Upbeats: Season 4, Episode 15 (Braving the String Quartet)

JJ and Haz see in the new year with a celebration of the string quartet, testing the claim that it is a 'four-way marriage without the sex'. Haz divulges her pet peeves as a chamber musician, as well as what a 'shig' is and why, amazingly, 'Bridgerton' is keeping the quartet genre alive and kicking.

Contact email: A2@artsactive.org.uk

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Arts Active Podcast

Transcript - Braving the String Quartet

JJ

Hello, my name's JJ.

Haz
And my name is Haz.

JJ
And a very happy new year to you all. 

Haz

Blwyddyn newydd dda.
 
 JJ

I can say “I hope you've been having a great year so far.” Can I say that in Welsh? 

Haz
Yeah.

 JJ
Uh… Gobeithio chi’n wedi bod yn cael blwyddyn wych chi’n hin.

Haz
I've no way of checking if that's right but nodding supportingly. 

JJ

Well, there we go. I'm doing my best and I'm sure we… you know, I welcome anybody to contact us and to correct me. We'd welcome that, wouldn't we, via the Arts Active email. 

So welcome to this new series of Braving the Stave podcasts where we're looking at the lunchtime series in Eglwys Dewi Sant, as the platform for our discussions, and this next concert, see if you can guess, dear listeners, what this is about.

Haz

Ok.

JJ

Now, what connects, do you think, the following words: Takács. 

 Haz
Danish

JJ
Belcea

Haz
Brodsky

JJ
Amadeus

Haz
Emerson

JJ
Sacconi

Haz
Vitamin

JJ
Jerusalem

 Haz
Four strings attached.

JJ

Aaaa… have we already said Borodin?

Haz

The last one was my family one, so it doesn't really count, does it? 

JJ
What was your family one? 

Haz
4 Strings Attached.

JJ

Oh, very good. 

Haz

Hatemail@4stringsattached. Thank you. 

 JJ

And therein lies the biggest clue. These are all names of string quartets.

Haz

Yay!

JJ

As I'm sure you knew, being the erudite listener that we imagine you to be. 

Haz

I knew two of those names and I had to Google them beforehand and one of them was my own. But I think the string quartet just makes me feel home and safe and happy and complete and…

JJ

We're dreadfully biased, aren't we at this table as we speak.

 Haz
Yeah

JJ

Because we're both string quartet players, you more than I. 

 
 Haz

Well, I'm a viola player, so obviously I love string quartets, but I know you play violin, but you know, and you're extremely good and you can take all the tunes, but I know you love being a second violinist.

JJ

I'm a second violinist at heart

Haz
Yeah you are.

JJ

And a pianist when I can be, sort of, involved and when I have the time, really, to do chamber.
 
 Haz
Yeah

JJ 

Do you know that's one of my New Year's resolutions is more chamber music in my life because there's nothing more involving, fulfilling and gratifying, providing you've got the right members in your group.

Haz

That's it. I think the musician's new year resolution of, “oh, I'm gonna read more books” is “I'm gonna do more chamber music.” That's just what we think, we're like “I will do that. That makes me feel good.” It's, you know, it's, it's wholesome, it's creative…”
 
 JJ

Are you saying I'm unoriginal with that resolution? Do you think that's a shared, that's a universal? Everybody wants to do more chamber music.

Haz

I think they do.
 
 JJ
Do you think?

Haz
And there's a there's a reason why.

JJ

OK. 

Haz
I don't know what it is, but maybe we could find that out today.

[Music: Haydn String Quartet in G Major, Op. 76 No.1: I. Allegro con spirito. Artists: The London Haydyn Quartet]

JJ

I think, you know, it's the perfect balance, isn't it?  Because you get to do collaborative music making, you're in there with friends, but it's not too much, not like an orchestra where you can be more anonymous and it can be overwhelming maybe, but you've got something to say, but at the same time it's this perfect expression of teamwork, isn't it?

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

So the string quartet, it's 255 years old or thereabouts.
 
 Haz

So young. Spring chickens, because in my head I'm like, the string quartet has been around since music was around, since the cavemen found… don't look at me like that. 

I don't know how music began.

JJ
What?!

Haz

But when music began I imagine there were like three other people like, “Hey, can I join in?” And then that's how the string quartet was born.

 JJ

Well, we had to really wait until the 1760s for Italian luthiers to be at their best for these four instruments really to come together under the watchful eyes of Papa Joseph Hadyn, but also others before him. And it's the most homogeneous, polished, refined… so it's the sounds that stereotypically we associate with posh dos. 

Haz

It really is, and there's a reason we have them played at weddings and you know, sometimes at funerals and posh events because we think when else am I gonna have a string quartet?

JJ

So refined!

Haz

It's regal. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

JJ

But it can be ugly and we'll be listening to lots of different colours of sounds. Let's start with the Heath Quartet because they're performing in Eglwys Dewi Sant, right in the centre. It's a lovely church in the centre, I think Saint Andrew's Crescent of Cardiff, and this is on Tuesday, the 4th of February at 1pm, if you're hearing this in time. And that's part of a rather lovely chamber lunchtime series at the church. They're playing Hadyn string quartets number one – No! Opus 50, number 1, there we go.

Haz

Oh, that's what… See, now that's something that puts me off all the early string quartets because there's so many different numbers and rules and I'm like, “Oh, I love the first one”. “In what key?” “Oh, uhm, in F”. “From what year?” and you're like, “Oh, I don't know, the one that goes like this.”

JJ

It's true that, you know, there is this nerdy fixation with getting the opus number tied together with the number because with Haydn, he's publishing them in sets of either 6 or 12.

Haz
Of course.

JJ

And so yes, everybody needs to know that plus the key signature anyway.

Haz

It’s a bit like eggs. String quartets, etc.

JJ

A bit, a bit like that, a bit like that.

Haz

Yeah yeah.

JJ

And so they're playing that Haydn and the Dvořák string quartet number 10.
 
 Haz

I love that so much.
 
 JJ

Do you now? Because I didn't know that. That's in E flat, I'll have you know.

Haz

Mmm!

JJ

I wanna say opus 51.

Haz

I mean, you can say what you want. I'll be like, “Yes.”

JJ

And we will be coming to what those pieces sound like in a second. A few words on the Heath Quartet. They've been going since 2002, so they're 23 years old now as a group.
 
 Haz

That's amazing. Especially when you think that a quartet is a relationship, a four-way relationship.

JJ

Yeah.

Haz

Which sounds difficult, but…

JJ
A four-way marriage without sex is how Gary Pomeroy, the cellist, puts it.

Haz

100%.

JJ

Do you agree?

Haz

100%.

JJ

Is it that intimate?

Haz

Yes. You are… what other job do you sit that close to other people apart from if you're in an orchestra, but even then you're one amongst a mass, and with this you're, you're one amongst four. Four solo parts but together as one voice, yeah.

JJ

And intricately working out together because you can do that as a four, whereas you can't really as a as a 32 or a 40.

Haz

Yeah yeah.

JJ

But what interpretation, what stamp you want to put on the repertoire. So yes, that's a rather… a four-way marriage without sex. I think that will go into our podcast description.

Haz

Yep.
 
 JJ

Certainly. Now, Ollie, their first violinist said that in the RNCM up in Manchester, the Royal Northern where they met. He was told in no uncertain terms by his chamber music coach that any new quartet had to take the leader's surname, and that would just be the name of their quartet because anything else would be a pretension and you can only do that once you're established as a quartet. You can only search for a so-say fancy name, like 4 Strings Attached or whatever, later on. So hence they're called the Heath Quartet because he's Ollie Heath.

Haz 

I think that's so funny. That's it like, because in college, part of the… OK, you're like, “Right, we're gonna do a quartet, we're gonna really be the best ever. We're gonna work really hard.” Then you all go to the SU and you sit down and you get a pint and you spend the first couple of hours, maybe weekly, over a pint thinking, what should we be called? What’s gonna be our name?

JJ

It takes ages, doesn't it?

Haz
Yeah.

JJ

Takes ages.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

Had you just taken the surname of your leader, what would it be?

Haz

Oh God, Heathcote. Actually we did! It was Heathcote! Yeah, it was!
 
 JJ
Ok! There you go.
 
 

Haz

Yeah.

JJ
Very surprisingly close

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

to the Heath Quartet.

Haz

Mmhm.

JJ

I can also tell you that Cerys Jones, their second violinist, is, well she lives in Cardiff. 

Cerys Jones. You would have thought she's Welsh.

Haz

Yeah, you would.

JJ

I can't confirm that fact, but she insists on the fact that she never plays on a heavy stomach, so always a light stomach.

Haz

Oh. Don’t agree.
 
 JJ
And Chris, the… Chris… do you like a good feast, do you, before going on stage?

Haz

Always. Before bed, before going for a walk, before playing music.

JJ

Wow.

Haz

Yeah

JJ

We'll talk about that separately. Some other podcast! Chris the cellist says that he swings his arms, it's apparently a trick that Yehudi Menuhin taught them to get the blood right into the fingers to make sure they're fully warmed up. So they have all these sort of little rituals before going on stage.

Haz

Gotta say, I know they're amazing, but they're sounding like these sexless, arm-flailing, empty-bellied losers. I think it's just the way we're describing them.

JJ
Well that’s one way of summarising it!

Haz

They're so hungry, but they're so, you know, they're moving around like wind machines.

JJ

Their music-making is exquisite and after 23 years of being together, the proof’s in the pudding really. Should we listen to a bit of Haydn? Because he's so instrumental to the history of the string quartet. This, as I say, is his Opus 50, number one, and it is so settling because you'll hear this pulsing B flat that is passed from the cello through to other instruments and becomes in fact the leitmotif for the first movement.

[Music. Hadyn: String Quartet Op. 50 No. 1, 1st Movt. Artists: London Haydn Quartet]

Haz

That’s a very low B flat.

JJ

 Almost baroque

Haz

Yeah. 

JJ

Bom, bom, bom, bom.

Haz

I like that though. 

JJ

That was the London Haydn Quartet. I'm afraid I couldn't find the Heath Quartet online playing that particular one.

Haz

That's because people are gonna have to go and see it. 

JJ

Indeed.

Haz 

Ah, well done.

JJ

So, isn't that settling? Are we feeling better? Are we feeling balanced? Are we feeling a certain kind of equipoise in our life?

Haz

Wow, yes, now I am! Equipoise. Great.

JJ

Absolutely, that's what opening movements of Haydn are often about is just settling the senses, I think, and…

Haz

Yeah, he did what… they've all got nicknames, haven't they, as well, his little…

JJ

Many of them.

Haz

Yeah, I said his “little quartets”, because in my head I associate the Haydn string quartets with being quite twee, I know this is, I know you're looking at me, like, aghast.

JJ

No!

Haz

No, but in my head I'm like, “Aww Haydn”. And I, that's probably because I haven't played enough Haydn.

JJ

There's a lot of viscerality in Haydn quartets as well. If you play them with the kind of commitment and exuberance that they invite, I think you can find a different Haydn that goes beyond the twee, but I know it can be… it is the classic background music, isn't it?

Haz

That's, yes, and I know that's rude, but in my head that's what I associate it with.

JJ

Let's see if we feel the same about the Dvořák that they'll be playing in E flat. So, you like this one.

Haz

I like this one, yeah.

Written about 100 years later, so this is 1879, and not the famous American, which is the next one along, but I thought we could play the dumka, which is the second movement. It's a scherzo and a dumka is a Slavonic dance, and this was the reason it was nicknamed the Slavonic Quartet. A Slavonic dance that starts off melancholic and then finds a happier way to end, generally speaking

Haz

Fingers crossed

JJ

Fingers crossed. Let's see if Dvořák can manage it.

[Music. Dvořák, String Quartet No. 10 in E-Flat Major, Op. 51, B.92: 2. Dumka. Andante con moto. Artists: Emerson String Quartet].

So that was from Quartet number 10, and I made an error. You probably spotted it, didn't you?

Haz

Of course I did, but I'm too polite to say.

JJ

I said the next quartet, number 11, therefore, was the American, but it isn't, it's number 12.

 Haz

Yeah, we all, everyone was shouting at you there.

JJ

They were, weren't they, our sharp-eared listeners will be thinking what a dolt, basically.

Haz

Yeah. What a fool. Turn it off. 

JJ
Apologies, live on air. Now then, tell me about your life as a quartet musician Haz, because you have far more extensive experience than I. 

Haz

Lie down on this chaise long 

JJ

Yes
 
 Haz
and tell you all about my life as a quartet violist. Best place to be, by the way - jam in the sandwich.

JJ

Absolutely.

Haz

King of the castle. It's the best place to be, and I have, I mean, there's pet peeves of being in a string quartet, which we all know, there's, like, no-no's. You don't tap your foot.

JJ

Oh, goodness me no.
 
 Haz

The first thing, they stamp that out of you

JJ
Ha ha, very good.

Haz

From the start, I mean, there's pet peeves I have of playing the string quartet are things like not saying what you mean, so you play passage and then it'll just fall apart and be like, “I feel like we're rushing.” It's like, no, tell that person who is rushing that they're rushing. Do you know what I mean? It's like, and it's always like first violinist versus the cellist. Because they're both on the outside.

JJ

Yeah.

Haz

One's got a sharp pointy stick going into the ground. 

JJ

It could get ugly. 

Haz

Uh-huh. The other one's got slightly longer reach and maybe a louder voice, but the inner parts, they're always like… any coaching I've ever done with string quartet, they've always said “Can we have more of the viola?”

It's like, yeah, sure, but it's written in the most middle register with the weirdest instrument that doesn't have a bigger resonating chamber than, you know, as a cello but still doesn't have the high part to cut through the texture of a violin. So we're just there like “bom bom bom bom”.

JJ

So, what, blame the composer you're saying? 

Haz

I'm just saying blame everyone else. Everyone else shush, let me come through, and I would urge listeners to go and listen to Dvořák American String Quartet, Number 12, the start of that, 

JJ
Number 12, I knew that, number 12.

Haz

Number 12, number 12. Go listen to start because then you can hear the viola in all its glory. Other pet peeves or things in a string quartet that just you should do good etiquette. Make sure that everyone has a pencil because you don't want to be the only one, you don't want to be, you know, picking up the slack every week being like, oh, they never have a pencil, they're always turning up late and know your part and learn it as if you were going to be playing it solo because you are a soloist, no one else is playing your part. So you are essentially a soloist, but you're doing it with the good grace of having live accompaniment with you all the time. 

JJ

And do you get to know other people's parts as well?

Haz

Oh, I do because I'm a… ha ha ha!

JJ

You're a glorious chamber musician who probably has, yeah, the score open, the library score open on her lap as she plays just to check in.

Haz

I'm just so petty that if someone's like, “Well, actually the score…” and then I'll be like, “Well, actually, if you look at the urtext. The original line manuscript…”

JJ
I never had you down as an urtext woman.

Haz

I'm just so petty. I won't let it go. It's not for the music. Let me tell you, it's not for the love of the music.

JJ

I think it is.

Haz

It's the love of being right.

JJ

You say that.

 Haz

Well, we’ll see.

JJ
Right, so I, you know, I'm right there with you on everybody being equally prepared, and it has to be… you have to have that equity, don't you?

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

And, and that preparedness that is shared. And not just looking to typically the leader or just any pair of individuals, 

Haz

Haz

Yeah.
 
 JJ

Otherwise it will not be greater than the sum of the parts.

Haz

Absolutely.

JJ

So, let's just delve deeper into the glorious repertoire and canon that is the string quartet.

Haz

I thought you'd never ask. When you sent a text to me like string quartet I was like, “Yes, please, yes, because I love this” and I know we've brought this before. But I want to bring a treasure to you.”

JJ

Great, it is treasure swap time.

Haz

Treasure swap!

JJ

Dum, pa dum dum dum dee! 

Haz

Good tune.

JJ

Good.

Haz.

So I have brought… can I go first, by the way? Is that OK? 

JJ

Yes, yes, please, please.

Haz

I'm excited. So I have brought Shostakovich String Quartet number 8, originally written for string orchestra. But I've brought the 1st and 2nd movements of this, even though we're just gonna play the 2nd movement I think because it's so… it's like a gut punch. 

It's amazing. 

JJ

It's also really cathartic, isn't it, to play, because there is that trademark Shostakovich in neurotic intensity

Haz

Yep.

JJ

that comes out. There's an underlay also of a Jewish idiom that he was referring to to express the oppression of a people, the suffering of a people.

Haz

Mmmhm, and the, the repeated pattern of the “dun dun” like knocking on the doors and things like when you think of sixties music, you don't like you don't really think of Shostakovich, but yeah, it's scary and it's oppressive and it's horrible.

JJ

It’s 60s Soviet music, isn't it in that sense, yes.

Haz

Yeah, oh. Ha ha ha.

JJ

Yes. And started off as one of his desk drawer works, an intensely private, almost journalistic work that, thank goodness, found the light of day and remains powerful every time you listen to it. So who have we got here playing it? It is, I think the Dover Quartet.

Haz

Great, beautiful.

JJ

Let's see how they do.

[Music. Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110: II. Allegro molto. Artists: Dover Quartet]

JJ

Whoof, pass me the whiskey.

Haz

Yeah, that is… we were head banging to that.
 
 JJ

Well, more impressively was your, sort of, offbeat tapping of the foot.
 
 Haz

It hasn't been stamped out of me.

JJ

Only when listening. Because it just betrayed to me how well and how deeply you know this quartet.

Haz

I do. Here's my claim to fame, that I'm well known for. We did this as a quartet in college when I was in music college, and we did it from memory. We learned it.

JJ

The whole thing?

Haz

The whole five movements.

JJ
Wow

Haz

Yeah, we'd performed the 1st and 2nd for, like, an award thing and then got it obviously because… we’re so amazing

JJ

Because you're that brilliant.

Haz

But it's like learning it inside out is so… like, it makes my heart race now and I can even when I'm imagining playing it, I can remember where the page turns were and remember where I had to, like, turn the cellist’s page because they couldn't, because there's so much going on and it's just… it makes my heart race still honestly, yeah.

JJ

Yeah, even without that our hearts are racing. The way he repeats his monogram, that “dee dee dee dee” just so insistently and with it almost just clustering together in this aggressive way, it feels almost as if he's taken a pen and he's scratching his way through the paper with it, you know, with his signature.

Haz

Yeah. That's it. And we're so, we're so geeky like sitting here like, “Oh, it's amazing!” but it's great because you don't have, when you think of string quartet, you're like you have the tune and you have the bass line and you have your inner parts like here it's like, well, we're all screaming at the same time except for sometimes you scream a bit louder and it's just, yeah, it makes me feel happy weirdly.

JJ

Very releasing, isn't it? Both for the player and for the listener, I think. 

Haz

Yeah. Mmhm.

JJ

So that is a far cry from Haydn. Well, in my treasure swap, I wanted to meet you halfway with the first movement of Death and the Maiden, the Schubert string quartet, so called, not actually because of the tragic nature of the opening which we're about to hear, but after the second movement which was named in turn after the song of the same name, and it's a theme and variations and is of a beautiful movement, but it's this arresting opening that I suppose really grabs the attention and remains in the listener's ear for long after. This is one of my favourite quartets of all time, the Takács Quartet.

[Music. Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden: I. Allegro. Artists: Takács Quartet]

Haz

So have you played that one before?

JJ

I have actually. A long time ago.

Haz

I literally can tell because you're, like, moving with it, like “duh, da-ge duh”.

JJ

Well, as with you, it goes deep, doesn't it, when you've learnt any repertoire, particularly a quartet because of the amount of sharing and investment involved as we've said, it's an emotional investment to get it right.

Haz

Mmhm.

JJ

And so yeah, it does stick with you and… typical Schubert there with that level of extreme contrast. We've just tailed off at the end of that excerpt into the into the sunshine or the promise of a dawn

Haz

Yeah

JJ

but we know it's going to be denied later.

Haz

Yeah. It's like a huge breakup, isn't it?  It's like a huge upheaval, like, going through the music of that.

JJ

It is, it is.

Haz

So is that one of the quartets you most admire? Is that someone that you…

JJ
The Takács?

Haz
Yeah

JJ
Yes, absolutely. In fact, their leader, their now leader, Edward Dusinberre, has written a brilliant book on, well, the development of the Takács Quartet and his involvement in that, but it goes broader than that to look at what it's like to work as a chamber musician and some of the masterpieces that they've had the privilege of learning over their time together. So it's called Beethoven for a Later Age.

Haz

Mmm.

JJ

So I recommend that to anybody who’s interested.

Haz

Very cool. Yeah. Because I suppose when you think about string quartets and like the relationships between them. With the films that have come out about it like A Late Quartet, 

JJ

Yyych.

Haz

I won't watch it.

JJ

Brilliant acting, I'm sure.

Haz

I'm sure, beautiful, but I can't stand watching people pretend to play like on the.. even if it is, you know, hand doubles, body doubles, I just can't, can't watch it.

JJ

No. It's really irritating, isn't it? I can't put my finger on what… I suppose it's the inauthenticity of it all and I don't know.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ
It's just a bit ick isn’t it.

Haz

Yeah, and they're like shaking their heads like, “Oh like they're really into it”, and then meanwhile they're like the thing like piece of cardboard and they're like flat and flat. 

I don't know, yeah, I can't do it.

JJ

No, I, I understand that. So which quartets have been influential for you as a chamber musician?

Haz

Well, I remember when I was younger going to see, and this must have been such a shig for them thinking back at the time, which is a rubbish…

JJ

A what now?!

Haz

A shig, a rubbish gig.

JJ
Oh right, ha ha ha! Very good.

Haz

But it was in the Taliesin Art Centre in Swansea and I went to go see the Brodsky Quartet.

JJ

Wow, yes.
 
 Haz

And I went with my dad and he was just like, “go on, yeah”, I think it must have been cheap tickets or something like that. You, know, they've always been amazing taking us places, but he's just, “well, yeah, let's just go to this.” There was no ties for us to go there.

JJ
No.

Haz

And I remember it being the most amazing live performance I'd ever seen.

JJ

Were they standing up? 

Haz

Yes, and then the cellist on the blocks.

JJ

On the blocks.

Haz

Yeah, yeah, on the riser, which I thought was the coolest, most badass thing.

JJ

Trademark Brodsky.

Haz

Yeah, yeah, amazing, and I thought that that's how live music was then after that.

JJ

Mmhm.

Haz

And it was also the first, you know, then when my first ever job was playing in Winter Wonderland in Swansea, we had a little string quartet and we got paid, like, honestly nothing to stand there for two hours and play Jingle Bells, and my dad used to stand around like a bodyguard and just watch us.

JJ

Aww!

Haz

Like, make sure that no one mugged us and stuff like that.

JJ

I like your dad.

Haz

He's great. Yeah, great years.

JJ

Fair dos. What is it the saying, chwarae teg. Fair play.

Haz

Chwarae teg. And since then, let me talk about me. I have recently played in the string quartet, eagle-eyed, listeners if you watch, I mean, Doctor Who? 

JJ

Really?

Haz

Right, yeah.

JJ

You're on the BBC? 

Haz

The BBC. So there was this episode where there's, like, giant owls and stuff cosplaying as, er… in the Regency era, like these ball-goers, and they had a string quartet and I'm there playing in the string quartet, and they had this huge discussion with, like sound and hair and makeup and they're like, “Hmm, should we put them in gloves or not? 

Should we put them in gloves? I don't know, like, because they'd be playing strings.” and I was like, “Firstly, I'm a woman, I wouldn't be playing. Secondly, there are giant owls over there. Are you really talking about whether or not I have gloves on?”

JJ
Yes.

Haz

But it was cool, yeah, yeah, yeah, you'll see me there with my little locks.

JJ

Yes, curious attention to historical detail there going out the window, in reality. Now you mentioned, actually, talking about historical TV dramas,

Haz

Please, oh.

JJ
you mentioned Bridgerton.

Haz

I owe so much of my income that I've earned like in the last 4 to 5 years from Bridgerton. 

There's a huge boom in in bookings for string quartets, just because people are like, you know, we want to have a Bridgeton style and then name any event ever. They just want Bridge… candlelight string quartets and Bridgeton experiences and I love it. I don't think…I haven't seen any snobbery about people being like, “Oh well they just like Bridgerton.” It's like still booking live musicians, still supporting live music, still, you know, and we're just playing Lady Gaga on the, on, you know, with the string quartet rather than Haydn and yeah I'm here for it. I love it.

JJ

That’s great. Who knew that Bridgeton would have that knock-on effect? I'm delighted.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

Never watched it.

Haz

Oh.

JJ

Sorry.

Haz

No, I don't… knowing you, it's not quite your style.

JJ

No!

Haz

But…

JJ

Anyway, anyway. You know, horses of courses, and I think anything, as you say, that gets live music listened to afresh is a good thing. All of which to say really that the string quartet is very much alive and well.

Haz

Very. Healthier than it was a couple of years ago.

JJ

Well, that's good, isn't it?

Haz

Yeah

JJ

Now, I would like to finish this particular podcast with just some examples of more recent string quartets that have been composed.

Haz

Great, ok.

JJ

Now I know you… I mean, I say more recent, your idea, I think, went back to Ravel, so it's not that recent.

Haz

OK, I know that's not too recent, but it's from a film called The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson.

JJ

Know it well.

Haz

Know it well. And there is thee… they play Ravel string quartet in F, the second movement, throughout basically loads of these different scenes, and I think people would listen to it and watch it and think that it was a modern composition, not realizing that Ravel did all the hard work, you know, that great guy Ravel.

JJ

Well, there we go, so that's a prompt for us to return both to the Ravel string quartet and F and The Royal Tenenbaums, which is a great film.

Haz

Mmhm.

[Music. Ravel: String Quartet in F Major, M. 35: II. Assez vif. Très rythmé. Artsists: Dover Quartet]

JJ

Oh, that's so suave, isn't it?

Haz

Yeah, and they make it sound really easy, but it's so difficult to get pizzicato sounding good.

JJ

That was the Dover Quartet again.

Haz

Eh!

JJ

They're busy on YouTube, the Dover Quartet.

Haz 

Are you on commission for the Dover String Quartet?

JJ

No, other quartets are available.

Haz

Ha ha ha!

JJ

Yes, so that's… it combines this bubbliness with this lovely, as I say, suave upper lines.

Haz

Yeah

JJ

And legato melody.

Haz

I regret… well I have actually played that before and I regret it because it was so difficult and it's like never meet your heroes, never play a string quartet that you really love because you realize that you don't actually get the tune and it's really hard.

JJ

Oh no! No viola tunes from Ravel?

Haz

Well, maybe not the way I was playing it! Ha!

JJ

Perhaps not in that movement.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

Well, that was a more recent, a 20th century quartet. I'm gonna take us more or less up to the present day. In fact, no, I'm lying. This is from 2008.

Haz

Wow.

JJ

But it's one of my favourite composers for strings, Jessie Montgomery, and we've played her music before because I remember Strum was one of her works. Have you ever played Strum? 

Haz

No.

JJ

It's a great work and…

Haz

We play it at Christmas. That's not a board game. OK.

JJ

No, no, it's not that. It's not that. It's an innovative and exploratory work for strings. 

She's really looking at the wider sound world available from stringed instruments. 

This is actually called Voodoo Dolls, as I say, written in 2008 and played here by the Raza string Quartet. It's a dance piece. So it was commissioned as a contemporary dance piece and the idea was that she was taking different dolls, different generic dolls, be they Russian marionettes, rag dolls, a Barbie is in there, voodoo dolls rather creepily, and she's combining all those references with the world of West African drumming, so you'll hear them drumming on the instruments to start with lyrical chants, sometimes improvised. 

Haz

Wow, this sounds really cool. It sounds spooky and creepy and I like it.

JJ

It's got everything.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

A bit of everything for everyone, which is how we like our podcasts to be Haz

Haz

Well said.

JJ

Because sadly this will be our exit music for this podcast and we shall be joining you next month.

Haz

Yes, we will.

JJ

Can't wait.

Haz

Diolch yn fawr. Hwyl.

JJ

Hwyl.

[Music: Jessie Montgomery, Voodoo Dolls]