Belfast Music Society in association with THE ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND and THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT, QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY presents THE COULL STRING QUARTET Saturday 20 February 1988 7.30 pm Elmwood Hall

2 THE COULL STRING QUARTET Roger Coull Philip Gallaway David Curtis John Todd (violin) (violin) (viola) (cello)

String Quartet in Bb, K 458 (The Hunt) Allegro vivace assai Minuet and trio Adagio Allegro assai 3 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) The manuscript of the Hunt quartet is dated November 9th, 1784; it was published the following year as one of a set of six quartets, Opus 10, 'Composti e Dedicati al Signor GIUSEPPE HAYDN ... dal suo Amico W.A. MOZART'. 1484 Mozart probably first became acquainted with Haydn in 1781; it is known they were at quartet parties together on a number of occasions the four friends who made up a quartet at one such party in 1784 were Haydn, Mozart, and their fellow composers Dittersdorf and Vanhal. At another the following year, Haydn said to Mozart's father Leopold, "I will tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me in person or by name. He has taste, and what is more, the greatest knowledge of composition." Mozart chose to dedicate his first mature quartets, then, not to some noble patron, but to the acknowledged master of the medium. $24 The set caused him 'long and laborious endeavour', and many abandoned sketches for the works survive. The six quartets reveal an increasing use of counterpoint, and of chromaticism; notable examples are the slow movement of K 428, and the famous slow introduction to K 465 (the 'Dissonance'). The Hunt quartet - so named after the first movement's 6/8 metre (the traditional metre of hunting music) is the most relaxed of the set. The brief minuet is, unusually, placed second and is notable for the unorthodox phrase structure of its opening eight-bar section. The trio has its theme (in the first violin) accompanied by a Haydnesque 'tic-toc' figure in the two middle parts. The profound slow movement has some rich textures and harmonies, while the finale opens softly, and in the main provides a gentle conclusion to the quartet.

String Quartet in c minor, Op 18 no 4 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Allegro ma non tanto Scherzo: andante scherzoso quasi allegretto Minuet and trio Allegro In the summer of 1798, Beethoven turned his attention to the composition of string quartets; the suggestion had come, a few years previously, from Count Apponyi, who had already commissioned Haydn's Opus 71 and 74 quartets. In the event, the opus 18 quartets were commissioned by Prince Lobkowitz who had already commissioned Haydn's opus 77, At the time of Apponyi's original suggestion, 1795, Beethoven was still coming to terms with the quartet medium. He wrote a number of short pieces and contrapuntal exercises, including preludes and fugues, and also some preliminary sketches for an E major quartet that became the Opus 14/1 piano sonata (later Beethoven did publish a quartet version of this sonata). Thus Apponyi's proposal bore no direct fruit, but after a couple of years Beethoven must have felt ready to proceed seriously with the quartet, and the six of Opus 18 were his first published quartets. It is thought by some that this fourth quartet was actually the first to be composed, though it was probably revised before publication. It shares some features with works of Beethoven's early 'Bonn' period (he left Bonn for Vienna in 1794), and there is a certain uneasiness in his handling of the medium, resulting in a work that, for all its attractiveness, is perhaps the weakest of its composer's quartets. The witty but surprisingly gently-paced scherzo of this quartet is a legacy of the composer's counterpoint lessons with Albrechsberger; the movement opens with fugal entries, the theme being heard successively on violin II, viola, Violin I and cello, and this contrapuntal texture continues throughout. Basil Lam talks of the 'pathetic grandeur of the minuet. After the trio section, Beethoven unusually directs that the repeat of the minuet should be played faster than on its first appearance. The

5 extrovert finale, with its gypsy-like main theme, perhaps rather 'plays for effect', in Joseph Kerman's words. The movement ends with a prestissimo coda; at its conclusion the first violin disappears pianissimo into the sky, before three fortissimo unisons end the work. INTERVAL ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ String Quartet no 1 in e minor - 'z Mého života' ('From my life') Allegro vivo appassionato Allegro moderato alla Polka Largo sostenuto Vivace Bedřich Smetana 1824-1884 As the first major nationalist Bohemian composer, Smetana gave his fellow-countrymen a new musical identity; notably in his eight operas and in his symphonic poems, he drew widely on his country's rich tradition of legends, history and scenery, presenting them with a vivid and sensitive freshness and colour. His two surviving quartets (he composed a quartet and shorter pieces in his teens) come from late in his life, when ill health was already seriously affecting his career. His health began to deteriorate in 1874; he was suffering from syphilis, which led to his becoming deaf, and eventually to a complete mental breakdown in the year The first quartet, before his death in the Prague asylum. completed in 1876, suggests in its last movement the piercing whistling sound that haunted the composer during the onset of his deafness; he couldn't work for more than one hour at a time because of the noises in his ears; it became increasingly difficult for him to concentrate, and he was frequently overtaken by bouts of depression or rage. Two years after he composed the quartet, Smetana described the four movements in a letter, outlining how the first movement represents the love of art that the

6 composer had as a young man; also the 'unsatisfied longing. for something inexpressible', and a warning of the approaching disaster. In the second movement Smetana remembers the dances of his youth, especially the polka, while the third movement is a love song, a memory of his feelings for the girl who became his (first) wife. The finale begins optimistically, reflecting his career at its height, representing the music of his country. Then suddenly the long held high E breaks in, the fatal note in his ears. Memories of past successes return, before the music ends, as he accepts his fate, softly, with three pizzicato E major chords. Programme notes by Alec Macdonald The Belfast Music Society would like to acknowledge Spence Bryson the generosity of sponsoring this morning's masterclass. TONIGHT'S ARTISTS The Coull Quartet was formed 14 years ago, when its members were students at the Royal Academy, under the guidance of Sidney Griller. They were awarded a Leverhulme Scholarship, and made their debut in the Wigmore Hall in 1977 to much critical acclaim. Quartet has played extensively in Britain and Europe and has recently completed a tour of the Far East for the British Council. Since 1977 they have been the resident string quartet at Warwick University. The Coull NEXT CONCERT DIVERTIMENTI QUINTET Saturday 12 March in 7.30 Elmwood Hall