Jeruslaem Quartet - young musicians with a sense of fun

By WILLIAM DART

If you buy just one string quartet CD this year, make it the Jerusalem Quartet's new Haydn recording. With an average age of 25 working in their favour, these Israeli musicians give Papa H's music the zest and sheer sense of fun that it needs.

The Jerusalem Quartet is touring New Zealand at the moment, capitalising on their extremely successful 2001 visit.

Violist Amichai Grosz admits that, in the meantime, he's been catching up with us at the cinema. "I saw The Lord of the Rings," he says "Yeah, I know this place.

The group should be an inspiration for the many youngsters working towards Chamber Music New Zealand's School Music Competitions.

They got together 10 years ago, in high school, with the generous support of the Jerusalem Music Centre.

"We were the first to be helped," says Grosz, "but now there is much more happening - masterclasses and concerts for young artists that are amazing because the level is so high. It's not professional but there's such great potential there."

From 1997 they spent three years doing military service - with instruments instead of machine guns - giving over 500 concerts.

"We were a little bit afraid," confesses Grosz, "because some of our audiences had never heard classical music, but we tried to bring it to them in a very special way.

"Many young people in Israel are still afraid of classical music, but you don't need to worry if you don't understand it. You don't have to be a football genius to enjoy a football game."

Stress levels are high in Israel these days, and don't necessarily lessen on tour. Last year a Manchester concert was cancelled through the actions of protesters and Grosz is concerned about the possibility of pro-Palestinian protest in New Zealand.

"People try to relate our name to the political situation but we are the Jerusalem Quartet purely and simply because we're based in Jerusalem. We live the life and it's quite difficult but all we want is peace."

The violinist seems hesitant to discuss the group's career in great detail.

Winning the Schubert Competition in Graz was "the big step for us in becoming a professional quartet". But with upwards of 70 concerts a year "it's become a routine. Although every concert is unique. It's difficult to remember the highlights."

Is the youthfulness that makes the Haydn CD such a winner ever a liability?

Now Grosz is vehement. "We started playing Schubert's Death and the Maiden and Bartok's Sixth five years ago," he says. "Everyone told us it was too soon, but critics and other musicians said they were mature interpretations."

Wednesday's programme ranges from Dvorak to Shostakovich and Grosz' commentary is disarmingly casual.

He likes Dvorak's American Quartet because "it's fun, especially for the viola at the beginning" and says it's one of those works that have benefited from revisiting five years after they first played it.

What other music is there in these musicians' lives? The group are not all classical music fanatics, he's quick to say. Klezmer (Eastern European Jewish folk music) is "amazing music" but he's never had the opportunity to play it.

For himself, he likes to listen to "old rock from the 70s on the radio. The Doors, Led Zeppelin."

His closing words are a plea of sorts, although one for ears in Jerusalem rather than Auckland. "The quartet is playing on wonderful instruments on loan from the Israel-American Cultural Foundation, except the viola. It's important for me that people will know that I need a better instrument. I'm still playing on my regular viola and it's difficult in a big hall. It just makes you sound better."

Nevertheless, with the Jerusalem Quartet's sonorous Haydn bursting forth from my speakers, it's highly likely that Wednesday's concert will set a benchmark for the rest of Chamber Music New Zealand's 2004 series.

* Where: Auckland Town Hall

* When: Wednesday 8pm; tickets $45-$55

* Also: Century Theatre, Hawkes Bay, Monday, April 26; Wellington Town Hall, Tuesday, April 27