Aussie foursome Orava Quartet follow up stunning debut album with another gem

The superb Aussie foursome Orava Quartet have released their sophomore album after their stunning 2018 debut.

Orava Quartet, Daniel Kowalik, David Dalseno, Karol Kowalik and Thomas Chawner at Government House, Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

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One of the most impressive debut albums recorded by any young Australian chamber music group was that of Brisbane’s Orava Quartet on the high-end Yellow Label in 2018.

At the time I gave their recording of Russian works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich a five-star rave, saying that they play like “seasoned professionals but with a youthful eye to taking risks”. Other music lovers around the world agreed, and now they are back with a sophomore album, Orawa, also with Deutsche Grammophon.

The group was formed by the Kowalik siblings Daniel and Sylwia (violins) and cellist Karol, originally from Mount Annan in western Sydney, with Thomas Chawner on viola, and first sprang to prominence as an up-and-coming ensemble at the 2008 Musica Viva Festival. Three years later David Dalseno took over second violin seat. A stint at University of Colorado in Boulder, where they were mentored by the mighty Takacs Quartet, followed and since then they have built up an impressive reputation in concerts and festivals both overseas and at home.

The new album is a peach, bringing us works by unfamiliar composers in the Czech Erwin Schulhoff, who was deported by the Nazis and died in a German prison in 1942, and the Pole Wojciech Kilar, perhaps best known for his film score for Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula movie of 1992. Stretching over a generous 80 minutes, the collection also features a luminous performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 6, one of his sunniest works in the genre, although laced with the plenty of angst and the composer’s trademark irony.

The cover of Orava Quartet's new Deutsche Grammophon album.

It ends with four beautiful short pieces dedicated to Orava by Australian composer and pianist Luke Howard, written during the period between the 2019 bushfires and the pandemic, including You Are Not Lost, You Are Here – inspired by a road sign Howard saw in Belgium.

This is a very personal collection by the group and is guaranteed to win them some new friends as well as pleasing those who, like me, have been following their progress for 15 years. It is dedicated to their mentor, the late cellist and educator Uzi Wiesel, who was a founding member of the Tel Aviv Quartet in Israel before he spent 20 years living in Sydney teaching at the Conservatorium. He died in 2019.

The Schulhoff works – his String Quartet No. 1, composed in 1923 in a period of political and artistic upheaval, and Five Pieces for String Quartet, which reflect his passion for dancing – are particularly vibrant and fascinating, combining the infectious rhythms of folk dance with jazz, Dadaist and avant-garde influences.

They have set this reviewer off to do some more research into this composer’s extensive repertoire.

The Kilar work is perhaps the most personal of all as it provides the quartet with their name. Orawa refers to the mountainous region near the Polish-Slovak border and is a 10-minute work taught to the Kowaliks by their father Zdzislaw. Its combination of minimalism and folk elements – building to a radiant and passionate climax – make it perfect material for a young quartet to cuts its teeth on.

The now 30-something foursome bring all their maturity and authority to bear in a masterly performance of the Shostakovich’s monumental four-movement work. You won’t hear it better played.

Orawa is available from classicsdirect.com.au for $22.95 or at the usual download and streaming sites.