Aestus Quartet
Saturday 19th September, 7.30 pm
Adrienne Spilsbury: day, turning
Joseph Haydn: Op. 50 No. 6 ‘The Frog’
Interval
Caroline Shaw: Valencia
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet
Programme notes by Diana Rosenthal
Adrienne Spilsbury: String Quartet no 2: day, turning (2021)
Dawning; Flight; Radiance; Dance; Deepening; Secluding
Adrienne Spilsbury is a Welsh composer based locally in Cheshire. A graduate of RNCM, she plays violin and viola in several chamber music ensembles in the Manchester area. Her compositions are masterly crafted to suit the timbre and colouristic possibilities of the instruments she has chosen to use. Her music is lyrical and typically creates an evocative and atmospheric sound-world, often drawing connections with particular places, landscapes, gardens or people. We are fortunate to have Adrienne present in the audience this evening and she will explain the inspiration behind her string quartet … and a day, turning.
Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op 50, No 6 ‘The Frog’. (1787)
I Allegro; II Poco Adagio; III Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio; IV Allegro con spirito
This quartet is the last, and most famous, of the set of six quartets Haydn dedicated to the King of Prussia, Frederick William II. The King was a music-lover and amateur cellist, and the Op 50 set is known collectively as Haydn’s ‘Prussian Quartets’. This final quartet of the set has its own nickname, ‘Frog’, in reference to the finale’s opening which was likened to the croaking of a frog. (More on that later!)
The first movement, an Allegro, is dominated by a short rhythmic motif which will also appear in the finale. We hear this motif in the descending opening theme at the very start of the movement – one long note, four short notes and a final accented long note. The motif permeates the entire movement, appearing also in the second theme and in the development section of this sonata-form movement. In contrast to the D major of the opening movement, the following slow movement is set in D minor. It has a lilting Siciliano-like 6/8 rhythm and a lovely song-like melody and there is much development of the single theme. (Indeed, this quartet as a whole is a fine example of Haydn’s ability to fashion much from little, an intellectual approach he consciously took in the Op 50 quartets.). The movement ends pianissimo in D major and Haydn indicates that this should ‘segue ‘ without a long pause into the D major minuet. This third movement is a short, classic Haydn Minuet and Trio, full of rhythmic momentum and playful use of dynamics. Again, Haydn gives the explicit instruction for an immediate segue from the reprised minuet to the finale. It is in the quartet’s final movement that we get to meet the frog. Haydn uses here a distinctive string technique known as ‘bariolage’, a series of quickly repeated unison notes played by alternating between two different strings – one open and one stopped. While the alternating tones have the same pitch, the contrasting timbre of the two different strings makes for a throbbing sonic effect, likened to the croaking of a frog. This distinctive effect dominates the movement. The second theme of this sonata-form movement is very similar to the main motif of the first movement.
This is one of Haydn’s livelier pieces and the choice of D major optimises the use of open strings, thus creating a work which is the loudest and most grandiose of the set.
Interval
Caroline Shaw: Valencia (2012)
Caroline Shaw is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer, violinist and singer. This short single-movement string quartet is not about the Spanish city of Valencia but the sweet orange cultivar from that region. Shaw has set out to celebrate the simple beauty of this famous fruit – its colour, its sweetness, its energy-giving properties and, not least, its architecture.
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet in F major (1903)
I – Allegro Moderato; II – Assez vif; III – Très Lent; IV Vif et agité
This is one of the most performed and recorded works in the chamber music repertoire. Composed in 1903, when Ravel was 28 years old and still completing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, this work represents a pivotal moment in the composer’s development. Despite initial critical controversy and academic rejection, the quartet has endured as a testament to Ravel’s distinctive voice and his ability to synthesize influences while creating something entirely original.
At this time, Ravel was an ardent follower of the music of Claude Debussy and the influence of Debussy’s String Quartet, published ten years earlier, is evident. Both works follow a traditional four-movement structure, both feature the use of modal scales and novel harmonies, both have a second movement scherzo dominated by pizzicato and a slow movement with an impressionistic feel and both composers use a cyclic design where themes recur throughout the entire work.
Cast in a traditional sonata form, the first movement presents two themes which will also appear later in the work. The movement, marked ‘tres doux’/very sweetly, is full of lyrical and soaring lines. The reflective second theme is given by the Ist Violin and Viola playing two octaves apart.
The second movement is short and lively, a playful scherzo full of rhythmic wizardry and extended string techniques. The first melody is set in the Aeolian mode (evocative of a distant time or other-worldly place). This, and the predominant use of pizzicato (plucked) playing, suggests an influence of Javanese gamelan music, which Ravel and Debussy had heard in 1889 at the Paris Exposition Universelle. Some have also noted, in the shifting rhythmic patterns, the influence of Iberian folk music and Ravel’s Basque-Spanish roots through his mother.
Next comes a lyrical slow movement in which Ravel demonstrates his sophisticated approach to harmonic colour and his gift for creating atmospheric soundscapes. However, within the recognisably impressionistic qualities of the music here, there is still much of Ravel’s typical clarity and precision to be noted and admired.The final movement is ‘lively and agitated’ with much storminess but also moments of respite. The form is a quasi-rondo and features several changes of time signature as well as cycling us back to themes heard at the start of the work.