Skampa Quartet - Reviews

Škampa String Quartet

Barnard Castle and Grinton, 1 – 2 June 2011

It seems a long time since the Czech Republic's brilliantly talented Skampa String Quartet has been heard in this region, so thanks are due to Swaledale Festival for persuading the players to give two concerts, one at St Mary's Church, Barnard Castle, and another the following evening in St. Andrew's, Grinton.

In Barnard Castle, the programme began with Schubert's Quartettsatz, D 703, in which strength and smoothness were combined with fine definition. The performance prefaced their playing of Shostakovich's 3rd String Quartet in F, op 73. Composed in 1946, it both expresses and conceals the composer's thoughts on the aftermath of the Second World War and Stalin's regime, leaving the hearer to decide which is which.

Notably secure playing gave life and colour to the imagery and kept the hearer on the edge of the seat. Dvorak's String Quartet, op. 105 took them into familiar territory with its blend of folk melodies and aura of longing for distant homeland in the slow movement's course, the results of his stay in America, projected with a powerful emotional drive that made a deep impression.

Grinton enjoyed very much a central European programme, something that Czech musicians and ensembles revel in. Mozart's Quartet no 21 in D, K575 to start, perhaps a little robustly projected, nevertheless held the attention.

It was in the music' of their own country that they excelled: The Czech rhythms of Bohuslav Martinu's 7th Quartet (Concerto da Camera) were propelled with clarity and a sense of exile (he had escaped to America in 1940) that made this performance all the more poignant.

Regret mixed with happiness is found in Smetana’s autobiographical 1st String Quartet in E minor From my Life. From the lightness and romance of youth to the onset of deafness (marked by the violin’s high pitched E in the final coda) was dramatically and potently performed.

Both concerts drew large audiences with Grinton church packed to the rafters – a return visit soon, please.

Dave Robson, The Darlington and Stockton Times, 17^th June 2011