Particles, waves, crystals

The fact that the stained glass windows at the side of the church, through which the light streamed in, showed different colored puzzle pieces seemed to fit in perfectly with the concert program, which was entitled Revolution Chamber Music 2 on the morning of August 24 in Lucerne's Lukas Church. The French Quatuor Diotima and the American JACK Quartet presented the Swiss premiere of the work Anea Crystal by the Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin, this year's Composer in Residence at the Lucerne Festival, the world premiere of the string quartet vague écume des mers by the Swiss composer Michael Pelzel, which was commissioned for the Lucerne Festival, and the String Quartet in C sharp minor op. 131 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Two become a third
Chaya Czernowin has created two pieces of the puzzle that fit together perfectly to form a third with Anea Crystal created in 2008. Fascinated by the perfection of crystal structures, she composed two string quartets that complement each other in such a way that they form an octet when played simultaneously. The first part Seed I, skillfully presented by the Quatuor Diotima, begins with a viola motif reminiscent of oriental sounds. It then loses itself in glissandi and repeated notes that leave far fewer gaps than the concept of interlocking string quartets would lead one to expect.
The four musicians of the JACK Quartet devoted themselves with concentration and precision to the somewhat wilder, rougher and more divergent sounds of Seed II. One would have liked to have heard immediately afterwards how the experiment of the combined parts would turn out. However, the two ensembles only came together later to form the octet for Chaya Czernowin's Anea. The motifs and character of the individual pieces remained recognizable and stood out as such from the overall sound. Beyond this, however, an impression of broad flatness emerged, in which one would have wished for a little more transparency, more pauses and silence at times.

Photo: Vinzenz Niedermann

Michael Pelzel