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STRING QUARTET IN C MAJOR, K 465 (‘Dissonance’)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Adagio – allegro

Andante cantabile

Menuetto: Allegro

Allegro molto

The so-called ‘Dissonance’ Quartet was written in Vienna and isdated 14th January 1785, the sixth and last of a set dedicated toHaydn, for whom Mozart joined in a performance of the newquartets the following evening. A month later Leopold Mozart waspresent at a performance of the last three of the set, works thatwere new to him, when Haydn visited Mozart. Writing home tohis daughter in Salzburg, Leopold Mozart repeated to her Haydn’spraise of her brother as the greatest composer known to him eitherin person or by name, with both taste and a deep knowledge ofcomposition. Mozart’s dedication of the six quartets to Haydndescribes them as the fruit of a long and laborious study,entrusting them as children to a father, and there is evidence of thecare that Mozart took over these compositions and the influence ofHaydn, himself to be influenced by these works in his turn.

The quartet opens with a slow introduction that gives the work itsnick-name and has provided material for commentators and critics.The chromatic nature of this slow introduction obscures the keyand in effect produces a form of atonality. This is followed by anAllegro in which the first violin announces the principal theme,accompanied at first only by second violin and viola, laterpresented in contrapuntal imitation, and the first time we realisethat the work is indeed in C major. Then follow the contrasting

second subject in quicker note-values and a third thematicelement in triplets. The lyrical F major second

movement, marked Andante cantabile, is one ofconsiderable subtlety in construction, as well asevidencing some subtle time changes. It isfollowed by a Minuet with contrasting elements

of dynamics and texture, framing apassionate C minor Trio, and avigorous and lively finale with its ownharmonic surprises in a bold

treatment of customary form,quintessential Mozart in fact.

INTERVAL OF 20 MINUTES

Tickets for the BRONTE STRING QUARTET at the SherwellCentre 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 theproduction of some highly competent and remarkably maturemusic before he had reached the age of twenty. The jewel in thecrown of his work at this time was the wonderful octet for strings,composed in 1825 when he was still just sixteen years old. Twoyears later, he produced this, his second string quartet (an earlierone, 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 stringquartet No 1). It is sometimes thought that this quartet representsMendelssohn’s reaction to the impact on him of Beethoven’s latequartets, especially the Op 132. But the work also carries a morepersonal, extra-musical association. According to Karl-HeinzKöhler, writing in The New Grove, ‘The quartet Op 13 (1827)suggests a reflection of the emotions of an early love affair; thepiece develops its thematic substance from a love-song with the textIs 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 tothe quartet: An adagio, song-like in the major key, suddenly givesway to a passionate, turbulent allegro vivace in the minor, in whichmuch of the quartet is cast. The final fling on the first violin endslike a recitative, with the conventional cadence chords from theothers. The second movement, marked adagio non lento, begins asthough resuming the opening song, but gives way in turn to morecontrapuntal and agitated dialogue, before a short violin cadenzaleads back to a quiet reprise. Mendelssohn calls the next movement‘Intermezzo’, and it presents an alternation of a folk-like theme, topizzicato accompaniment, with a fairy-scherzo passage. The finalpresto begins with another ‘operatic’ recitative, and eventuallyturns from the minor key, first to a brief quotation from the slowmovement, then to a coda referring back to the first adagio of all,and completing it serenely.

QUARTET NO 3

Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945)

Primera parte

Seconda parte

Ricapitulazione della prima parte – Coda

The six string quartets of Béla Bartók occupy a central position in theclassical repertoire of the twentieth century. Not only are they amilestone in the evolution of the quartet literature but, along withthose by Haydn and Beethoven, they provide an overview of theircomposer’s output at all the main junctures of his career.

Although he had written several quartets in his adolescence, Bartókwas twenty-seven before he embarked on his first acknowledged workin the medium, the Quartet No 1, in 1909. The second was writtenduring the period 1915-17, with the Third Quartet appearing some tenyears 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, andharsh to the point of aggressive. Although it unfolds as a seamlesswhole, this quartet, in which the composer achieves an integration offolk idioms with a Beethovenian contrapuntal resource never to besurpassed, comprises two main parts which themselves divide intofour sections, the work thus following a sonata-form layout inprinciple as well as in spirit, in the slow-fast-slow-fast mould.

The Prima parte presents the principal ideas, respectively ponderousand malevolent, in the manner of an exposition, before an acerbicclimax and a modally-inflected codetta. The Seconda parte is launchedwith a pizzicato idea, which provides the motivation for a tumultuousdevelopment of the material heard thus far: many of the playingtechniques synonymous with Bartók’s later quartet writing are hereused extensively for the first time, such as glissandi, col legno, and sullatastiera. At its peak, the music spills over into the Recapitulazione dellaprima parte, a transformed and generally restrained reprise of the mainideas, with which the work seems to be heading for a muted close. TheCoda steals in, however, to draw the motivic threads into a tautcontinuum, laying bare the music’s harmonic and tonal premises withbreathtaking conclusiveness, and the movement concludes on a chordof three superimposed fifths based on C sharp, which represents the‘key’ of the Third Quartet.

Programme Note by Philip R Buttall

Programme Note from Making Music, the National Federation of Music Societies

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 stringquartet that Ireland has recently produced.

Michael Dervan, Irish Times, 2001

The Callino Quartet was formed in June 1999, following a critically-acclaimed performance at the West Cork Chamber Music festival inBantry, Ireland. Now in its fifth year, the Quartet regularly appears infestivals and concerts throughout Europe and has collaborated withsuch established and diverse artists as the Vanburgh and Vogler StringQuartets, double-bassist Edgar Meyer and the Paris-Bastille WindOctet. The Quartet was awarded a Special Prize from the 2002 PauloBorciani 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 contemporarymusic. They have commissioned and premiered works by Irishcomposers, Ian Wilson and Raymond Deane, and Finnish composer,Kimmo Hakola, and have most recently collaborated with renownedjazz guitarist, John Abercrombie in the world premiere of RenaissanceMan – a work by Irish composer and bassist, Ronan Guilfoyle. TheQuartet’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 asundertaking concert tours in Norway, Lithuania, Italy, the CzechRepublic, Hungary and the UK.

Last season the Quartet had engagements during the EuropeanQuartet Week, Heidelberg Frühlings, West Cork Chamber Music,Clandeboye, and Cheltenham Festivals with highlights of theupcoming season including tours of Scotland and the UK, and a

Wigmore Hall debut performance.

PlymouthChamber

Music

7.30pm Saturday 4 March 2006 at theUniversity of Plymouth Sherwell Centre

Sponsored by Streamline Protect Ltd

CONCERTS IN THE 2005/2006 SERIES

All at the Sherwell Centre at 7.30pm

CHAMBER ENSEMBLE OF THE KING’S CONSORTSaturday 1 October 2005

BRODSKY STRING QUARTETSaturday 29 October 2005

REBECCA JONES (Viola)ABIGAIL RICHARDS (Piano)Saturday 12 November 2005

MAGGINI STRING QUARTETSaturday 26 November 2005

ENDELLION STRING QUARTETDAVID WALTER (Oboe) & DAVID ADAMS (Viola)Saturday 28 January 2006

CONFIGURE 8 (Wind & String Octet)Saturday 18 February 2006

CALLINO STRING QUARTETSaturday 4 March 2006

BRONTE STRING QUARTETSaturday 25 March 2006

KUNGSBACKA PIANO TRIOSaturday 29 April 2006

Concert details can be found on the website:www.plyclassical.co.uk

CALLINO STRINGQUARTET

Ioana Petcu-Colan (Violin)Sarah Sexton (Violin)Rebecca Jones (Viola)Sarah McMahon (Cello)