Spokane Quartet does Dvorak right

The Spokane String Quartet began 2008 with a new second violinist and a guest soloist.

Sunday’s concert at the Bing Crosby Theater was the best by this ensemble that I can recall. And pianist Jonathan Korth was an outstanding contributor to the quartet’s festive afternoon of Czech music.

Misha Rosenker, the group’s new second violinist replacing Tana Bland, joined first violinist Mateusz Wolski, violist Jeannette Wee-Yang and cellist Helen Byrne in Antonin Dvorak’s infrequently performed Terzetto, Op. 74. Sunday’s performance showed that it is the unusual instrumentation of the work, rather than any lack of quality, that accounts for this comparative rarity in concerts.

Each of the four movements has a balance between melodic tunes and dancing rhythms, and all three players brought intensity to both elements. In the theme-and-variations finale, the alternation of lyrical and danceable gives way to what seems a miniature operatic scene. A recitative is begun by the first violin to an uneasy tremolo accompaniment from the other players. Dvorak shrugs off the drama and ends with a reckless half-minute of flying notes.

All four members of the quartet assembled for Bedrich Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 (“From My Life”) – one of the few openly autobiographical works in chamber music. The players allowed the audience to become honorary Czechs for the afternoon, bringing a partying swing to the polka rhythms in the scherzo, then a tipsy swaying that showed the composer might have enjoyed one or two beers too many. Wolski made the third movement’s serenade ardent enough to melt any maiden’s heart. (It certainly worked for Smetana with the girl who was to become his first wife.)

The performance was a reminder of how often, and how effectively, 19th-century composers gave important solo passages to the viola and to the cello and even the second violin in a medium where the first violinist had held the limelight for so long. Wee-Yang and Byrne, and now Rosenker, too, show how beautifully this equal opportunity works in music that sounds folksy yet sophisticated.

Korth proved a brilliant collaborator in Dvorak’s Piano Quintet, Op. 81. He never seemed like a stranger whether he was accompanying Byrne’s opening solo in the first movement, leading the way in the theme of the second, tossing the glittering high flying scales of the scherzo, or integrating the piano’s voice in the five-way conversation elsewhere. The five players produced a splendid performance filled with high energy and intense emotion.

The audience, though not a full house, was enthusiastic.

But Sunday’s audience showed a trait that has become all too frequent at concerts in Spokane: the willingness to applaud at every pause in the music. Sometimes the spirit of the occasion demands applause after an exceptionally brilliant performance of a single movement. More often, though, that applause breaks the flow of musical energy and the performers’ concentration. When applause after every movement becomes mechanical, it is meaningless.

That having been said, a full round of applause is due the Spokane Quartet for a warm, festive concert overcoming a cold afternoon.