Already in the 1950s, four Los Angeles musicians were generally praised as the finest artists of chamber music in America. They called themselves Hollywood String QuartetBecause they spent their days recording movie music and evenings playing classical music; Their last concerts were 1960.
This summer, the new Hollywood String Quartet will celebrate the 25th anniversary by performing music associated with the original group. Each concert in the series will be introduced by the veteran leader Leonard Sweetson of its two founding members.
Slatkin’s father was violinist Felix Slatkin, long-lasting concertmaster from 20th century Fox orchestra under the legendary composer Alfred Newman. His mother, Eleanor Aller, was the first cellist in Warner Bros. Orchestra during the 1940s and 50s and played regularly for such giants as Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
Leonard grew up and listened to his parents and their friends play chamber music in their Hollywood living room.
“During the day they would do the studio work,” he reminds, “then they would come home and we would have dinner together, and at 7 o’clock the other members would come over and they would repeat. Often I would be on the stairs and listen, because I was just fascinated, and then I would fall asleep and someone would come and take me to bed.”
The concept of the Hollywood string quartet originated in the late 1930s, says Slatkin, but “the war got in the way” and they started seriously in 1947, together with Paul Shure on violin and Paul Robyn at Viola. “They were permeated in the Russian school for music education,” explains Slatkin, “a very free type of game that not only focused on the clarity of sound but the actual production of the sound. But they also led the kind of rich intensity of sounds you hear in the phenomenal Hollywood films.”
They recorded a series of albums for Capitol that began in 1949. “When you listen to the recordings, it’s almost as if they improvise,” says Slatkin. “And yet, of course, it was very well prepared and repeated.”
The original Hollywood string quartet
A favorite memory is Frank Sinatra’s album from 1957 “Close to You”, with Crooner not supported by the usual Nelson Riddle Orchestra but rather by the Hollywood String quartet (with Riddle event). Sinatra insisted on Felix Slatkin as concertmaster at many orchestra sessions, “and sometimes my father actually performed on Sinatra album. He became very close to the family.”
The Hollywood string quartet consistently won rave reviews (“incredible tonal shade and expert music … Among the world’s great chamber music ensembles,” said the New York Times; “breathtaking virtuosity … authoritative performances,” explained England’s Gramophone magazine). It won the first ever Grammy assigned to chamber music; Its last Capitol recordings were 1958.
The new Hollywood string quartet continues the tradition with four experienced studio players (Tereza Stanislav and Rafael Rishik, Violiner; Robert Brophy, Viola; Andrew Shulman, Cello) who also loves to play chamber music. Rishik knew and performed with original HSQ member Shure back in the 1990s. “My love for chamber music and the legendary discography in the Hollywood String quartet made my meeting with Paul really special,” he says.
“We were all trained, when we were younger and played all these quartets and chamber orchestra pieces,” Shulman adds. “So it’s a fantastic outlet for us, when we work in the studio, to be able to do it in the evenings. We like a good mix: We do a lot of classics, but also quite contemporary things, and we have also ordered works.” The new HSQ recently recorded a new piece by Jeff Beal (“House of Cards”).
The modern version will play four concerts over four nights in a row (July 10-13) in Rothenberg Hall in Huntington in San Marino, California Slatkin will introduce each concert and talk about the original quartet.
The ensemble will perform 10 works that the original HSQ registered between 1950 and 1955 and will be united by the guests every night: pianist Jean-ie-ie Thibaudet will join them for César Franck’s piano quintet on July 10; Cellist Alban Gerhardt, for the Schubert String quintet on July 11; Gerhardt and violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama for Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht” and pianist Olga Zado for Schumann Piano Quintet on July 12; and Zado for Brahms piano quintet on July 13.
Other works to be performed include Hugo Wolf’s “Italian Serenade”, Joaquin Turina’s “La Oracion del Teero” and quartets of Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Walton. For more information, check out New Hollywood String Quartet’s place.