Upcoming Concerts

Quartets: 2 May 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

Venue: S. Catherine's Church Hall, Wimborne

Programme

Mozart	String Quartet in G K457
Beethoven	String Quartet in D op. 18:3
	String Quartet in c op. 18:4

The Mozart quartet, composed in December 1782 when Mozart was 26, is the first of Mozart's mature quartets, the first of a set of six that were to be published in 1785 with a dedication to Haydn. The first movement is technically complex, with a long development section. The Minuet that follows has curiously abrupt changes in dynamics and disruptive rhythms, while the central Trio, in the minor key, features stark melodic leaps that must have struck its early audiences as shockingly modern. The third, slow movement features strange triplet passages of a decidedly menacing character. The final movement, though posing as a severe, traditional fugue, soon explodes into joyous, exuberant merriment to which the counterpoint provides a sort of foil of half-seriousness while displaying subtler compositional fireworks of dazzling contrapuntal invention.

Although the third in the published order, Beethoven's Op. 18 no. 3 was in fact the first quartet Beethoven ever wrote, in 1798 when he was 28. It is of traditional form and agreeable, sunny disposition, but it is a musical wolf in sheep's clothing, with many features that would have shocked its first audiences — not least, the formidable skill with which it is written. For this quartet, our violinists change places and we are led by Pip James.

By contrast, Op. 18 no. 4 is moody, dramatic and declamatory. We play the first and last movements, of which the second is a rondo.

Tickets £6 to include a glass of wine. Proceeds to CAFOD / Christian Aid.

Past concerts