PROGRAMME

Sunday 7 June 2009, 3.00 pm
Concord College, Acton Burnell

CARDUCCI STRING QUARTET

Spring Chamber Series III

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

String Quartet in D minor Op.9 No.4    Haydn
String Quartet No.3    Bartok
String Quartet No.2 in A minor Op.13    Mendelssohn

Meet the Artists afterwards in the front Foyer or outside Free fruit punch & nibbles (tea & coffee available)

In association with Concord College

String Quartet in D minor Op.9 No.4 Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Allegro moderate; Menuetto; Adagio cantabile; Presto

Haydn's Op 9 quartets are commonly seen as his first 'mature' set, written during the period when he emerged as an indisputably great composer. They have an amplitude, a seriousness of intent and an increasing mastery of rhetoric and thematic development that are a world away from his earlier works. They demonstrate the dazzling inventiveness and sense of symphonic structure which characterize Haydn's greatest works. The most famous quartet in the set is No 4 in D minor, probably the first to be written, and Haydn's first quartet in the minor key. The influence of the brilliant young violinist Luigi Tomasini, leader of the Esterhazy orchestra can also be heard in the often florid, almost concerto-like first violin parts. The turbulent and often sorrowful first movement leads to an equally powerful minuet, which a few years later became the direct model for the young Mozart in his D minor quartet, K173. Perhaps unusually, Haydn leaves out the viola and cello in the trio and instead divides the parts between the two violins with the first violin double-stopping throughout. The third movement in Bb is like an aria-serenade for the first violin and is a moment of relaxation before the Presto finale in which gigue-like figurations give way to grimly striding arpeggios in the development section. A condensed recapitulation reaffirms D minor right through to its brusque unison close.

String Quartet No.3 Bela Bartok (1881-1945)
Prima Pane: Moderato; Seconda Parte: Allegro; Ricapitulazione dellaprima parie: Moderato; Coda: Allegro molto

Bartok's six string quartets, composed between 1909 and 1939, have achieved the canonic status of modern classics. As such, they have been subjected to microscopic analysis touching on every aspect of Bartok's musical language, from the finest points of pitch structure to large-scale formal organization. However, the most immediately striking feature of Bartok's distinctive sound world may well be his prodigious inventiveness in the rhythmic sphere and the captivating sonorities he coaxes from the string instruments. Bartok's fondness for special tonal effects—swooping glissandos, ghostly muted passages, screeching tremolos played with the bow almost on top of the bridge - is much in evidence in the short but substantial Third Quartet of 1927. (Bartok had recently heard Alban Berg's Lyric Suite and fallen under the spell of its richly coloristic atmosphere). Indeed, these effects are so deeply embedded in Bartok's idiom as to be intrinsic to its very meaning and expressive power. The same might be said of the gestural quality that gives Bartok's music so much of its irrepressible kinetic vitality.

It is to these elements of timbre, texture, rhythm, and gesture - rather than to any conventional formal design, that the Third Quartet owes its concentrated intensity and cohesiveness. Although its single movement flies by at a helter-skelter pace that makes it all but impossible to take in much of its detail on a single hearing, Bartok makes things somewhat clearer by providing signposts in the form of clearly defined sections, transitions, repetitions, and tonal references which help the listener to penetrate through the work's bristling chromatic surface to the sombre lyricism at its core.

String Quartet No.2 in A minor Op.13 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Adagio - Allegro vivace; Adagio non lento; Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto - Allegro di molto; Presto - Adagio non lento

Mendelssohn was one of the most precociously gifted composers the world has ever known. By the age of 9 he was performing in public, by 12 he had written his piano quartet, by 14 he had his own private orchestra and by 16 he had produced his first masterpiece, the octet. This quartet was written in 1827 when he was just 18 but more significantly, in the year of Beethoven's death. Unlike many of his contemporaries Mendelssohn appreciated the genius of Beethoven's late quartets and the last few bars of this quartet recollects the ending of Beethoven's Cavatina quartet, even using similar slurs from note to note. Mendelssohn also drew upon thematic material from his song "Question " Op.9 No. l, inspired by a girl he had fallen in love with. Writing to the composer Adolf Fedrik Lindblad, Mendelssohn offered the following insight "The song, which I include with the quartet is its theme. You will hear its notes in the first and last movements and its sentiment in all four movements". This was Mendelssohn's first quartet, with the Op. 12 written 2 years later despite its lower opus number. This is a serious work written in an uncompromising, post-Beethoven style. The Adagio introduction leads into the fast and passionate main body of the movement. The slow movement starts serenely in F major but is followed by an anguished D minor fugato section and an extremely terse "poco pui animato", characterised by off-beat viola and second violin accompaniment before returning to the calm of the original motif. The Intermezzo is most notable for its wonderfully transparent scoring whilst the last movement, fast and emotionally charged, sees dramatic tremolos underscoring violin recitatives. The quartet ends with a homage to Beethoven and a return to the calm of the opening

CARDUCCI STRING QUARTET
Prize winners in no less than seven 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.