FINZI QUARTET
SATURDAY 28th JANUARY 2012 at 8:00 pm
Programme
Haydn - String Quartet Op 50 No 1
Ravel - String Quartet in F
Brahms - String Quartet in C minor Op 51 No 1
Programme Notes
This evening allows us to compare three works in "classical" style: expression is achieved through the exploitation of structure rather than mood. The "master of classicism" is followed by two neoclassical composers, one French and one German.
Quartet in B flat major (Op 50, No 1) Joseph Haydn
Allegro – Adagio non lento – Menuetto: poco allegretto – Finale: vivace
In 1787 Haydn dedicated a series of six quartets to King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. These "Prussian Quartets" were written two years earlier than the series of three "Prussian Quartets" Mozart dedicated to the same king, apparently as a tribute to Mozart's earlier "Haydn Quartets". The quartets are unusually serious, if not terse, in nature and contrast with Mozart's more sensuous style, but wit is far from suppressed. The first movement of this evening's quartet typifies how much Haydn could extract out of seemingly no thematic material. Wilhelm II was a keen cellist, as well as patron of music, and the quartets are notable in their exploitation of the cello as a full member of the team, rather than an accompaniment.
Quartet in F major Maurice Ravel
Allegro moderato: Très doux – Assez vif – Très lent – Vif et agité
Despite his neoclassical style, Ravel's only quartet proved too unorthodox for the Paris Conservatoire, and again failed to win him the 'Prix de Rome'. Perhaps as a result, Ravel left the Conservatoire, but the quartet has entered the standard repertoire. The work was much admired by Debussy, and clearly influenced by his earlier Quartet, and by César Franck's 'cyclic form'. Its first movement is in traditional sonata form: the warm first theme contrasts with the melancholy pianissimo second theme. The development pivots around the note A to the distant keys of D minor and A minor: the same pivot is used between major and minor modes in the second and fourth movements. The second movement features pizzicato figuration and exploits the contrast between 6/8 and 3/4 metres. In the slow movement the sequence of keys is even more advanced as A shifts to A sharp, then enharmonically to B flat, to G flat minor, and to G flat major – as remote from F as possible! The rhythmically complex finale, largely in 5/8 time returns to A, before eventually descending to F major for its exhilarating conclusion.
INTERVAL
Quartet in c minor (Op 51, No 1) Johannes Brahms
Allegro – Romanze: Poco Adagio – Allegretto molto moderato e comodo: un poco più animato – Allegro
Brahms, also a classicist in form, regarded the string quartet, like the symphony, as a particularly important genre, and refused to publish any such works that did not meet his high standard. He reportedly destroyed some twenty string quartets before publishing this, the first of only three quartets. Like Ravel's single quartet, Brahms makes much use of the "cyclical" structure: the whole quartet is pervaded by the motifs of the first movement. The close tonal relationships and integrated key structure of the four movements add to their overall coherence. In the opening Allegro, a bold and rising arpeggio over a throbbing accompaniment sets the epic tone for the movement. In strict sonata form, each theme develops logically from the last. The Romanze reorganizes themes derived from the opening theme of the first movement. The Scherzo and Trio are classical in form: the scherzo is, unusually, in duple rather than triple metre and is derived from the middle section of the opening of the first movement. The Trio is a Ländler, imitating an Austrian peasant dance. The energetic finale brings together all the motifs and structural elements of the quartet, articulated again around the first movement's main theme.
The Finzi Quartet
Sarah Wolstenholme – violin
Natalie Klouda – violin
Ruth Gibson – viola
Lydia Shelley - violoncello
The Finzi Quartet first met as students under the late Chrisopher Rowland at the Royal Nortern College of Music, where it now holds a Leverhulme Fellowship. It won first prize in the 2010 Royal Overseas League competition, and second prize in the fifth Trondheim International String Quartet competition. In recent years it has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and featured on Radio 3 as well as in several festivals including Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Brighton and Salisbury, and in tours under the Tunnell Trust and Enterprise Music Scotland.
The Quartet places particular emphasis on promoting British composers, and is proud that its use of Gerald Finzi's name is supported by the Finzi Trust. It been selected by the Tillett Trust, the Park Lane Group and the Kirckman Concert Society, and its recordings include John Taverner's "Towards Silence".
Of particular interest, the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation has granted the Quartet the use of "The Evangelists" – the world's only played matched set of instruments by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume dating from 1863.