#127 The Smell of Bent Steel

The first sounds are detached yet not cold. It's steel that wants to be in the game. We follow the arches, and then there's a swing. Dancing with steel...

I feel no need to introduce Pavel Haas Quartet. Just go and get their CD. They are the top.

Composer: Pavel Haas
Work: String Quartet No 2, II. Coach, Coachman and Horse (Andante)
Recording: Pavel Haas Quartet

#101 The Smell of Cheating

It starts like a game: The music invites you and eludes. It's sweet and allure but it tugs away at the last moment. This is cheating, false pretending: I don't know you, go away! Here's the art of musical seduction–are you game?

The quartet was premiered in Boston and I got the CD from Boston. But it was tough to make it to the special Boston Week and Pavel Haas Quartet fell short. Maybe it's their first failure ever.

Composer: Antonín Dvořák
Work: String Quartet No 13, I. Allegro moderato
Recording: Pavel Haas Quartet

#24 The Smell of Rape

Crumb's music is overmuch literal. Forget about war. Open the windows so you don't smell napalm. Here you have primary, elemental fears.

The electric insects can lacerate your ears but that's only the visible crust. Deep below, there's something worse. Something you don't want to talk about, think about, hear about. Silence. Like if the movement is never really over.

Composer: George Crumb
Work: Black Angels, I. Departure
Recording: Kronos Quartet

#21 The Smell of Arms Wide Open

Glowing, sensual recording of Beethoven's string quartets. The minuet of Quartet No 4 is especially welcoming. Here we don't play silly games–it says. You're right here where you belong, feel like home.

Do it. Enjoy the sun and the half shades. The end of the movement flies high. Turn your head up to the sky.

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Work: String Quartet No 4, III. Menuetto: Allegretto
Recording: Pavel Haas Quartet

#15 The Smell of Parody

These small phrases are always so vivid and true for the first time–but then, they are repeated by other instrument, and then once more, and that's pure mockery.

It's all funny: alla polka, the false ending in the middle, pauses, last thirty seconds, all the affectation and pretending. Great piece of music.

Composer: Bedřich Smetana
Work: String Quartet No. 1
Recording: Škampa Quartet