BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND FIRST RECITAL 1956-1957 THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST SIDNEY GRILLER GRILLER STRING QUARTET JACK O'BRIEN PHILIP BURTON under the auspices of COLIN HAMPTON The Sir William Whitla Hall Queen's University, Belfast FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9th 1956 Violin Violin Viola Cello

@wend? brog Did you do anything about Quartet in A Major, K. 464 After considerable experimenting with the string quartet in his teens, Mozart did not return to the form till 1782 when he began the famous series of six inspired by Haydn and dedicated to him. That in A major is one of the last two, written in 1785. These six works are crucial in the history of quartet writing. They carried the art of chamber music further than Haydn had taken it up till then and in their turn inspired him to higher flights. Five of their number are now among the most universally beloved of all quartets. That to be heard tonight is probably the least often played, but the opportunity to hear it is to be welcomed for it is a fine and delicate piece of writing. For a composer who had melody in his blood and themes at his finger tips, it is strange to find Mozart so thematically restricted as he is here. Indeed in the finale, which is in sonata form, the second subject is just a transformation of the first; this was a favourite device of Haydn who had frequently so much to say about the first subject that the introduction of new matter would have been an irrelevance. Do you really Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Quartet No. 5 Ernest Bloch (1880- ) This new work was completed early in this year and had its first performance by the Griller Quartet in Germany last month. The present performance is the first in Great Britain and the first broadcast performance. All the characteristics of Bloch's chamber music are revealed in the work, the dynamic force unabated and the serenity perhaps even more mystical. The third and fourth movements are played without a break, INTERVAL think he Allegro Andante con Variazione Minuet Allegro non troppo اميك complete it?

Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Allegro con brio Allegro ma non troppo Allegro assai vivace, ma serioso Larghetto: Allegro agitato Beethoven's opus numbers are often deceptive. This, written in 1810 (but not published till 1816), is practically contemporary with the E Flat Quartet, Op. 74, and the E Flat Piano Concerto (the "Emperor") Op. 73. These two quartets, together with the three Razumovsky quartets, Op. 59, of 1806, make up his "Middle Period" Quartets. The quartets of this period sounded so strange to his contemporaries, and long afterwards, as to be quite incom- prehensible. Of the five, this short and concentrated work must have been the most puzzling. We can see its tremendous force, deep agitation and restless upsurges shot through with themes of serene melodic beauty. It took the world a long time to discover this in what must often have appeared to be a tangle of unrelated rhythms and a mercurial and bewildering scheme of key-relation- ships. To crown it all, having been carried along on this energetic and tempestuous journey, in the last few bars we are unexpectedly lifted into an apparently unconnected passage of brilliant exultation, which brings the work to a joyous conclusion.

NEXT CONCERT FRIDAY, 23rd NOVEMBER MURIEL SMITH, Soprano DANIEL KELLY, Pianoforte