Vladivostok, Primorsky Stage, Chamber Hall

An evening of the German Quartet


PERFORMERS:
Tatiana Kuznetsova (violin)
Elizaveta Markovich (violin)
Yana Cizman (violin)
Elizaveta Kulman (violin)
Miroslava Nimirya (viola)
Natalia Kirilina (viola)
Elizaveta Sushchenko (cello)
Elena Loginova (cello)
Ziinel Zaitov (cello)
Alexander Piyaltsev (flute)
Grigory Baranov (guitar)

PROGRAMME:
Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 18 No. 1
String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18 No. 4

Felix Mendelssohn
Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 81

Franz Schubert
Quartet for Flute, Guitar, Viola and Cello in G Major, D. 96

Host of the concert: Elizaveta Sushchenko

About the Concert

During his lifetime, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 16 string quartets. In his later pieces Beethoven rose to eminence in the genre. His earlier pieces, which were created on the threshold of his thirties birthday, are thought to demonstrate the influence of his teacher Joseph Haydn and Mozart’s late works.

Beethoven composed his first quartet cycle (Op. 18), which, after the then trend, consisted of six String Quartets, between 1798 and 1800. In those six String Quartets the composer both treaded in the footsteps of his great predecessors and disputed with them. It is notable that Beethoven’s pieces were originally written to be performed by professional, not avocational musicians. For this purpose the composer had his eye on the bright string quartet under the leadership of Ignaz Schuppanzigh who sympathized with Beethoven’s works. The String Quartets’ music was therefore originally concert, not for everyday playing.

The String Quartet No. 1 in F major, which opens the cycle, was not written first chronologically, but it clearly demonstrates the Beethovenian style of that time. As a whole, this piece complies with the idea of a quartet as an instrumental depiction of a conversation of four clever men – except for the second movement. It was reported by Beethoven’s friend, the violinist Karl Amenda, that having heard Beethoven playing it on the piano, Amenda commented that it seemed to evoke the parting of two lovers. This delighted Beethoven who added that the second slow movement was inspired by the tomb scene from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Later research found that in the sketches of the String Quartet No. 1 there were some footnotes which directly linked the second movement with Shakespeare’s plot.

The last of the six to be completed, the String Quartet No. 4 in C minor is the most popular one. Tensity in the first movement is lessened by Beethoven in a trial manner unusual for the genre of quartet. Instead of a lyrical slow movement, the composer offers a gallant scherzo with a polyphonic development in a moderate tempo. The scherzo is followed by a minuet. In the final movement the impassioned “gypsy” theme is succeeded by more lyrical episodes to end up with an exciting coda in which Beethoven dissolves its drama nature in humor.

Felix Mendelssohn composed his Four Pieces for String Quartet in the last years of his life between  1843  and 1847. The four short pieces were published together as Mendelssohn’s “Opus 81” after the composer’s death. These four pieces have at times been presented as a single work, as Mendelssohn’s “String Quartet No. 7”. During the concert, the selected pieces are performed: the impetuous Scherzo, Op. 81/2 and Capriccio, Op. 81/3 in which a melancholic mood alternates with a tense development.

The manuscript of the Quartet in G major was found in the attic of an old house in 1918. It was dated 1814 and handwritten by Franz Schubert who was then 18 years old. That is a reason for which the score was attributed to the famous Austrian composer. Many years later it emerged that the work was originally written by the Czech composer and guitarist Wenzel Thomas Matiegka (1773-1830). It was named Nocturne and intended for a trio of flute, viola and guitar. Schubert made no fundamental alteration of the work; he only composed a section in a minuet and added a part for cello to enable musicians to play the composition as a quartet together with the avocational cellist Count Johann Karl Esterhazy.

Natalia Rogudeeva

Age category 6+

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