Delgani’s recording of works by the iconic Portland-based Czech composer Tomas Svoboda stands alone as the only album of his quartets by an American ensemble. The works were recorded in June 2021 in the historic Wildish Theater and produced remotely from London by former Cypress String Quartet violinist Cecily Ward. It is Delgani’s most recent release and showcases three of the finest works by one of the 20th century’s most prolific and celebrated composers.
An ideal match of magnificent music, appropriate acoustic, and committed players, Delgani’s original 2017 performance [of Svoboda’s sixth quartet] was one of the most powerful chamber music experiences I’ve enjoyed in Portland.
– San Francisco Classical Voice (Brett Campbell)
This is a physical CD that can be reserved for pick up at a concert ($20) or mailed to you ($25).
Inspired by the memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich and his experiences living under communist rule, Svoboda’s Quartet No. 6 reflects upon the composer’s escape from Prague in 1964. The piece opens with solo viola over stagnant dissonances before erupting. Dance-like gestures follow and are developed toward an unsettling conclusion in the cello. The second movement is a fiendish moto perpetuo, relentless in its melodic and rhythmic motives. Solo viola returns at the beginning of the third movement but only briefly before each instrument takes up an unconsolable melody. Development of a new, more hopeful, motif eventually yields to the opening affect. The piece concludes with short gestures… wistful memories.
Liner Notes
Quartet No. 10 is a joyful romp through the countryside. Evoking Czech and Slavic folk music, it dips and soars through playful melodies and rustic dances. This work formed after Svoboda had a vivid dream about his homeland, decades after having emigrated from Czechloslovakia to the United States. The first movement begins with a lone violin, musing peacefully before being joined in violin duet for some graceful interplay. This element of voices chasing one another shows up in every movement: in the second with gestures energetically flying upward; in the third by pensive and meditative song; and in the fourth through playful whispered excitement before the players race each other to the quartet’s rousing finish.
Quartet No. 12 "Post Scriptum," his final quartet, seems to contain an entire life – innocence and wonder, struggle and loss, acceptance and joy. The first movement begins in quiet reverie, a simple melody in the first violin played over gentle chords in the lower strings. This tender music is soon transformed into something more discordant, filled with tension and strife, before the tenderness returns with a sense of relief. The second movement, beginning with the solo cello introducing a fugue for 4 voices, plunges further into a sense of struggle and suffering. The third movement, beginning with hushed and rapid figures in the cello and viola, gradually expands into an expression of full-throated joy.