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STRING QUARTET IN E FLAT MAJOR, OP 71 NO 3 STRING QUARTET NO 1 (THEME AND VARIATIONS) Vivace ‘My first quartet was composed in 1939. As originally written, this Theme and Variations was the second and last movement of a longer work commissioned for the Venice Festival, and was to have been performed there by the Sibelius Quartet of Helsinki. But, as may be imagined, 1939 was not a propitious time for the production of English string quartets in Italy by Finnish musicians, and the performance did not take place. Indeed, the manuscript seemed to be lost in Finland and so I reconstructed the last movement from rough sketches that I had preserved. As a matter of fact, the first movement did turn up after the war, but by that time I had come to regard the variations as a piece in its own right. Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Andante con moto Menuetto and Trio Finale: vivace The three quartets comprising Op 71 date from 1793 and are dedicated to Count Apponyi, a Freemason friend. They were the first quartets that Haydn had written since his first visit to London during the previous two years. The visit confirmed and increased his international fame, and also transformed him from a provincial court musician, however eminent, into a truly ‘public’ figure. He now had a public style of utterance, even in chamber music, inspired by a brilliant London audience agog for the experiences of public concerts which its financial prosperity enabled it to satisfy. As Haydn’s chamber music came out of the chamber, so to speak, it caught something of the ear-catching qualities of the London symphonies – sonorous instrumentation, surprises both in dynamics and modulations, and sudden bouts of virtuosity. Indeed these Op 71 quartets have sometimes been called the English quartets. Op 71 No 3 begins with the shortest of introductions, one loud tonic chord, but unlike the pair in the Eroica, not incorporated into the basic tempo. The main theme, and arguably the only one of consequence, has two obvious characteristics: the falling third with which it begins, and the short repeated notes at the end of its phrases. These repeated notes form a memorable punctuation, and are sometimes so prominent in themselves as to become, in Haydn fashion, like ‘the tail that wags the dog’. But the falling third is never long absent, and is sometimes treated in imitative counterpoint. The bland and tuneful opening of the next movement does not prepare the listener for the sophistication of what happens to it. The tune delivers itself of a straightforward couple of repeats in the major, and immediately turns to the minor, but the minor tune is itself a variant of the major, as is evident when the latter returns. Then the major theme is treated to a variation (first violin in staccato sextuplets). Another step to the minor leads us to suppose that another variation, in the minor, is on its way, but the music swings ethereally into another high variation in the major. It is as though Haydn is intent on keeping us awake, as he would a symphony audience. The minuet is one of his faster ones and allows itself a moment of quick-waltz texture. Its trio exploits both the lower and upper reaches of the compass. The finale also begins tunefully, but this time it is greatly enlivened by being subjected to argumentative fast-running counterpoint, in the manner of a fugue, even. One should not give away Haydn’s gentle surprise towards the end. Programme Notes from Making Music, the National Federation of Music Societies Alan Rawsthorne (1905-1971) The Theme section is quiet though rather agitated in feeling, never rising to more than mezzo forte. There follow six variations. The first continues the tempo of the theme, following its outlines in flowing triplets. The next is slower; the first violin plays espressivo phrases deriving from the theme against an accompanying figure of five repeated notes on the other three instruments. The third is rather brisk, involving rhythmic figures and containing much more dynamic variety than has occurred hitherto. An Adagio follows, in which the upper strings play sustained but undulating harmonies while the cello has slow and solemn phrases of the theme. Then the process is reversed, the first violin playing a more extended kind of melody, against the harmonic background of the other instruments. The fifth variation opens with a version of the theme in two-part counterpoint between the two violins in a fairly quick tempo, and presently the cello enters with a retrograde statement of the theme; all of this is worked out in some detail. The final variation, or finale, is in very fast six-eight time and brings the piece to a lively conclusion.’ Composer’s own Programme Note, kindly supplied by the Maggini String Quartet NOVELLETTEN Frank Bridge (1879-1941) Andante moderato Presto - Allegretto Allegro vivo Frank Bridge was born in Brighton, and studied violin and composition at the Royal College of Music, and then privately under Stanford, and was subsequently Britten’s composition teacher. As a performer he established himself as a viola-player in the English String Quartet, whilst as a composer he developed a style of some originality. His style developed radically after the First World War, when the influence of Schönberg’s pupil, Alban Berg, becomes apparent. Bridge, however, retains an English element in his harmony and musical language, although the new form that his music had taken somewhat isolated him from the insular traditions of many of his contemporaries. The Novelletten, a title which calls to mind the music of Schumann, were written in 1904, but presage something of the path Bridge’s harmonic idiom was subsequently to take. The first shows a particular enthusiasm for its string-writing and tonality shifts, with its gentle opening and close. Pizzicato notes are heard at the start of the second piece, a brisk Presto with a chromatic, tender core, whilst the final piece opens boldly, recalling some of the material of the other two movements, before ending as it began. Programme Note by Philip R Buttall INTERVAL OF 20 MINUTES Tickets for the ENDELLION STRING QUARTET with David Walter (Oboe) and David Adams (Viola) at the Sherwell Centre on Saturday 28 January 2006, and for the remaining concerts in the season, will be on sale during the interval. STRING QUARTET IN A MINOR, OP 51 NO 2 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Allegro non troppo Andante moderato Quasi Minuetto, moderato Finale: Allegro non assai It may seem in his first published string quartets, Op 51 Nos 1 & 2, that Brahms was very conscious not only of classical tradition, but in particular of Beethoven’s Op 18, and Razumovsky Quartets. The first movement of the A minor Quartet is in impeccable sonata-allegro, first-movement form. The connection with Joachim, who had long urged Brahms to provide him with quartets, is established in the use of the cryptic motif F-A-E (Frei aber einsam), Joachim’s motto, and used twenty years before in a composite violin sonata with Schumann and Dietrich. Brahms adapted Joachim’s motto into his own F-A-F (Frei aber froh) motif, and this appears later in the movement. The second subject has some of the lyrical quality of Schubert about it, and there is a relatively short development and more or less literal recapitulation, the movement ending in the composer’s favourite device of cross-rhythms. The A major slow movement offers a darkly-hued principal theme, first heard over a viola and cello counterpoint. There is an excursion into the relative minor key, with violin and cello in canon, and a return to the principal theme, now in the key of F, before the cello brings matters to rights and re-establishes the tonality of A. In the third movement, Brahms offers an original substitute for a scherzo, with an interlocking major-key trio that changes pace and mode, moving from A minor to A major, now marked Allegretto vivace. The mood returns to one of gentle melancholy in A minor with the re-appearance of the Tempo di Minuetto. The finale suggests more overtly the Hungarian element hinted at in the preceding Quasi Minuetto, a compliment to the Hungarian émigré Joachim. The form is in general that of the classical sonata-allegro, its related thematic material transformed in a texture that allows indulgence in crossrhythms with all the dramatic intensity that Brahms had at his command, and finds a place, as elsewhere in each of the movements, for the device of canon, a contrapuntal element for which Joachim too had a fondness. Programme Note by Philip R Buttall MAGGINI STRING QUARTET CONCERTS IN THE 2005/2006 SERIES The Quartet is renowned for championing British repertoire, with worldwide sales of its recordings for Naxos’s Gramophone Award winning British Music series exceeding 100,000 discs. Their CD of Vaughan Williams won the Gramophone Chamber Music Award of the Year 2001, and was nominated for the Classical Brit Awards Ensemble/Orchestral Album 2002 . The Maggini’s recordings of Bridge, Bliss, Bax, Walton, Britten and E J Moeran have all been Editor’s Choices in Gramophone and their CD of Bridge Quartets 2 & 4 and Phantasy Piano Quartet with Martin Roscoe was a Gramophone CD of the Month (May 2005). Their recording of Elgar with Peter Donohoe won a Diapason d’Or of the Year in France and was also a CHOC award winner for “Le Monde de la Musique”, and their CD of Bax Quartets 1 & 2 won a 2002 Cannes Classical Award. They were also Grammy Award nominees in 2004 and 2005. Future releases will include works by Ireland, Arnold, Rawsthorne and Tippett. CHAMBER ENSEMBLE OF THE KING’S CONSORT Saturday 1 October 2005 Formed in 1988, the Maggini Quartet is established as one of the finest British string quartets, both in performance and through their international award winning recordings. The Maggini Quartet’s commitment to new music has led to important commissions, including James MacMillan’s Second Quartet, Robert Simpson’s Cello Quintet (his last work) and works by Eleanor Alberga and Roxanna Panufnik. The Quartet has embarked on an exciting collaboration with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, to perform and record his ten new ‘Naxos Quartets’. The Maggini appear regularly in prestigious concert series at home and abroad and are frequent media broadcasters. Their major initiative, ‘The Glory of the English String Quartet’, draws upon the wonderfully varied and distinctive repertoire, mostly from the first half of the 20th Century, which they are committed to bringing to a worldwide audience through concert performances and their ongoing series of recordings for Naxos. In addition to their concert activity, the members of the Quartet have an international reputation as chamber music coaches. They hold several UK residencies, have worked at the UK’s senior music institutions, and their educational activities abroad have included coaching at Yale and Oberlin in the United States and an annual coaching engagement for the Norwegian Chamber Music Society. The Quartet’s name derives from the famous 16th century Brescian violin maker, Giovanni Paulo Maggini, an example of whose work is played by second violinist, David Angel. All at the Sherwell Centre at 7.30pm BRODSKY STRING QUARTET Saturday 29 October 2005 REBECCA JONES (Viola) ABIGAIL RICHARDS (Piano) Saturday 12 November 2005 MAGGINI STRING QUARTET Saturday 26 November 2005 ENDELLION STRING QUARTET DAVID WALTERS (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 Saturday 25 March 2006 KUNGSBACKA PIANO TRIO Saturday 29 April 2006 Concert details can be found on the website: www.plyclassical.co.uk Plymouth Chamber Music MAGGINI STRING QUARTET Lawrence Jackson (Violin) David Angel (Violin) Martin Outram (Viola) Michal Kaznowski (Cello) 7.30pm Saturday 26 November 2005 at the University of Plymouth Sherwell Centre