Page 1. STRING QUARTET IN C MAJOR, K 465 ('Dissonance'). Wolfgang
Amadeus ... Haydn, for whom Mozart joined in a performance of the new quartets
the ...
STRING QUARTET IN C MAJOR, K 465 (‘Dissonance’)
QUARTET NO 3
Adagio – allegro
Primera parte
Menuetto: Allegro
Ricapitulazione della prima parte – Coda
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) Andante cantabile Allegro molto
The so-called ‘Dissonance’ Quartet was written in Vienna and is dated 14th January 1785, the sixth and last of a set dedicated to Haydn, for whom Mozart joined in a performance of the new quartets the following evening. A month later Leopold Mozart was present at a performance of the last three of the set, works that were new to him, when Haydn visited Mozart. Writing home to his daughter in Salzburg, Leopold Mozart repeated to her Haydn’s praise of her brother as the greatest composer known to him either in person or by name, with both taste and a deep knowledge of composition. Mozart’s dedication of the six quartets to Haydn describes them as the fruit of a long and laborious study, entrusting them as children to a father, and there is evidence of the care that Mozart took over these compositions and the influence of Haydn, himself to be influenced by these works in his turn.
The quartet opens with a slow introduction that gives the work its nick-name and has provided material for commentators and critics. The chromatic nature of this slow introduction obscures the key and in effect produces a form of atonality. This is followed by an Allegro in which the first violin announces the principal theme, accompanied at first only by second violin and viola, later presented in contrapuntal imitation, and the first time we realise that the work is indeed in C major. Then follow the contrasting second subject in quicker note-values and a third thematic element in triplets. The lyrical F major second movement, marked Andante cantabile, is one of considerable subtlety in construction, as well as evidencing some subtle time changes. It is followed by a Minuet with contrasting elements of dynamics and texture, framing a passionate C minor Trio, and a vigorous and lively finale with its own harmonic surprises in a bold treatment of customary form, quintessential Mozart in fact.
Programme Note from Making Music, the National Federation of Music Societies
Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945) Seconda parte
The six string quartets of Béla Bartók occupy a central position in the classical repertoire of the twentieth century. Not only are they a milestone in the evolution of the quartet literature but, along with those by Haydn and Beethoven, they provide an overview of their composer’s output at all the main junctures of his career.
Although he had written several quartets in his adolescence, Bartók was twenty-seven before he embarked on his first acknowledged work in the medium, the Quartet No 1, in 1909. The second was written during the period 1915-17, with the Third Quartet appearing some ten years later, in 1927. It exemplifies the composer’s expressionist period, where he is at the height of his intellectual modernism – the so-called ‘difficult’ Bartók – elliptic, elusive, enigmatic, uncompromising, and harsh to the point of aggressive. Although it unfolds as a seamless whole, this quartet, in which the composer achieves an integration of folk idioms with a Beethovenian contrapuntal resource never to be surpassed, comprises two main parts which themselves divide into four sections, the work thus following a sonata-form layout in principle as well as in spirit, in the slow-fast-slow-fast mould.
The Prima parte presents the principal ideas, respectively ponderous and malevolent, in the manner of an exposition, before an acerbic climax and a modally-inflected codetta. The Seconda parte is launched with a pizzicato idea, which provides the motivation for a tumultuous development of the material heard thus far: many of the playing techniques synonymous with Bartók’s later quartet writing are here used extensively for the first time, such as glissandi, col legno, and sulla tastiera. At its peak, the music spills over into the Recapitulazione della prima parte, a transformed and generally restrained reprise of the main ideas, with which the work seems to be heading for a muted close. The Coda steals in, however, to draw the motivic threads into a taut continuum, laying bare the music’s harmonic and tonal premises with breathtaking conclusiveness, and the movement concludes on a chord of three superimposed fifths based on C sharp, which represents the ‘key’ of the Third Quartet. Programme Note by Philip R Buttall
INTERVAL OF 20 MINUTES Tickets for the BRONTE STRING QUARTET at the Sherwell Centre on Saturday 25 March, and for the remaining concert in the season, will be on sale during the interval. STRING QUARTET IN A, OP 13 NO 2 Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) Adagio – Allegro Vivace Adagio non lento
Intermezzo – Allegretto con moto Presto
Mendelssohn’s precocious talents as a teenager had led to the production of some highly competent and remarkably mature music before he had reached the age of twenty. The jewel in the crown of his work at this time was the wonderful octet for strings, composed in 1825 when he was still just sixteen years old. Two years later, he produced this, his second string quartet (an earlier one, composed in 1823, was not published until after his death). It bears the date 26 October 1827, but was not published until 1830, a year after his Op 12 in E flat (which is known as his string quartet No 1). It is sometimes thought that this quartet represents Mendelssohn’s reaction to the impact on him of Beethoven’s late quartets, especially the Op 132. But the work also carries a more personal, extra-musical association. According to Karl-Heinz Köhler, writing in The New Grove, ‘The quartet Op 13 (1827) suggests a reflection of the emotions of an early love affair; the piece develops its thematic substance from a love-song with the text Is it true that you are waiting for me in the arbour by the vine-clad wall?’
Professor Ivor Keys has provided the following structural guide to the quartet: An adagio, song-like in the major key, suddenly gives way to a passionate, turbulent allegro vivace in the minor, in which much of the quartet is cast. The final fling on the first violin ends like a recitative, with the conventional cadence chords from the others. The second movement, marked adagio non lento, begins as though resuming the opening song, but gives way in turn to more contrapuntal and agitated dialogue, before a short violin cadenza leads back to a quiet reprise. Mendelssohn calls the next movement ‘Intermezzo’, and it presents an alternation of a folk-like theme, to pizzicato accompaniment, with a fairy-scherzo passage. The final presto begins with another ‘operatic’ recitative, and eventually turns from the minor key, first to a brief quotation from the slow movement, then to a coda referring back to the first adagio of all, and completing it serenely. Programme Note from Making Music, the National Federation of Music Societies
CALLINO STRING QUARTET
The Callino Quartet is now, by a long shot, the most polished young string quartet that Ireland has recently produced. Michael Dervan, Irish Times, 2001
The Callino Quartet was formed in June 1999, following a criticallyacclaimed performance at the West Cork Chamber Music festival in Bantry, Ireland. Now in its fifth year, the Quartet regularly appears in festivals and concerts throughout Europe and has collaborated with such established and diverse artists as the Vanburgh and Vogler String Quartets, double-bassist Edgar Meyer and the Paris-Bastille Wind Octet. The Quartet was awarded a Special Prize from the 2002 Paulo Borciani String Quartet Competition for its performance of Haydn, and has also recorded a CD of Schubert works for string quartet. The members of the Quartet share a keen interest in contemporary music. They have commissioned and premiered works by Irish composers, Ian Wilson and Raymond Deane, and Finnish composer, Kimmo Hakola, and have most recently collaborated with renowned jazz guitarist, John Abercrombie in the world premiere of Renaissance Man – a work by Irish composer and bassist, Ronan Guilfoyle. The Quartet’s recording of Ian Wilson’s Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Quartets is pending commercial release on the Riverrun label. Last year the Quartet performed at the Vogler Spring, Kilkenny Arts, and West Cork Chamber Music Festivals in Ireland, as well as undertaking concert tours in Norway, Lithuania, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the UK. Last season the Quartet had engagements during the European Quartet Week, Heidelberg Frühlings, West Cork Chamber Music, Clandeboye, and Cheltenham Festivals with highlights of the upcoming season including tours of Scotland and the UK, and a Wigmore Hall debut performance.
CONCERTS IN THE 2005/2006 SERIES All at the Sherwell Centre at 7.30pm
CHAMBER ENSEMBLE OF THE KING’S CONSORT Saturday 1 October 2005
BRODSKY STRING QUARTET Saturday 29 October 2005 REBECCA JONES (Viola) ABIGAIL RICHARDS (Piano)
Saturday 12 November 2005
Plymouth Chamber Music
MAGGINI STRING QUARTET
Saturday 26 November 2005 ENDELLION STRING QUARTET DAVID WALTER (Oboe) & DAVID ADAMS (Viola) Saturday 28 January 2006
CONFIGURE 8 (Wind & String Octet) Saturday 18 February 2006 CALLINO STRING QUARTET Saturday 4 March 2006
BRONTE STRING QUARTET
CALLINO STRING
QUARTET Ioana Petcu-Colan (Violin)
KUNGSBACKA PIANO TRIO
Sarah Sexton (Violin)
Concert details can be found on the website: www.plyclassical.co.uk
Sarah McMahon (Cello)
Saturday 25 March 2006
Saturday 29 April 2006
Rebecca Jones (Viola)
7.30pm Saturday 4 March 2006 at the University of Plymouth Sherwell Centre Sponsored by Streamline Protect Ltd
