Simón Bolívar String Quartet GINASTERA / DVORÁK / SHOSTAKOVICH

With this debut CD by the Simón Bolívar String Quartet, Venezuela’s astonishing Sistema celebrates another milestone, a critical moment in the development of a new Latin American chamber music tradition. Yet who is this new quartet on the block? “There are some obvious facts about them,” says fellow Deutsche Grammophon artist Gustavo Dudamel, “such as that they come from Venezuela, from the Sistema family, that they were – and still are – the principals of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, but what you’ll experience anew when you hear this album is the unique power of their music-making. I hope they inspire every listener as much as they have, and continue to, inspire me.”

The power that Dudamel refers to is palpable when you hear this young quartet in concert. The violins and viola eschew chairs, preferring the immediacy and heightened energy that comes from standing, and although this is their debut CD, they are actually veterans; like all Sistema musicians, many of their concerts have been recorded for archival purposes ever since they were children. As you talk to them, these dual aspects – intense energy and extraordinary maturity – come across with delightful zest. “The experience of playing in a string quartet really opens your ears and your mind to new ideas,” says first violinist Alejandro Carreño . “Music must be made with passion, love and all your heart.”
The quartet’s choice of repertoire for this disc is a thoughtful mix of America and Europe, and its extremes are immediately probed by pairing the pulsating, outward-facing energy of Alberto Ginastera’s First Quartet with the epic tragedy of Dmitri Shostakovich’s autobiographical Eighth Quartet. And bridging these extremes is Antonín Dvorák’s “American” Quartet, an unabashed celebration of the “New World” delivered in true European style.
Of the selection, Carreño explains: “Definitely the Dvorák was chosen because we are Americans. Then with the Shostakovich – there is in Venezuela a big culture of Russian music. We love Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev. And the Ginastera is very special, also because this was the piece that made him known as a serious composer, not just a folk composer. He was living in the United States and was influenced by French music. But this is Latin American music, and it’s very important for us to show that we also have wonderful composers that we can share with the world. When you play a piece like the Ginastera it’s very easy to feel the dance rhythms, which for us is something very natural. When we play this, it’s like folk music – we are almost dancing. That is where the energy is: in the dance.”
These three works not only play to the group’s strengths, but also provide insight into the members’ individual personalities. Cellist Aimon Mata endorses Carreño’s passion for the Ginastera: “My favourite piece? I love the Ginastera. It’s spectacular, even apart from the great cello solo in the third movement!” The first, second and fourth movements exude Ginastera’s hallmark assertive dance rhythms, with little respite for the players, but in the third movement, hauntingly sweet violin and cello melodies overlay Ginastera’s favoured “gaucho” chord, composed of all the guitar’s open-string notes.
Viola player Ismel Campos opts for the Dvorák, energetically singing the voluptuous themes. The “American” Quartet was written in 1893 shortly after the Czech composer’s arrival in the United States, where he championed Afro-American and Native American music. Hardly surprising then that it contains such strong American folk associations, although these are present more as atmosphere than in specific melodies.
Speaking of Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet, second violinist Boris Suárez believes that this is the work that gives him the greatest insight into life: “It’s dedicated to the victims of fascism, and I can identify with that.” Compact, expressively intense and focused, the work is infused with the “D-S-C-H” motif, notes derived from the composer’s own initials. It opens the quartet and is developed throughout the five connected movements, which contain telling quotes from his other works.
As they talk, the members of the SBSQ swap stories about how they began playing their instruments. Carreño, who comes from a distinguished Venezuelan musical family – with a famous composer as a grandfather and a conductor father – took naturally to the violin. Mata found his way to the cello as a failed baseball player. And for Suárez and Campos it was love at first sight. “I started with mandolin,” says Suárez.
“Because my father is a teacher of popular music, they gave me a mandolin but I didn’t like the sound because it was really ‘chillón’ [penetrating]. So there was a violin which I tried to play like a cello because it was so big.
My father said, ‘It’s too big’, and I said, ‘No, I want to play this instrument’. So they got me a smaller violin and that was it.” Campos nods: “One day I was taken to a núcleo in Falcón state where I am from, and there were rooms with different instruments. I went into one room where there was a lady, a teacher, with a viola, and I pointed to it and said, ‘This one, this instrument’. And that was how I started with the viola, straight away.”
The commitment from these musicians is inspiring, especially when Campos describes a typical day: “I arrive at the rehearsal hall at 9 a.m. and I leave at midnight, playing, working, rehearsing. But it’s not work, it’s a passion.” “Chamber music helps you to grow musically,” continues Suárez, “because the perfection that you are looking for, the growth – musical, personal, the group’s – is immense. Of course it’s hard… but it’s also magnificent. It’s a challenge to record, and we accept the challenge to do this the best that we can.” All agree that playing in the quartet helps their work in orchestras. And, as you listen, it is obvious that all four have found their calling, and that their calling is to play together as a quartet. (Marshall Marcus)