Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters” belongs to those works whose performance history has been shaped by adaptations made by its interpreters, partly by necessity. Before his unexpected death in August 1928, Janáček had heard three rehearsals by the Moravian Quartet at which he and the players made changes in a copy of the score. The first edition was only published in 1938 and is ultimately a performing revision made by the first violin of the Moravian Quartet, František Kudláček. Further editions followed, more extensively revised.
Now, for the first time, in the new edition in the Critical Complete Edition of the Works of Leoš Janáček (Series E, Vol. 4, Editio Bärenreiter Praha, BA 6857, score and parts), the layers of the composition have been revealed: the edition contains the original, autograph score as a facsimile and transcription, together with the second version which resulted from the rehearsals in May 1928 and must be regarded as the “final” version. However, the important stage of the composer’s editorial corrections to the first edition is missing, so that one hesitates to speak of the “final” version, especially as Janáček had originally scored the quartet to include an instrument which he used as a barely-disguised love symbol. He announced this record of his passion in a letter to Kamila Stösslová: “The whole will be held together by a special instrument. It is called the Viola d’amour – viola d’amore. […] In this work I will be alone with you. There will be no third person near us …” (1.2.1928).
The viola d’amore sounds noble, silvery, somewhat muted and fragile compared with the more robust viola, which has established itself as the more powerful, “modern” alto voice in string writing. Janáček used the seven-stringed baroque instrument, in which a further seven resonating strings vibrate freely, in several late works (including Kát’a Kabanová) in a prominent way – it carries a clear message in Intimate Letters. However, as early as the first rehearsal a viola was substituted for the viola d’amore, during which the part was altered. Consequently, two versions of the quartet exist which are included in the new edition next to each other.
The French Quatuor Diotima has studied the different versions. With Garth Knox, the quartet has recorded the first version with viola d’amore and the revised version with viola (Alpha 133), enabling a direct comparison to be made. As the performers write, the edition reveals “a radical development in the work’s character”. The comparative CD recording makes clear how the viola part – played on viola or viola d’amore – alters the sound of the whole quartet to the point of a more delicate, mellow characteristic style. And last but not least, it reveals the work of interpretation as a creative process with all its associated questions.
Marie Luise Maintz
(translation: Elizabeth Robinson)
from: [t]akte 1/2009