"Intimate Journal"

The quartet was very much at home with their second choice, "Intimate Journal" by Janacek.

The lyricism and sometimes impassioned pathos, in this composition, were treated with sympathy by the group. This work is comparatively recent and I suspect that, at a first hearing, it demands too much concentration on of idiom, design or texture, there are passages in the piece which have familiar yet pleasingly fresh new effects.

Having played "themselves in" the quartet then gave an excellent rendition of the first movement of Beethoven's OP 59 No. 2. Oh yes, they did play the whole work, but a word about the first movement. It is in quick tempo and is perhaps one of Beethoven's less energetic structures, demanding only an expected standard of precision and virtuosity of playing. The startling outbursts were given the force that this composer requires. I thought I was going to enjoy the whole piece—then came the second movement.

The second is a slow movement and gave the players just the right opportunity to glue all their long notes together as they had in the Mozart piece, exulting once again in sugar candy-like slides and Phrases.