#80: Change over time in perception of listening
Section 9: Josef Suk – Meditation on an Old Czech Hymn ‘St Wenceslas’ Op.35a
Our experience of the Czech Quartet’s sound production sometimes changed quite significantly over time. This was especially true when we were experimenting with our instruments in parallel with our listening, and coming back to one recording after time spent with another.
These re-evaluations generally tended towards greater focus and core — as in the opening viola statement of the Meditation. The initial ‘softness’ of contact was potentially misleading: we had sometimes read into their tone a more diffuse, silvery body than was actually the case, on the basis of that initial articulation. Softness of course remained important to our understanding, but as time went on it became clearer that this gentleness would need to coexist with greater concentration of tone, at least in lyrical material. That focused quality of tone is relatively conventionalised within the chamber music art world, for a number of reasons. The more radical aspect of their style is the combination of that contained overtone spectrum with a remarkable softness in their feel for the string.
