by the repetitious 'piety' of the Cage sound. I couldn't grasp the point of the Cage with all its repetitions but it would have made a better prelude to the Pintscher, I think, than a successor.

I love the sounds modern strings provide - their rasps and rips, drones and see-saw slides - but when there's so much of it congregated in a single concert, the law of diminishing returns began to operate. Following the other 2 pieces, the Cage and Xenakis seemed comparatively broad and crude though the Xenakis made many excellent noises (and elicited some sniggers from the audience with its 'trumps').

I think the concert might have worked better for me with a different order:

Cage (may well be a classic work for all I know but it wasn't an interesting listen following the severe hush of the Pintscher)
Xenakis (which is a crowd pleaser I'd have thought) - Interval -
Pintscher
Ligeti (which seemed to incorporate elements, if only of tone, of all the previous pieces and might have served best as a sort of summary).

[Roehre]

I wouldn't have scheduled the Cage here, as it requires IMO a too different an approach to listening to it compared with the other pieces - making the concert seemingly too long.

My programme would be (in this order):
Ligeti 2nd quartet - Pintscher Study IV - interval - Berio String quartet (or sincronie) - Xenakis Tetras

alternatively, with the Cage:

Pintscher Study IV - Cage SQ in 4 parts -( interval?)- either Ligeti 2nd Quartet or Xenakis Tetras

[hackneyvi]

I wouldn't have scheduled the Cage here, as it requires IMO a too different an approach to listening to it compared with the other pieces - making the concert seemingly too long.

My programme would be (in this order):
Ligeti 2nd quartet - Pintscher Study IV - interval - Berio String quartet (or sincronie) - Xenakis Tetras

alternatively, with the Cage:

Pintscher Study IV - Cage SQ in 4 parts -( interval?)- either Ligeti 2nd Quartet or Xenakis Tetras

I think you're right about the Cage, Roehre, though the Xenakis seemed misplaced to me, too. I think because the Pintscher was so extraordinary (it had the softness and sincerity of a pilgim's prayer), what followed it suffered by comparison. It's delicacy seemed, a little, to be mocked by the Cage and then activeyl trampled on by Xenakis.

It was a fascinating, instructive, entertaining evening but - for me - slightly disappointing.

PS: I noticed you were listening to the Maxwell Davies Naxos quartets a few weeks ago. After a very exciting performance of Eight (?) Songs for a Mad King at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in June, I've been intrigued to know a little more of Max's music. My hands hovered over the discs for a fortnight now but finally tonight, on my way up the Wigmore gig, I slipped into HMV and now have Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 in my hot little hand!

New music is a treat! At worst, it's challenging, stimulating, opinion-forming, taste-shaping and NOW!

[Bryn]

I understand, from a message posted elsewhere, that the concert was recorded. I look forward to it appearing on the Wigmore Hall label.

[hackneyvi]

I understand, from a message posted elsewhere, that the concert was recorded. I look forward to it appearing on the Wigmore Hall label.

It was recorded but also possibly sabotaged. The Pintscher is intensely quiet and, just before the end, a woman started coughing as if she was bringing up a lung. Then, towards the end of the Cage piece, somebody dropped the family bible.

[Bryn]

I have been quite amazed to find just how much the impact of such incidental sounds can be ameliorated with modern software. I recall a mobile phone going off and a rather loud passing motorbike, plus the usual emergency vehicle sirens, during a Skempton and Feldman concert at St John's, Smith Square. The recording engineer, Sebastian Lexer, managed to effectively remove all trace of them, though it did take a fair it of work. Ironically, this site offers a ringtone based on that concert recording.

[Roehre]

I understand, from a message posted elsewhere, that the concert was recorded. I look forward to it appearing on the Wigmore Hall label.

As I do.

[Roehre]

I noticed you were listening to the Maxwell Davies Naxos quartets a few weeks ago. After a very exciting performance of Eight (?) Songs for a Mad King at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in June, I've been intrigued to know a little more of Max's music. My hands hovered over the discs for a fortnight now but finally tonight, on my way up the Wigmore gig, I slipped into HMV and now have Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 in my hot little hand!

New music is a treat! At worst, it's challenging, stimulating, opinion-forming, taste-shaping and NOW!

For me there only exists music (either good or bad, and not exclusively "classical")- I had to discover it all myself. My parents, family and peers hadn't a clue what "classical music" was about, so there was no burden of prejudice against any style, era or composer, thank goodness. There is so much to listen to, to explore, to discover.

And regarding "modern" music: imo there is no fundamental difference between people who dislike classical music in general because "they don't like it"/"they don't understand it"/"that's for insiders and therefore very elitist" and people who like classical music, but dislike 20th and 21st C music because "they don't like it"/"they don't understand it"/"that's for insiders, too difficult for me .

Peter Maxwell Davies's Naxos quartets are a treat, though none of these are as expressionist as the Mad-King-songs.
I think you will enjoy the whole series. I don't think I am exaggerating saying that these 10 quartets are as different (and in terms of style a unity) as Beethoven's late quartets, Bartok's quartet output or Shostakovich's quartets.
Whether these are at the same level: personally I do think they might, but future will show.

[hackneyvi]

I... the concert was recorded. I look forward to it appearing on the Wigmore Hall label.

As I do.

And me. The Ligeti 2 has already been released by Wigmore Hall Live (Arditti Quartet - still available for £3, I think, from the hall or website shop), so I'm assuming that the disc with be Pintscher, Cage and Xenakis.

Looking at those 3 as a programme, again, they seem to form a pleasing whole by virtue of their contrasts; the softness of Pintscher, the room temeprature Cage (with a jog at the end), the raucous Xenakis; in my imagination, they compile to form a three-piece 'suite'.

[hackneyvi]

Peter Maxwell Davies's Naxos quartets are a treat, though none of these are as expressionist as the Mad-King-songs.
I think you will enjoy the whole series. I don't think I am exaggerating saying that these 10 quartets are as different (and in terms of style a unity) as Beethoven's late quartets, Bartok's quartet output or Shostakovich's quartets.
Whether these are at the same level: personally I do think they might, but future will show.

I couldn't resist treating myself and listened to the first movement of the 1st Quartet before going out this morning. I have the steam of some ideas in my mind that needs condenscing so I'm going to start a thread on the Naxos quartets.

All contributions will be greatfully received. I feel something is coming to head for me around listening to, appreciation of and articulating on music.