Download 30.,31.07.,01.,02.08. Dubrovačka trilogija

50.
DUBROVAČKI LJETNI FESTIVAL
DUBROVNIK SUMMER FESTIVAL
HRVATSKA / CROATIA
Atrij Kneževa dvora
30. srpnja 1999.
21.30 sat
Rector's Palace Atrium
30 July 1999
9.30 p.m.
KVARTET HAGEN
HAGEN QUARTET
Lukas Hagen, violina/ violin
Reiner Schmidt, violina/ violin
Veronica Hagen, viola
Clemens Hagen, violončelo / cello
L. van Beethoven:
13. gudački kvartet u B-duru, op. 130
String quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130
Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro Presto
Andante con moto, ma non troppo
Alla danza tedesca (Allegro assai)
Cavatina (Adagio molto espressivo)
Finale (Allegro)
G. Kurtàg:
12 mikroludija za gudački kvartet
12 Microludes for string quartet
***
L. Janáček:
Gudački kvartet br. 2 ("Intimna pisma")
String quartet, No. 2 (Intimate Letters)
Andante
Adagio
Moderato
Allegro
The Austrian Hagen Quartet was founded in Salzburg some ten years
ago, and has raised in a short period to the reputation of one of the best
chamber ensembles. The musicians forming the Quartet were educated
at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, at the high music schools of Basel and
Hanover, and at the University of Cincinnati. Their progress of a
quartet was highly contributed to by the collaboration with musical
authorities like N. Harnoncourt and G. Kremer; at the latter's festival in
Lockenhaus, the Hagen have been regular guests, just as they appear
regularly at the festivals in Evian, Bordeaux, Banff(Canada), Salzburg,
etc. They co-work with the cellist A. Schiff, pianists P. Guida and O.
Maisenberg, violist G. Caussé and other reputable artists. The Quartet's
repertoire covers all musical styles and periods, from J. S. Bach to G.
Ligeti and W. Lutoslawsky. It also has a rich discography, released by
DECCA and Deutsche Grammophon. Lukas Hagen plays on a
Stradivarius violin (Cremona, 1724), while Veronika Hagen plays on
the viol from the workshop of Giovanni Paolo Maggini of Brescia.
"A discourse between four reasonable persons ", said Goethe of the
string quartet, the compositional form and performing body that
presents the undutiful peaks among the most perfect, equally among
the most complicated musical thought. Yet, that Goethe was not completely right, was clear by the last quartets of the master of Bonn,
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 -1827), that affect us like anything but
'reasonable' music. Taking to the form of the classical string quartet
fathered by Haydn and then evolved by Mozart to the level of the elegant salon music of his time, Beethoven wrote 17 string quartets in the
span of 28 years ( between Op. 18. to Op. 135). His quartets passed
over the evolution from the literal classical form and grouping by the
customs of the time, up to the Opus 95 when individual works quite
rapidly became seen as independent; the quartets from the last group,
i.e. Op. 127, 130, 131, 132, 133 and 135, unveil the author's different
approach both to the form and the plot. "It goes for lyrical-
philosophical poems in which the thought subjugates the form,
abandoning many of the traditions of chamber playing. In his unique
meditations, the number of movement increases (the big Quartet in C
sharp, Op. 131, has good seven parts!) in proportion to the
independence of the scores (Op. 133 is actually one big fugue), and the
power of the variation of the basic musical idea.' (K. Kovačević)
Opus 130 in B flat major is Beethoven's thirteenth string quartet, the
third in the series commissioned by Duke Gallitzin, completed in 1826.
Initially conceived with a grand final fugue, it assumed a new form
with the master agreeing to have a new conclusion and the fugue to go
separate and become an independent opus. So the closing movement of
the B-major became the last piece the Master ever wrote. Among the
six movements of diverse duration that follow seemingly uncorrelated
ideas of the aged and deaf composer, particularly impressive is the
Cavatina that the Master loved himself: ' No other piece I ever wrote
can touch me as deep … and the feeling never changes...'.
Gydrgy Kurtag (1926), Hungarian composer, student of D. Milhaud
and O. Messiaen, among others, a long-time professor at the 'B. Bartók'
School of Music and the High School of Music in Budapest.
The '12 microludes for string quartet (1977/78), his Op. 13 was written
for the New Chamber Music Days in Witten, dedicated to Mihaly
Andras, a professor of chamber music at the Budapest Academy who
encouraged Kurtag's concise idiom and his understanding of the transparency of the small musical forms. The composition, in conformity
with its title, is an array of games around several micro-elements of
several bars only, opposing the sudden appearances of static/accordic
to the agitated motivic parts. Modern effects of the sound, new
performing techniques and aleatoric liberties perform in confrontation
with the 'usual' accords, the expressive lines confront a mysteriously
vanishing layout, an exuberant vitality opposing tender miniatures,
until the no. 12 puts an end to all with far-echoing sounds.
This work was first performed by Eder Quartet in Witten, on 21 April
1978.
The musical father of Jenufa, The Glagolitic Mass and Sinfonietta,
Leoš Janáček (1854 - 1928), one of the reformers of Slavonic music at
the turn of the century and belongs to in the row of exceptional musical
personalities of his native homeland of Moravia. Though largely a
vocal author, whose 'chants of speech' in his operas made a decisive
step in breaking up with the romantic traditions, in his symphony and
chamber music Janáček wrote original and expressive pieces that place
him at the very top of the modern music of his time. Janáček employed
almost seventy years for his first String Quartet in e-minor, only to
complete it over one single week. He drew the inspiration from
Tolstoy's short story 'Kreutzer Sonata', which in its turn was inspired
by the Beethoven's famous sonata for violin. The second Quartet came
to light five years later, in his last year of life, and to the motives of a
completely different nature: for 22 days, Janáček was writing the
Intimate Letters as an inspiring consequence of his correspondence
with Kamila Stossl from Pisek. The passion the now old man feels for
a much younger lady, finds its musical expression in the work of condensed musical ideas, harsh harmonies and an endless need for confession. Janáček wrote:' I want to immortalize one great love in a famous
piece of music'. And so he did. His Second Quartet has become the
will of his entire life and work.