Edinburgh International Festival: Pavel Haas quartet

The banner outside Edinburgh’s Queens Hall during this year’s festival proudly proclaims “three exhilarating weeks of morning music”, writes Garry Fraser. Add “memorable” and you have a fitting description of the programme scheduled for this venue.

Chamber music has held sway for me so far, so it was up to the Pavel Haas Quartet on Friday to continue the good form. The opening Haydn D minor quartet did not see the best of the first violin, with fuzzy semi-quavers the most notable aspect. The andante was the best of a work with few virtues — the abrasive movement is very un-Haydn.

However, Dvorak soothed any disquiet. His American quartet is one of my favourites, and I was not disappointed in the Pavel Haas performance or their interpretation. What struck me was their ability to whisper the pianissimo moments, making the sudden crescendi even more effective.

The concert ended with Dvorak’s G major quartet, a new one for me. It was disjointed at times as the mood switched at the drop of a hat, but it is wonderful — Bohemian through and through, and played in similar spirit by this talented young ensemble.

Photo by Marco Borggreve