Download Programme Notes from Making Music, the National Federation of

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