BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND in association with THE DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC, QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY and THE ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND SEVENTH RECITAL MELOS ENSEMBLE Hugh Maguire Nicholas Ward Patrick Ireland Terence Weil Timothy Brown Ian Brown (violin) (violin) (viola) (cello) (horn) (piano) Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, Malone Road, Belfast. Friday 16 May 1980 at 7.30 p.m.

Piano Quartet in G minor, K.478 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Allegro Andante Rondo Allegro In 1785, the year in which fifteen year-old Beethoven was exploring new reaches of Chamber music with his three piano quartets, Franz Anton Hoffmeister of Vienna published Mozart's first work in this medium, this G minor Piano Quartet, K.478. It is hard to believe that this was a new medium for Mozart, so surely does he overcome the problems involved. Until then, compositions for piano and more than two string instruments had been in effect 'mini' piano concertos. Mozart now offered in his first ano Quartet, true, balanced chamber music; the strings no longer provide mere accompani- ment, all the instruments now treated as independent musical partners. In the first movement, the fierce, concentrated emotion. of the first subject, which is announced in unison, is carried over into the second subject, and the coda is quite startling in its passionate, emotional intensity. The Andante, in B flat major is lighter, more gracious and lyrical while the closing Rondo Allegro remains untroubled apart from a brusque E minor episode.

Trio in E flat major for Piano, Violin and Horn, Op. 40 Andante Scherzo Adagio Mesto Allegro con brio Johannes Brahms (1833 1897) The composition of this Trio in 1865 was prompted by various factors, including the death of Brahms' mother that same year and the fact that he, himself, played all three instruments. Brahms is reported to have told a friend that the opening theme of the first movement came to him during a walk in the Black Forest near Baden-Baden, and this accounts for the pastoral flavour of much of the music. Brahms does not write for the horn in a soloistic capacity (as Mozart would have done) in fact, of the three instrumental parts, the horn's is the most retiring and modest. Yet it is to its special tone colour that the Trio owes its unique qualities whether brooding and nostalgic as in the first and third movements or heroically exultant as in the Scherzo and Finale. The first movement is unusual is that the expected quick tempo and sonata form are substituted by a gentle, rather melancholic Andante in ternary form which twice gives As if to make way to an episode in slightly faster tempo. up for the unusual design of this movement, the Scherzo which follows is cast in sonata form with two well-contrasted themes, giving the movement a zest and nobility, most effect- ively contrasted with the sombre trio in A flat minor. Brahms' tribute to the memory of his mother is presented in the ternary form of the Adagio Mesto in E flat minor. The theme of the middle section, introduced canonically, is closely related to the second half of the main theme, and both of these, along with a premonition of the theme of the Finale are used in the long coda, which rises to an impassioned climax. The concluding Allegro con brio, a sonata form movement of great exuberance, is so dominated by the "hunting" rhythm of its main theme, that the second subject appears only fleet- ingly at the end of the exposition and after the recapitulation.

******************** INTERVAL ******************** Piano Quintet in E flat, Op. 44 Allegro Brillante Adagio Scherzo molto vivace Allegro ma non troppo Robert Schumann (1810 1856) Composed in 1843, this work is the first in a notable, if short, line of piano quintets by nineteenth-century composers and exhibits many features which were to influence subsequent works for this combination. ant. Scarcely any work of Schumann's is so noble and exuber- The first movement is a model of formal clarity : a vigorous first theme - divided into six related phrases - is followed by a lyrical second theme and a short codetta based on phrases from the first theme. A sectional develop- ment section follows, concerned entirely with material heard in the exposition, after which a regular recapitula- tion is heard, resulting in an overall classical sonata-form an unusual achievement for Schumann. The second movement has the air of a funeral march, while the scherzo is based on rapidly ascending scale passages. In the finale, Schumann attained new heights of imagin- ation and technical skill by creating a kind of double sonata- form; after the regular recapitulation, a new theme is intro- duced, followed by a second development section in which themes from the finale are combined with phrases from the first movement. A recapitulation of the new theme and a final coda conclude the movement and the work.

In many evaluations of this quintet, one finds references. to its orchestral quality, to the dominance of the piano and to other factors that are taken to be defects. It is true that a large number of sonorous doublings occur and that the piano part is worked out in fuller detail than are the string parts. But a criticism that considers the piano merely one of five equal instruments is wide of the mark, for the piano, in fact, contrasts with the quartet as a unit, repre- senting not one fifth, but one half of the entire tonal body. From this point of view, the quintet takes its place among the best true chamber works and provides a sonority and effectiveness unmatched in the earlier literature, quite apart from it being one of Schumann's most outstanding com- positions. TONIGHT'S ARTISTS Programme notes by: Linda Salem The Melos Ensemble The Melos Ensemble has established international reputa- tion as one of the world's leading chamber music groups. The fame of the Ensemble rests on its many recordings and countless live performances as well as the individual dist- inction of its members. Formed in 1950, the Ensemble consists of twelve players - a string quintet and a wind quintet, with harp and piano - who can form and reform themselves into different shapes to meet the needs of the occasion. Apart from appearing regularly all over the British Isles, the Ensemble has taken part in many of the major festivals including Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, King's Lynn, Harrogate, Venice, Warsaw, Zagreb, Holland and Iran. At the same time, it has toured America (several times) as well, as for instance, Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, and has earned high praise in most of the major foreign musical centres.

Throughout its history, the Melos Ensemble has played works by contemporary composers both at home and abroad, and a large number of pieces have been especially written for the group. In particular, the music for chamber ensemble in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was written with the Melos specifically in mind. Well known to BBC listeners, the Ensemble has also recorded upwards of some sixty gramophone records, several of which have received awards for their particular distinc- tion. ************************