BEETHOVEN Flute Sonata in B flat (25’) Trio for piano, flute and bassoon (25’)
Be transported to the classical elegance of an 18th century salon in this concert celebrating Beethoven’s joyful, sparkling music for flute to open Classical Sheffield’s Festival Weekend. Beethoven’s Flute Sonata is full of his characterful wit, while his Trio showcases the dazzling virtuosity of Ensemble 360.
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Ensemble 360 performs two of Shostakovich’s late string quartets in this, the second concert of Music in the Round’s Shostakovich Weekend. Music of extremes, these quirky quartets are at times exuberant, at others sombre, and often capricious, playful and energetic.
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Part of Music in the Round’s Shostakovich Weekend, Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 March 2025
Immerse yourself in the chamber music of enigmatic Soviet-Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), one of the most important composers of the 20th century. This specially curated weekend of music and insights celebrating the composer in his 50th anniversary year includes performances of his intimate chamber works and a fascinating Roundtable with Durham University’s specialist in Soviet music, Professor Patrick Zuk.
Shostakovich’s most famous String Quartet No.8 takes centre stage, performed alongside Quartet No.3. Deeply expressive, raw and emotional, both quartets are rich with evocation and allusion – to Shostakovich’s own work, to the sounds of battle, and with his response in the aftermath of war.
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Part of Music in the Round’s Shostakovich Weekend, Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 March 2025
Immerse yourself in the chamber music of enigmatic Soviet-Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), one of the most important composers of the 20th century. This specially curated weekend of music and insights celebrating the composer in his 50th anniversary year includes performances of his intimate chamber works and a fascinating Roundtable with Durham University’s specialist in Soviet music, Professor Patrick Zuk.
Step inside the music of Bach, up-close and reimagined, in this specially created surround-sound installation running alongside Benjamin Nabarro’s recitals in the tranquil setting of Upper Chapel.
To make this innovative, multi-speaker installation, fragments of Ben’s performance of Bach’s Sonata No.1 in G minor were recorded, layered, looped and transformed. Played through eight loudspeakers, visitors will be enveloped in Bach’s life-affirming music, reworked in this unique and immersive sensory experience.
BACH Sonata No.2 in A minor BWV1003 (20’) Partita No.2 in D minor BWV1004 (30’)
Returning for the second in his series of solo Bach recitals, Ensemble 360 violinist Benjamin Nabarro performs two masterpieces of the Baroque, JS Bach’s spellbinding Sonata No.2 and Partita No.2.
Some of the finest music ever composed for violin, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas are unmatched for their emotional power, rich drama and technical excellence. Extraordinarily virtuosic, Bach conjures two, three, even four voices from the solo violin in this dazzling tour-de-force of music-making.
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BACH J.S., Sonata No.1 for solo violin, BWV 1001
On Bach’s autograph fair copy of the Sonatas and Partitas he calls them ‘Six Solos for violin without bass accompaniment’. They were completed in 1720, the date Bach added beneath his signature on the title page, though it is likely that he had been working on them before then. These magnificent pieces stand as one of the greatest monuments of Baroque instrumental music, but it is worth considering some of the precursors that might have inspired him – all works with which Bach was almost certainly familiar. First, a suite for solo violin without bass and a set of six partitas by Johann Paul von Westhoff (1656–1705), the movements based on dance forms, making extensive use of ‘multiple-stops’ (playing more than one string at the same time) to create the illusion of a solo instrument in dialogue with itself. Westhoff spent his last few years as a violinist at the court in Weimar where Bach met him in 1703, and this encounter may well have given Bach the idea of trying something similar. The unaccompanied Passacaglia which Heinrich Biber (1644–1704) composed as an epilogue to his Rosary Sonatas in about 1676 could well have provided a model (particularly for the Chaconne of the D minor Partita), and Biber’s pupil Johann Joseph Vilsmaÿr (1663–1722) published a set of Six Partitas for solo violin in 1715. In 1717, Vivaldi’s pupil Johann Georg Pisendel (1687–1755) showed Bach his Sonata for solo violin without bass – and later performed Bach’s sonatas and partitas.
The overall design of Bach’s Six Solos alternates Sonatas with Partitas. Each Sonata is in four movements, with a slow opening movement followed by a faster fugue. The finales are characterised by fast, continuous writing full of the kind of kinetic energy that fuels so much of Bach’s music. The third movements are more varied – and each is in a different key from the rest of the sonata. In the First Sonata (in G minor), Bach’s third movement is a gently lilting Siciliano in B flat major. But some of Bach’s most innovative writing in this work is to be found in the fugue (second movement), a marvel of ingenuity which demands from the player a combination of virtuosity and musical insight: Bach was writing here for extremely skilled musicians and may have played the Sonata and Partitas himself (he was a fine violinist as well as a superb keyboard player). There’s a brilliant kind of musical conjuring trick involved in the fugue: the violin is essentially a melodic instrument intended to play a single line, but here, through the use of double-stops and incredibly ingenious part-writing, Bach presents two or more musical lines at once. The result is a compositional sleight of hand with the violin functioning as more than one part, sometimes supported by bass lines that it also supplies itself. The G minor Sonata demonstrates Bach’s ability to create music of the greatest imagination within quite a strict, formal structure: at its most expressive in the first and third movements (Adagio and Siciliana), at its most technically brilliant (and demanding) in the fugue, and at its most energetic and direct in the Presto finale.
Written for the renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s (1881-1945) Sonata for Solo Violin is widely considered one of the most challenging and expressive works for the instrument. It sits well in this programme, inspired, as it was, by Menhuin’s performance of Bach’s solo violin sonatas. Indeed, Bartók blends elements of the Baroque – the striking triple- and quadruple ‘stops’ of the opening, for example, in which the violinist plays three or four notes simultaneously – with the composer’s signature folk-inspired melodies; angular, sometimes discordant tunes drawn from the folk traditions of Eastern Europe, for which he is perhaps best known. The Sonata is in four movements: the intense and lyrical Tempo di ciaccona, the haunting Fuga, the delicate Melodia, and the virtuosic Presto. Each movement explores the violin’s capabilities, demanding both technical mastery and profound musicality.
BACH J.S., Partita No.1 for solo violin, BWV 1002
The Partitas are very different in terms of their structures. While each is, broadly speaking, a suite of dances, Bach treats this idea with considerable freedom. The First Partita presents four dances – Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabande and Tempo di borea (i.e. Bourée) – but each of them is followed by a ‘Double’, a kind of variation which Bach uses either to create contrast (as in the Allemanda and Corrente) or to intensify a particular mood, something he does to memorable effect in the Sarabande and its ‘double’, or to create still greater musical momentum, as in the Tempo di borea and its double.
After Bach’s death, a few expert performers continued to play the Sonatas and Partitas from manuscript copies, notably Haydn’s friend Johann Peter Salomon. The whole collection was published for the first time in 1802. In the nineteenth century, Mendelssohn and Schumann both felt the need to ‘enhance’ Bach’s original by adding piano accompaniments. Joseph Joachim was perhaps the first great virtuoso since Salomon to present Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas in concerts, and even in the recording studio (some extraordinarily evocative records from 1903). Thanks to Joachim’s efforts and those of his successors such as Georges Enescu, the Sonatas and Partitas finally came to be recognised as creative pinnacles of the violin repertoire.
R SCHUMANN Fantasiestucke Op.73 (11’) C SCHUMANN Piano Trio in G minor (29’) BRAHMS Scherzo from the F-A-E Sonata (6’) R SCHUMANN Trio in F Op.80 (26’)
A celebration of love and romance, this special St Valentine’s Day concert sees the Leonore Trio performing music composed by Clara Schumann and her husband Robert. From the strident violin melodies of Clara’s Piano Trio in G minor to the impassioned piano writing of Robert’s Trio in F, this promises to be a spellbinding evening full of passion, intensity and fervour.
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VIENNESE MASTERWORKS: BRAHMS & MORE FOR SOLO PIANO
HAYDN Andante and Variations in F minor Hob. XVII:6 (15’) BERG Sonata Op.1 (11’) MOZART Piano Sonata No.4 in E flat K282 (12’) WEBERN Variations Op.27 (6’) BRAHMS Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel Op.24 (26’)
Tim Horton returns for the second instalment of his popular recital series exploring music from Vienna, a city famed for its history of classical music-making. Popular works by Haydn and Mozart are presented alongside 20th-century gems from Second Viennese School composers Berg and Webern, and the concert concludes with Brahms’s extraordinarily inventive Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel.
Post-concert Q&A FREE to all ticket-holders Please join us after the concert for an informal Q&A with Tim Horton and Music in the Round’s Programme Manager for Sheffield, Benjamin Tassie.
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RICHARD REED PARRY Quartet for Heart and Breath (6’) KATE WHITLEY Six Charlotte Mew Settings (16’) JOHN TAVENER The World (10’) New Commission (8’) MEREDITH MONK String Songs (20’) CASSANDRA MILLER Thanksong (12’)
Music by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry opens this concert of sumptuous, 21st century compositions for string quartet, performed by Phaedra Ensemble with Lotte Betts-Dean, a vocalist praised by The Guardian for her “unmissable, urgent musicality”.
Following its collaboration with American composer Meredith Monk, performer and Godmother of the New York experimental music scene, Phaedra performs the composer’s only string quartet, String Songs. Mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean then joins the quartet to present works by Kate Whitley and John Tavener, as well as Cassandra Miller’s modern masterpiece Thanksong, a tender reflection on Beethoven’s late Quartet in A minor (Op.132).
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FELIX MENDELSSOHN Theme and Variations from Four Pieces Op.81 (6’) String Quartet in E flat Op.44 No.3 (35’) String Quartet No.1 in D minor Op.12 (25’) Octet Op.20 (34’)
Music in the Round’s new Visiting String Quartet, the Consone Quartet, made their spellbinding Sheffield debut with a rapturously received celebration of the quartets of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn in spring 2024.
They return to Sheffield this autumn for an immersive afternoon and evening exploring more of Felix Mendelssohn’s quartets.
To conclude the day, the Consone Quartet joins forces with the string players of Ensemble 360 for the composer’s eloquent and warm Octet, full of gusto and joyful invention.
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MENDELSSOHN Felix, Theme and Variations (from Four Pieces for String Quartet), Op. 81, No. 1
This Theme and Variations – composed in 1847 – was published posthumously as the first of Mendelssohn’s Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 81. Like its companion Scherzo, the undated manuscript is believed to have been written in the last few weeks of Mendelssohn’s life. Marked Andante sostenuto, the poised, elegant theme is presented by the violin, before being taken over by the viola, against a gentle, syncopated accompaniment. The next variation, in triplets, is slightly faster and gives way to a variation where the first violin plays a florid semiquaver descant over sustained chords. The fast-moving phrases are then transferred to the cello before the tempo changes to a vigorous Presto (in 6/8 time), the key now shifting from major to minor. A brief solo violin cadenza leads to coda back in the home key of E major, based on a varied recollection of the opening material and a serene close.
MENDELSSON Felix, String Quartet in E flat Op. 44 No. 3
In Robert Schumann’s retrospective of concerts in Leipzig during 1837–8, he wrote that concerts of string quartets in the small hall of the Gewandhaus “gave us many artistic treasures this winter.” These innovative chamber music concerts were established by Ferdinand David, a close friend of Mendelssohn’s and leader of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Schumann singled out Mendelssohn and his two newest string quartets (Op.44 Nos.2 and 3) as works that “wandered through a finely human sphere … in such a sphere we must award the palm to him among all his contemporaries, and only Franz Schubert, had he lived, would have been worthy to award Mendelssohn that palm without disputing it.” The E flat major Quartet Op.44 No.3 was completed in February 1848. The first movement opens with a terse five-note motif and a dotted rhythm. Both these ideas – and the way Mendelssohn uses them to propel the musical argument – show the influence of Beethoven, and they are contrasted with a more lyrical theme. The energy of this movement, and the elegance of its construction, continue into the second movement: a typical Mendelssohn Scherzo, full of dramatic contrasts between loud and soft. After E flat major in the first movement, and the darker C minor in the Scherzo, the rapt, lyrical Adagio is in A flat major. The finale, back in the home key of E flat, is dazzling, full of rapid semiquavers – a virtuoso display written for some of the most gifted quartet players of the time.
One of the marvels of nineteenth-century chamber music, Mendelssohn’s Octet was originally finished in October 1825, when the composer was 16 years old. He later revised it before publication. The miracle of this work is not the youthfulness of its creator but the astonishing individuality of its music – regardless of how old its composer was at the time. The arching opening theme of the first movement, underpinned by syncopated chords, reveals the originality of Mendelssohn’s creative voice as never before. The way in which he generates a constant stream of musical ideas is all his own, but this was a composer who knew how to draw on the refinement of Mozart, the power of Beethoven and the contrapuntal intricacy of Bach for his own expressive purposes. The slow movement begins gently but becomes increasingly uneasy, while the dizzying Scherzo was inspired by the ‘Walpurgisnacht’ scene from Goethe’s Faust. The Presto finale follows naturally from this, beginning with an energetic fugal subject that generates unstoppable momentum and inspired elation.
JS BACH Sonata No. 1 in G minor (18’) Partita No. 1 in B minor (28’)
Benjamin Nabarro performs the first in a new series of concerts celebrating JS Bach’s much-loved music for solo violin. Centred on the intricate and expansive partitas and sonatas, Ben’s recitals explore the wonder of Bach through some of the most enduring and joyous works ever written for the violin.The pieces are presented together with a short, informal conversation about Bach’s celebrated works between Benjamin Nabarro and BenjaminTassie, Music in the Round’s Programme Manager for Sheffield.
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BACH J.S., Sonata No.1 for solo violin, BWV 1001
On Bach’s autograph fair copy of the Sonatas and Partitas he calls them ‘Six Solos for violin without bass accompaniment’. They were completed in 1720, the date Bach added beneath his signature on the title page, though it is likely that he had been working on them before then. These magnificent pieces stand as one of the greatest monuments of Baroque instrumental music, but it is worth considering some of the precursors that might have inspired him – all works with which Bach was almost certainly familiar. First, a suite for solo violin without bass and a set of six partitas by Johann Paul von Westhoff (1656–1705), the movements based on dance forms, making extensive use of ‘multiple-stops’ (playing more than one string at the same time) to create the illusion of a solo instrument in dialogue with itself. Westhoff spent his last few years as a violinist at the court in Weimar where Bach met him in 1703, and this encounter may well have given Bach the idea of trying something similar. The unaccompanied Passacaglia which Heinrich Biber (1644–1704) composed as an epilogue to his Rosary Sonatas in about 1676 could well have provided a model (particularly for the Chaconne of the D minor Partita), and Biber’s pupil Johann Joseph Vilsmaÿr (1663–1722) published a set of Six Partitas for solo violin in 1715. In 1717, Vivaldi’s pupil Johann Georg Pisendel (1687–1755) showed Bach his Sonata for solo violin without bass – and later performed Bach’s sonatas and partitas.
The overall design of Bach’s Six Solos alternates Sonatas with Partitas. Each Sonata is in four movements, with a slow opening movement followed by a faster fugue. The finales are characterised by fast, continuous writing full of the kind of kinetic energy that fuels so much of Bach’s music. The third movements are more varied – and each is in a different key from the rest of the sonata. In the First Sonata (in G minor), Bach’s third movement is a gently lilting Siciliano in B flat major. But some of Bach’s most innovative writing in this work is to be found in the fugue (second movement), a marvel of ingenuity which demands from the player a combination of virtuosity and musical insight: Bach was writing here for extremely skilled musicians and may have played the Sonata and Partitas himself (he was a fine violinist as well as a superb keyboard player). There’s a brilliant kind of musical conjuring trick involved in the fugue: the violin is essentially a melodic instrument intended to play a single line, but here, through the use of double-stops and incredibly ingenious part-writing, Bach presents two or more musical lines at once. The result is a compositional sleight of hand with the violin functioning as more than one part, sometimes supported by bass lines that it also supplies itself. The G minor Sonata demonstrates Bach’s ability to create music of the greatest imagination within quite a strict, formal structure: at its most expressive in the first and third movements (Adagio and Siciliana), at its most technically brilliant (and demanding) in the fugue, and at its most energetic and direct in the Presto finale.
Written for the renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s (1881-1945) Sonata for Solo Violin is widely considered one of the most challenging and expressive works for the instrument. It sits well in this programme, inspired, as it was, by Menhuin’s performance of Bach’s solo violin sonatas. Indeed, Bartók blends elements of the Baroque – the striking triple- and quadruple ‘stops’ of the opening, for example, in which the violinist plays three or four notes simultaneously – with the composer’s signature folk-inspired melodies; angular, sometimes discordant tunes drawn from the folk traditions of Eastern Europe, for which he is perhaps best known. The Sonata is in four movements: the intense and lyrical Tempo di ciaccona, the haunting Fuga, the delicate Melodia, and the virtuosic Presto. Each movement explores the violin’s capabilities, demanding both technical mastery and profound musicality.
BACH J.S., Partita No.1 for solo violin, BWV 1002
The Partitas are very different in terms of their structures. While each is, broadly speaking, a suite of dances, Bach treats this idea with considerable freedom. The First Partita presents four dances – Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabande and Tempo di borea (i.e. Bourée) – but each of them is followed by a ‘Double’, a kind of variation which Bach uses either to create contrast (as in the Allemanda and Corrente) or to intensify a particular mood, something he does to memorable effect in the Sarabande and its ‘double’, or to create still greater musical momentum, as in the Tempo di borea and its double.
After Bach’s death, a few expert performers continued to play the Sonatas and Partitas from manuscript copies, notably Haydn’s friend Johann Peter Salomon. The whole collection was published for the first time in 1802. In the nineteenth century, Mendelssohn and Schumann both felt the need to ‘enhance’ Bach’s original by adding piano accompaniments. Joseph Joachim was perhaps the first great virtuoso since Salomon to present Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas in concerts, and even in the recording studio (some extraordinarily evocative records from 1903). Thanks to Joachim’s efforts and those of his successors such as Georges Enescu, the Sonatas and Partitas finally came to be recognised as creative pinnacles of the violin repertoire.
CHOPIN Polonaise in F sharp minor Op.44 (10’) Waltz in A flat Op.42 (4’) Three Mazurkas Op.56 (12’) Nocturne in B Op.62 No.1 (7’) Barcarolle in F sharp Op.60 (8’) Polonaise in C minor Op.40 No.2 (9’) Three Waltzes Op.64 (8’) Impromptu No.2 in F sharp Op.36 (6’) Nocturne in E Op.62 No.2 (5’) Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise brillante Op.22 (14’)
Tim Horton’s series focusing on Chopin reaches a spectacular conclusion with a sequence of the composer’s works that confirm his music as some of the finest ever written for the piano. Tim will be our guide through Chopin’s powerful Polish mazurkas and polonaises, atmospheric nocturnes and whirling waltzes, including the ever-popular ‘Minute Waltz’. To send us off into the spring evening, Tim will play the Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise brillante, a perfect summary of Chopin’s genius that pairs beauty with thrilling virtuosity.
Includes free post-concert Q&A
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Chopin’s ability to reimagine traditional dance forms in the most startling ways is nowhere more apparent than in the Polonaise in F sharp minor, Op.44. Beginning with a mysterious and sinister opening phrase, the main polonaise theme emerges with music that is marked by a kind of restless rage. At the centre of the piece there is relief in the form of a tender mazurka, but the polonaise returns as fierce as ever until it seems to collapse, exhausted, rousing itself for the brutal final bare octaves. After finishing the work in 1841, Chopin wrote to his publisher to announce that ‘I have a manuscript for your disposal. It is a kind of fantasy in polonaise form. But I call it a Polonaise.’
The Waltz in A flat, Op.42, was written in 1840. Wilhelm von Lenz recalled Chopin playing it: ‘The waltz, springing from the eight-bar trill, should evoke a musical clock, according to Chopin himself. In his own performances … he would play it as a continuous stretto prestissimo with the bass maintaining a steady beat – a garland of flowers winding amidst the dancing couples!’
The mazurka was the Polish dance form Chopin chose for some of his most experimental pieces, combining nostalgia with innovation. The set of Three Mazurkas Op.56 was published in 1844. The B major mazurka begins with a restless theme in the left hand, answered with more confidence by the right hand. There are two contrasting sections (in different keys, E flat and G) before the last return of the opening idea brings resolution. The C major mazurka is boisterous and rustic, with bare open fifths in the bass and a theme full of Polish inflections. The third mazurka has been described as a kind of ‘dance poem’: the musical elements of the mazurka are pared down to produce something which one commentator described as ‘the music of memories rather than of reality’ while another saw its audacious harmonies as providing ‘the foundations for the music of the future.’
CHOPIN Frédéric, Nocturne in B Op.62 No.1
The Two Nocturnes published as Op. 62 were composed in 1845–6. The song-like main theme of the B major Nocturne frames a central section (marked sostenuto) and when it is reprised Chopin adds decorations in the manner of an operatic aria – reflecting his admiration for Bellini’s operas. The E major Nocturne was Chopin’s farewell to the form and while it has moments of agitation, the main feeling is of quiet nobility.
The Barcarolle in F sharp, Op.60was written in the summer of 1845. Chopin never went to Venice to hear an authentic barcarolle, but inspiration may have come from Mendelssohn’s Venetian Gondola Song which Chopin used to give his pupils to play. Described by the German musicologist Hugo Leichtentritt as ‘a work of bewildering beauty’, it was taken up by Chopin’s near-contemporaries such as Clara Schumann and Hans von Bülow. Carl Tausig – a Liszt pupil – even invented a fanciful programme for it in which two lovers metsecretly in a gondola. Chopin’s wonderful exploration of piano colours and sonorities in the Barcarolle had a powerful appeal for later composers: Ravel described it as ‘magical’ while Olivier Messiaen declared that its rich and resonant piano writing influenced his own music – a century after Chopin.
The Polonaise in C minor, Op. 40 No. 2 was completed in 1839 and is another work in this form which explores the darker side of Chopin’s musical character. Its mood was well summarised over a century ago by the Chopin scholar Ferdinand Hoesick who described it as ‘gloomy’ with a ‘tragic loftiness’. Chopin dedicated it to his friend Julian Fontana.
Chopin’s Three Waltzes, Op.64were composed in 1846–7. The first of them, the so-called ‘Minute’ Waltz’, looks back to Chopin’s earlier ‘brilliant’ style and was said by one contemporary to be a musical portrait of its dedicatee, Chopin’s friend and pupil Delfina Potocka. The second, in C sharp minor, is an exquisite miniature combining intimacy and melancholy in the most concise, unsentimental way. The last of the Op.64 waltzes is more enigmatic: its moods shifting uneasily at times, but finding repose in the central Trio.
Like the earlier Barcarolle, the Impromptu Op.36 is in the key of F sharp major. Written in 1839, it combines elements of favourite Chopin forms such as the nocturne and ballade to create a freer and more improvisatory work where wonderment and heroism sit side-by-side.
Marked Lento sostenuto, this Nocturne (composed in 1846) is in E major and opens with a long-breathed melody – lyrical but never sentimental – and this is contrasted with a much more turbulent middle section. By this late stage in his career, Chopin had complete mastery of his preferred forms, and this Nocturne – the last to be published during his lifetime – is a beautifully balanced structure which perfectly suits the changing moods of the music, and Chopin’s careful control of emotion: this is music that never wears its heart on its sleeve, but which seems, instead, to be a noble contemplation.
Nigel Simeone
CHOPIN Frédéric, Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise brillante Op.22
The Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise brillantebegan as the polonaise alone, composed in 1831. Chopin added the Andante spianatoin 1834 and the combined work was published in 1836, in versions for piano solo or with orchestral accompaniment. The two sections complement each other: the Andanterippling gently and the Polonaise bursting into exuberant life.
BRITTEN Three Divertimenti for String Quartet (12’) DVOŘÁK Quartet No.11 in C Op.61 (39’) DVOŘÁK String Quintet No.2 in G, Op.77 (35’)
Dvořák’s exceptional and unusually scored String Quintet No.2 is operatic in scope and richly textured, earning the dedication ‘For my country’ from the Czech composer, who yearned to create a distinctly bohemian musical language in a time of turmoil across eastern Europe. His celebrated Quartet No.11 features the thrilling, turbulent writing that has placed him at the heart of the chamber music repertoire.
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BRITTEN Benjamin, Three Divertimenti for String Quartet
Britten planned these movements as part of a five-movement Quartetto serioso with a subtitle from Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale: “Go play, boy, play!” An earlier version of the opening March was written for a suite inspired by the film Emil and the Detectives (the children’s novel by Erich Kästner was a great favourite of Britten’s), but this was never completed. Eventually he settled on a work in three movements, and the first performance was given by the Stratton Quartet at the Wigmore Hall on 25 February 1936. The audience response was chilly and a hurt Britten withdrew the Three Divertimenti, which were only published after his death. His brilliant gift for idiomatic quartet writing is already apparent in this early work – from the arresting rhythms and textures of the March to the beguiling central Waltz, and the driving energy of the closing Burlesque.
In 1881, the Viennese violinist Joseph Hellmesberger asked Dvořák to write a new work for his quartet. In October, while working on the opera Dimitrij, Dvořák was alarmed to read an announcement in the Viennese press that the first performance of this quartet would be given on 15 December. He wrote to a friend on 5 November: ‘It still doesn’t exist! … I now have three movements prepared and am working on the finale.’ In fact, Dvořák had no reason to panic: he worked quickly and the C major quartet was written between 25 October and 10 November 1881.
It has fewer overtly Slavonic elements than its immediate predecessor (the E flat Quartet, Op.51), and, perhaps in a nod to Hellmesberger’s commission, the main influences are from Viennese masters: Beethoven and, especially, Schubert. The spacious first movement transforms its two main themes with great ingenuity and harmonic imagination. The Adagio opens with a fervent theme presented as an intimate dialogue between the two violins; its second idea has what Dvořák’s biographer Otakar Šourek described as a ‘veiled expression of melancholy’. The influence of Beethoven is most apparent in the rather terse Scherzo while the falling theme of the central Trio provides a delightful contrast. The finale (a sonata-rondo) brings the work to a joyous conclusion, with Dvořák at his most inimitably Czech.
After all the rush, Hellmesberger’s advertised December premiere in Vienna had to be cancelled due to a catastrophic fire at the Ringtheater, and the earliest known performance was given by Joseph Joachim’s quartet on 2 November 1882 in Berlin.
Scored for the unusual combination of string quartet and double bass, Dvořák’s String Quintet in G major was first performed on 18 March 1876 as the composer’s Op.18 – a number that was changed when the work was first published by Simrock twelve years later in 1888. Originally the work had five movements (with an ‘Intermezzo’ before the Scherzo, reworked as the Nocturne in B major for string orchestra), and despite the published opus number, it is one of the composer’s first chamber works to be fully characteristic of his mature style. The first movement opens with a motif played first by the viola (Dvořák’s own instrument) that dominates much of the musical argument – the triplet figure in it is to be heard in the second theme too. The Scherzo finds Dvořák writing in the style of a folk dance, the opening theme consists of a lively opening motif that contrasts with a gentler idea over which Dvořák later introduces a warmly expressive new tune. The third movement has been described by the great Dvořák scholar Otakar Šourek as ‘one of the most entrancing slow movements in the whole of Dvořák’s chamber music … a flowing stream of passionate warmth [and] depth of feeling’. The finale has the same kind of sunny mood as the first movement, but with an even greater sense of joyful energy. Though there are moments of repose (during which the thematic material is treated to some ingenious transformations), the work ends with what Dvořák’s biographer Otakar Šourek aptly described as ‘high-spirited verve’.
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