Bartók's 2nd Quartet -Podcast with Levon Chilingirian

In 2016 the Chilingirian Quartet performed all of Bartók's quartets at Kings Place, London.
This is a short podcast from that time.

As part of a continuing series of podcasts by the Chilingirian Quartet, Levon talks on Bartók's 2nd Quartet ahead of their Kings Place, London concert, February 7th 2016. This historic series of six concerts to be given by the Chilingirian Quartet, commemorates the 70th anniversary of Bartók's death by reconstructing the first complete cycle of Bartók quartets in the UK – given in the 1949/50 season by the London Chamber Music Society's precursor organisation, the South Place Sunday Concerts.

Bartók's 2nd Quartet -Podcast with Levon Chilingirian OBE

Levon Chilingirian OBE on Bartók's 2nd Quartet 

Talk transcript

"I think that's when people see the name Bartók in programs, even now feel they like running away sometimes.

I think it's something that's still, even now, unjustified. It's something that we're trying to put right with a series that, you know, we're giving over the next two years at Kings Place. We're repeating the exactly the same programs that were given in 1949/50 at the Conway Hall -the first time that all the Bartok quartets were played in London.

This is the second concert. And so we've done already number one, Bartok number One. The second one we play number two, which really is the most approachable of the quartets. And actually I say to student groups, and to amateur groups, that it's the most playable. They can play this. Maybe for the amateurs that they might play, not as fast as Bartok marks sometimes, but it's eminently playable. It's a real String Quartet with amazing new things in it. This is a, I think, the best introduction to Bartok's music, and particularly to string quartets.

Arabic themes

He incorporates some Arabic themes. I don't think people are aware of so much that Bartok who was trolling around East of Europe. Of course, collecting Hungarian music, Hungarian melodies and because the neighbouring countries are Romania and Ruthenia and Moldova, you know, all those - The style of music, and the ethnic music he was familiar with. But before writing his second quartet he made a trip to North Africa, and he picked up one or two things from there in the middle movement because this is in three movements. In the middle, boom! And there's some real good Arabic music, and of course it's incorporated with Hungarian rhythms, but the actual melodies are wonderfully different.

So, you have a very unusual piece of music that the middle movement is the fast, lively, fun, sinister, dry humoured, but basically fast movement. You have the first movement which is very lyrical and very gentle wistful. He wrote this, don't forget, between 1915 and 1917, so it falls into that very sad period when the Europe was at war. So he, it's very wistful, and very sweet and very expressive, and then having played this crazy Hungarian Arabic second movement which sort of goes mad sometimes, he follows it with the, with a third or last moment which is bleak. Absolutely, dark, dark clouds, hopeless. Everything that you, you might want to describe you know, the hopelessness of the situation in Europe in at that point, the First World War. It's very static. It's very expressive. And then it's very non expressive, very black. And yet, everything in this work is, I think, totally understandable.

It's not overly dissonant, it's not overly brutal, that comes a little later, with particularly three, four, five. It was written for the Hungarian quartet. This is the original one, and they premiered it before the First World War was over in Budapest, so that must have been an interesting first premiere.

It is compact, relatively speaking, and it's in a sandwich in this concert, where we've retained the original programs from 1949/50, the sandwich consists of a Mozart quartet, some might say, his very greatest quartet, a very unsung great quartet, his quartet in A major and I would only say one small thing about it. This is the piece that Beethoven, loved. He went as far as to copy the last movement of this Mozart quartet in his sketchbook. And when somebody said to him, "what is this?" He said, "now, there is a piece!"

For Beethoven to compliment, Mozart, which of course he acknowledged him as a great composer, but to actually pick up this particular piece as the one that he thought was Mozart's most interesting is, I think, is enough for me to place it right at the very very top.

It's interesting his longest quartet. Oh, it's a wonderful start if you like with this great Beethoven, like Mozart quartet, and then in the second half to end, we play the like champagne quartet of Beethoven his G major quartet. Unbelievable fun and games, three out of the four movements, and then a beautiful, serene miracle slow movement, but with a surprise in the middle, where, he writes some incredibly fast music. So this is a very joyful piece. And there you have a fantastically contrasting program, this central work, which I suppose was the focus of the very first cycle in London, and of course it's the focus of our present cycle.

The technical challenges

Technically, his music is challenging away from it.
Now having lived with this music for 40 years now, it feels simply like a wonderful string quartet, like a Haydn quartet. And the technical challenges have to be met by each individual member of the quartet, whichever quartet it is, ours, another group, and yet, as with other music, You have to bring out the phrasing, and moods, the articulation.

So, if a group plays Bartok in a, either in a panic-stricken way, because they can't play it individually or in a, what I would call a sort of, contemporary frame of mind, rather than putting it as a son of list, something that is fundamentally based on music that they, the listener, will know and understand the love. And Bartok Of course it is own character his dry, strong shy character, and uncompromising technical compositional style within all of that, there is real music.

So, what I would challenge, is whether enough performances of Bartók, particularly these earlier pieces, number One, Number Two, which have enough musicality and lyricism, and the technical problems, should not surface for the listener.

Bring out the Music, technical problems shouldn't surface

So the players have to be good enough just to bring up the music. I think it's very simple, like that.
So it sits in particularly this program, I think it's very interesting it sits so comfortably for me within these great two pieces by Mozart and Beethoven,. You would, I hope, recognize it as a, as just another quartet written by another great quartet composer. We'd have a lot of fun. We are having a lot of fun rehearsing right now. Interestingly enough, you know, two of us, Ronnie and I, have played this many, many, many, many, many, times. And in this case, it's new for Susie and Steve, they are so familiar with the style of Bartók, and we've done many Bartok quartets before, so it's also the exciting.

I think around to explore this wonderful piece with with two of us having done it a lot and two of us doing it for the first time. I think that element of it, is making it to like a fresh interpretation, working out how to go around the corners.

If I had to tell the difference between Bartok and Mozart or Bartók and Beethoven, it's the change of speed, what we call tempo, it's these changes which are much much more frequent most speeding up most learning more different tempos; just much more if you like romantic, like some of your play Chopin you know, pull it about.
Well, there's that very strong element in Bartok and in the slow movements he's always subtly changing the tempo, officially changing it. Mozart and Beethoven might have signaled to us in a slightly different feeling. Without marking it, we as the interpreters have to know that, but Bartok clearly marks slower faster, much faster 10 times faster 10 times slower. So, I guess for the performance and for the listeners., that is a challenge. But again, I think it's up to the performers to for to do it, not to make it sound like a mathematical problem or equation. Again,  sometimes people think that you need to be mathematical to play Bartok. I think, Of course you need to be able to count. But I think you need good rhythm. I go back to one of the most brilliant mathematicians in history, Albert Einstein, by what we know about stories about him, because he played the violin. It seems that he had shockingly bad rhythm.

So, good rhythm is not the same as being good at mathematics, some of the best mathematicians, are the most rigidly unmusical players. They might play all the notes and they might think they're doing it brilliantly but they have no feel for rhythm. And so, in Bartók, you have to play very complex stuff, but with basically good rhythm. And that comes with birth, from birth. ha!

And so you know Bartok was basing his music on living alongside and amongst great folk Fiddler's and singers who would never went to music school or anything like that, they just were natural musicians.

If you would like to come to the concert at Kings place. I would strongly recommend to come to the pre concert talk just to, you know, hear about it and maybe get familiar with it, and then come with absolute open ears and almost like, just listen, you know there'll be a piece at the beginning and there'll be a second piece and it just happens, and the second one is the Bartok II. You don't need any special preparation. I think it's so beautiful and so clear if we do it. Well, then you have no problems as an audience, and this could be the your entry point into what he does later.

And we'll be doing the third quarter of course in March, wonderful piece much shorter. So again, very easy to handle more wild more sort of real wild stuff in that, but I think again, very straightforward, when it comes to it. And then next year four, five and six so I think number two is, is the big one for just understanding, getting into the style.