Sponsored by Richard and Heather Clay

PROGRAMME

Sunday, 2nd March, 7.30pm The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury

CARDUCCI STRING QUARTET
Matthew Denton -- violin
Michelle Fleming -- violin
Eoin Schmidt-Martin -- viola
Emma Denton -- cello

Quartet Op 50 No 6 Frog Haydn
Quartet No 1 ‘Kreutzer’ Janacek
Quartet in E minor Op 59 No. 2 ‘Razumovsky’ Beethoven

With Thanks to The Lion Hotel

During the Weekend the Carducci have been tutoring young players on the County School of Music Chamber Course at Cleobury Mortimer.

This was supported by the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, who are also enabling us to offer Free Tickets for Young People (8-22yrs) for the Carducci Concerts. Please encourage people to make use of this for their other two visits:
Sunday April 20th and Sunday May 11th


String Quartet Op 50 No 6 ‘Frog’
Haydn (1732-1809)

Allegro; Poco adagio; Memuetto - Allegretto; Finale - Allegro con spirito

Under the employment of the Esterhazy family, Haydn lived al their palace in Austro-Hungary away from the cultural centre of Vienna, “I was cut off from the world. There was no one near to torment me or make me doubt myself, and so I had to become original.” Op.50 no.6 (1787) the ‘Frog’ gets its name from the croaking effect achieved by a technique called bariolage: a high speed repetition of the same note on adjacent strings. Haydn uses this in the last movement and this unique sound has also inspired other nick names including ‘The row in Vienna’ and ‘House on fire!’.

The first movement starts with a typical ‘Haydnesque’ joke, taking a standard closing phrase and turning it into an unsettled opening. Immediately in evidence are the increased technical demands placed on the first violin and the complex counterpoint between all four instruments. A sombre slow movement in the style of a sicilienne is followed by a jumping minuet full of dotted rhythms and Scotch snaps.

The original manuscripts for the last four quartets in the Op.50 set were found in 1982 after a concert in Melbourne, Australia. Conductor Christopher Hogwood was approached by a lady carrying them in a shopping bag!

String Quartet No 1 ‘Kreutzer’
Janacek (1854-1928)

Adagio; Con moto; Con moto: Vivo: Andante; Con moto (adagio); Pin mosso

It was not until the last decade of his life that Janacek achieved fame and international recognition as a composer. Although he had established himself as a teacher and composer in the Moravian capital of Brno, he remained largely unknown until, aged sixty-two, his work came to the notice of the Prague National Theatre, The performance of one of his early operas met with such success that the aging composer received commissions for five more operas in the last twelve years of his life. Janacek wrote only six major pieces of chamber music during his long career yet as a diligent collector of folk music he was to help set the course for such musicians as Bartok and Kodaly.

This quartet, written within a period of eight days was motivated by Tolstoy's tragic novel ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’. So moved was the composer upon first reading this work that “Note after note fell smoldering from my pen … I had in mind a miserable woman, suffering, beaten, wretched”.

Janacek sought to convey the story of a failed marriage, an adulterous affair and a jealous murderer, as a unified drama told musically through expressive, subtly changing motifs. A composition of passionate intensity, it closely follows the plot of the novel and makes effective use of folk material, repetition, declamatory gesture, and abrupt changes of mood and texture. The work as a whole seems to be constructed by the juxtaposition of melodic and rhythmic fragments. The melancholy first movement, with its opening restless motif, sets the tone of the work, growing increasingly agitated and developing an ominous restlessness before fading to a serene close.

The second movement with its polka-like theme, features many rhythmic changes and some tremolo passages played sul ponticello ‘on the bridge’, that provide eerie interludes. Ponticello passages also figure prominently in the anguished third movement. Lyrical passages alternate with moments of hectic excitement to create an unsettling mood. A brief quotation from Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata conveys the power of music to unleash varying passions - love in the woman, jealousy in the husband. The fourth movement opens with a plaintive passage, a reprise of the rising motif from the first movement, as well as a theme marked “like in tears” played by the first violin. However, it quickly begins to gather momentum, rushing to a rhythmically fragmented and passionate climax. Agitated passages depict the murder, yet in a majestic passage that represents a dramatic catharsis, the husband contemplating his dead wife experiences an awakening: “For the first time I saw a human being in her.” As with Janacek's operas, the work concludes with human dignity restored to both the victim and the penitent.

Quartet in E minor Op 59 No.2 ‘Razumovsky’
Beethoven (1770-1827)

Allegro; Molto adagio; Scherzo - allegro; Presto

This quartet is one of three works that make up the Op.59, dedicated to Count Rasumovsky, the Russian Ambassador in Vienna. In 1808 Rasumovsky founded a string quartet led by Schuppanzzigh, which became one of the most accomplished ensembles of its time. Beethoven’s contempories were used to being surprised by his new ideas but when they heard the Op.59 quartets they were utterly perplexed. Schuppanzigh believed that Beethoven must have written them as a joke and Benhard Romberg, the great cellist, ostentatiously threw his copy onto the floor and trampled on it, before declaring it “the botched work of a lunatic.” In response to Schuppanzigh's complaint about their difficulties, Beethoven replied “Do you think I worry about your lousy fiddle when the spirit speaks to me?”

All four movements of the Op.59 No.2 quartet are in either E minor or E major. The first movement opens with chords described by the composer Vincent d'Indy as “like the sharp cry of an anxious soul.” They are followed by a quiet, questioning figure and then silence, thus creating an unsettled feeling that pervades the whole quartet. Beethoven is said to have conceived the second movement while contemplating the starry sky and thinking of the music of the spheres. This is reflected in the serene opening, but the music soon develops a sense of unease and never recovers the initial mood. The Scherzo, with it’s tricky syncopations, may puzzle the listener until they catch onto the beat and it is in the maggiore section that a Russian melody appears as a compliment to the dedicatee. It is a theme that Mussorgsky later employed on the imposing coronation scene in “Boris Godunov”. The finale, like that of the fourth piano concerto (written the same year) starts in the “wrong” key of C major. The driving rhythm of the theme causes an exhilarating build up as the movement returns to the home key and ends with a final Presto.


CARDUCCI STRING QUARTET

Prize winners in no less than 7 International Chamber Music Competitions, the Carducci Quartet has quickly become recognised as one of Europe's top young string quartets. Prizes include 1st prize at the 2004 Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition in Finland, and other major awards at the Bordeaux, London, Osaka and ‘Charles Hennen’ competitions. Most recently they won the 2007 Concert Artists Guild International Competition in the USA. The Strad has described the Quartet as “playing with constant variety, a masterclass in unanimity of musical purpose.”

Graduates of the top music conservatoires in Britain and Ireland, they have studied with members of the Amadeus, Chilingirian, Takacs and Vanbrugh quartets and are the current Richard Carne Junior Fellows at Trinity College of Music. As part of the ProQuartet professional training programme in France they have studied with Gyorgy Kurtag, Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg Quartet and Paul Katz.

Following on from their critically acclaimed 2006 Purcell Room and Wigmore Hall debuts for the Park Lane Group, the quartet have been invited to perform at numerous contemporary music festivals and societies, including The “Second Glance” Festival in London, and the Cheltenham Contemporary Music Society.

They recently established their own record label ‘Carducci Classics’, launched with a CD of Haydn String Quartets. A further three discs featuring C20th works by G. Whettam, J. Horovitz and B. Boydell will follow by the end of the year. The Carduccis have also recorded (Vivaldi and Piazzolla) with the Katona Twins Guitar Duo for Channel Classics.

Tours abroad have taken the quartet to France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Italy, where after performing numerous concerts at the Castagnetto-Carducci Festival, the quartet adopted the name “Carducci” with the blessing of the Mayor.

Highlights last season included a residency at Aldeburgh, the launch of their own festival in Highnam (Gloucestershire) and performances in the Verbier, Kilkenny, Three Choirs, Exeter and Kings Lynn festivals. Future projects include further performances at the Wigmore Hall and tours in Portugal and Japan.

The quartet’s educational work continues with performances for school children sponsored by the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust and numerous workshops in Ireland. They also run their own music courses in France for young musicians and have a strong link with the Gloucester Academy of Music. They were recently appointed ‘Quartet in Residence’ at the Cork School of Music in Ireland.

Registered Charity No. 1023243

Last Updated : 04/03/2008