Difficult tales of violent past for Quartet

The Jerusalem Quartet says history has helped them to better understand Shostakovich

Kyril Zlotnikov, cellist with the Jerusalem Quartet, is enjoying a few hours off in Canberra during the group's hectic Australian tour.

On Saturday the group launch Chamber Music New Zealand's 2006 season in the Auckland Town Hall and, after two visits to our country, the Israeli cellist admits that New Zealand audiences are "so enthusiastic and really good.

"You feel you have this connection and that is not always the case."

He is particularly pleased to be playing two Shostakovich quartets to mark the composer's centenary.

"Shostakovich was a kind of hero," Zlotnikov explains. "He was always trying to show the sufferings of his people in his music, while also trying to survive as a human being."

The fact that three members of the group lived their first 13 years in the Soviet Union gives a better understanding of the Russian mentality.

"We were lucky that we didn't live through the Stalinist regime," he adds with a dry laugh, "but the history we learned has helped us to understand his music better."

One of Saturday's offerings, the Sixth Quartet, is a fascinating work that manages to operate at two levels.

"Shostakovich sometimes had to write in a style that pleased the Party, something that says the sun shines all the time in the glorious Soviet Union. This quartet may seem like that on the surface but, if you go deep inside, there is nothing so clear and happy."

The other Shostakovich work on the programme, the Eighth Quartet, is one of the first pieces the four men played as a group and Zlotnikov feels their present interpretation has benefited from the added maturity of the ensuing 13 years.

"We now know so much more about Shostakovich's life and experiences during the Soviet regime and how things were so difficult. At the time, Government propaganda said this quartet was written in memory of the victims of World War II. In fact, it was the result of Shostakovich seeing the devastation of the beautiful city of Dresden. He wrote the piece in just three days.

"It is really like one big breath when you take from the first to last movement without any breaks."

I ask whether there are echoes of this score's often-violent mood swings in the volatile political situation in Israel at the moment.

"Everywhere is violent and the real scary thing is that people have got used to the situation. To know that tomorrow the past can explode is frightening. But people have to live, they cannot believe in fear all the time. This is a deep conflict that will take a long time to solve."

Zlotnikov admits his involvement with Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is a special experience, sitting alongside Arab musicians, "with everybody giving a bit of their soul to the piece they are playing together".

"At the end of it, everyone is good friends," he adds. "I don't know whether it will solve the major problem, but it will help with understanding, which is the most important thing if we are going to solve the bigger problems."

Another legacy from Barenboim is the loan of Jacqueline Du Pre's favourite cello, an instrument made for her in 1970 by Sergio Peresson.


Performance

* What: Jerusalem Quartet
* Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Sat April 1, 8pm