BEETHOVEN, MOZART & MORE: STRING QUARTETS

Marmen Quartet

The Guildhall, Portsmouth
Monday 20 January 2025, 7.30pm
Past Event
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BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 11 in F minor Op.95 “Serioso” (22′)
BARTÓK String Quarter No. 3 (15′)
FISHER Heal (8′)
MOZART String Quartet in C K465 ‘Dissonance’ (30′)

The Marmen Quartet has won a glittering array of international prizes; its musicians are rigorous and deeply humane performers. Charting hundreds of years string writing, their concert begins with Beethoven’s ‘Serioso’ String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, followed by the vivid folk-inspired motifs of the Third Quartet No. 11 in F minor, followed by the vivid folk-inspired motifs of the Third Quartet by Hungarian composer Belà Bartók.

Salina Fisher’s highly original hypnotic new work, specially commissioned for the Marmen Quartet during lockdown by Chamber Music New Zealand, also features. Culminating in Mozart’s daring ‘Dissonance’ String Quartet in C, join us for a celebration of timeless classics and the innovative spirit of modern works.

BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, String Quartet in F minor Op.95 Serioso

Allegro con brio
Allegretto ma non troppo, attacca subito
Allegro assai vivace ma serioso. Più allegro
Larghetto espressivo. Allegretto agitato. Allegro

‘The Quartet is written for a small circle of connoisseurs and is never to be performed in public.’ Thus wrote Beethoven to Sir George Smart in October 1816. The kind of public concerts he had in mind – mixed programmes of vocal and instrumental music – would indeed make an odd setting for a work of such concentrated intensity. Composed in 1810 and revised for publication in 1815, Beethoven dedicated it to his friend, Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovetz, a talented amateur cellist who worked as Hungarian Court Secretary in Vienna.

One of Beethoven’s shortest and most tautly argued quartets, it was the composer himself who called it Quartetto serioso on the autograph manuscript. The Beethoven expert William Kinderman sums up its character as ‘dark, introspective, and vehement’, and it’s no surprise that Beethoven takes a similarly pithy approach to form: a much-shortened recapitulation in the first movement, a slow movement that eschews lyricism in favour of a chromatic fugal section, and a prickly Scherzo (more of an anti-Scherzo really, since it is not only completely lacking in any kind of humour, but is even marked ‘serioso’). The finale sustains this tension and agitation until the last moment – then something extraordinary happens: the music takes a sudden turn to F major, and there’s a dash to the finish. The American composer Randall Thompson commented that ‘no bottle of champagne was ever uncorked at a better time.’

© Nigel Simeone

About the Artists

Marmen Quartet

From 2015-2018, the Marmen Quartet was the first ensemble to participate in Music in the Round’s Bridge scheme to support promising young musicians at the start of their professional career. Bridge provided the quartet with performance opportunities, mentoring, guidance and advice on developing and succeeding in the world of professional music-making. This included mentoring by the late, world-renowned leader of The Lindsay String Quartet and founder of Music in the Round, Peter Cropper.

Formed in 2013 at the Royal College of Music, the Marmen Quartet were holders of the Guildhall School of Music String Quartet Fellowship (2018-2020) and studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover with Oliver Wille as well as in London with Simon Rowland-Jones and John Myerscough (Doric Quartet). They were mentored by the late Peter Cropper and have received support from the Musicians Company/Concordia Foundation, the Hattori Foundation, Help Musicians and the Royal Philharmonic Society (Albert and Eugenie Frost Prize). The Marmen Quartet is an official Pirastro Artist.

With a growing reputation for the courage, vitality and intensity of its performances the Marmen Quartet is fast establishing itself as one of the most impressive and engaging talents in the chamber music arena. 2019 marked a year of significant achievement for the Quartet, with First Prizes at both the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition and Banff International String Quartet Competition, where they were also awarded the Haydn and Canadian Commission prizes. Other accolades include first prize at the Royal Overseas League Competition (2018) and awards at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition.

The Marmen Quartet has performed at leading European venues including Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Boulez Saal, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Stockholm Konserthuset, Milton Court (Barbican), Palladium Malmö and Muziekgebouw Eindhoven. Festival engagements have taken the Quartet to the BBC Proms, Lockenhaus, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Rheingau, Heidelberg and Zeister Musiekdagen Festivals as well as the Amsterdam, Barcelona and Gulbenkian Foundation String Quartet Biennale Festivals. Read more.