The Maggini Quartet - programme notes
Haydn
Quartet
Op.76 No.3 'The Emperor'
Haydn's
op.76 quartets were published in 1799 and carry a dedication to Count Joseph
Erdody whose family Haydn had befriended for many years. The quartets appeared
only a year after the triumphant first performance in Vienna of the 'The
Creation'.
This
third quartet in the set is nicknamed after the slow movement set of Variations
based on the famous 'Emperor’s Hymn' - Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, a tune which was
to become the Austrian National Hymn. While this movement is undoubtedly the
centrepiece of the work, it is preceded by an Allegro in Sonata form in which predominant dotted rhythms recall
the style of the old French Overture.
The following Minuet has a Trio in A minor, transforming into A major,
displaying the imagination and artistry of Haydn's major/minor shifts of key.
The Presto Finale starts again in a
minor key, its character being determined by opening abrupt chords and a
persistent current of quaver triplets. Again, the music transforms to the
quartet's opening key of C major in the final bars.
It
is worth remembering that Haydn wrote his quartets in a world where their public
performance would have been a rare occurrence, being more usually performed in
private homes by non-professional musicians. However, Haydn's mastery of this
wonderfully intimate medium is clearly evident even within the ambience of the
modern concert hall.
Arthur
Bliss (1891 - 1975)
String Quartet in A Op.4 (1914)
These
notes were kindly provided by the Maggini Quartet
During
his long career, Sir Arthur Bliss was one of those composers who seemed to
divide the musical establishment frequently its appreciation, or otherwise, of
his output. Educated at Cambridge and then at the Royal College of Music where
he received guidance from Stanford, Vaughn Williams and Holst. By the early
1920's he was renowned for his 'experiments in sound' - perhaps most famously in
A Colour Symphony of 1921 (revised
1932). In this work, four movements attempt to convey the composer's impression
of four different colours. Also, in the chamber work Rout,
the soprano voice is used
alongside ten instruments, singing meaningless syllables
chosen purely for their phonetic effect. Much of his other early music
reflects his contact with Ravel and Milhaud, and it was not until the mid 1920's
that his music took on a more 'classical' conciseness.
Bliss
completed his String Quartet in A op.4 in 1914 during a postgraduate year at the
RCM. Lady Elgar heard a performance of it and wrote the composer a letter of
glowing praise, stating, "the music seemed so full of eager life,
exhilarating energy and hope, and the writing for the instruments so
interesting".
Beethoven
Quartet in E flat op.127
The
first performance of the E flat Quartet op.127 was given on March 6th 1825 and
it left the audience and critics somewhat bewildered. Beethoven had not written
any quartet since 1810 (the date of the op.95 F minor quartet), and the
intervening years, with his rapidly declining health and failed hearing, saw a
great change in his style and approach to music. In this late period, the
composer largely renounced the forceful objective style of the middle years, and
his music became, instead, a stronghold from which he could withdraw from his
sufferings. This is the period of the late chamber works, the last five piano
sonatas, the Mass in D, and the mighty Ninth Symphony.
From
its slow introduction with its ponderous chords, the first movement basically
follows the modified sonata form often favoured by the composer in his later
works. The first subject theme is a long flowing melody, characteristic of the
period, and from which a three-note motif in the first two bars, form the basis
of the later development section. Interestingly, the final coda also derives its
main interest from the little quaver motif in the third bar of this main theme.
The slow movement in A flat is a beautiful melody with five variations, followed
by a buoyant Scherzo and Trio. In the final Finale, the four bars of
introductory octaves serve as a preface to the main rather folk-like material in
this, one of Beethoven's finest movements.