Belfast Music Society in association with THE ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND and THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT, QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY presents DIVERTIMENTI Saturday 12 March 1988 7.30 pm Elmwood Hall

DIVERTIMENTI Paul Barritt Rachel Issertis (violin) (violin) Catherine Marwood (violin) Josephine Horder (cello) Sebastian Comberti (cello)

1 Quintet in C, Op 37 no 1 Grave assai allegro assai Andantino con innocenza Minuet and trio Grave assai - allegro assai Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) Italian born, but living for many years in Spain, Boccherini was a prolific composer, especially of chamber music - he wrote over 100 string quintets, and nearly as many quartets. His last years were clouded by poverty and severe depression, caused by the deaths within two years of his wife and three of his children. As a further posthumous misfortune, many of his manuscripts were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. A Only one tiny movement of his huge output of quintets is heard at all regularly today - the Boccherini minuet (from his E major quintet, Op 13/5, for those who like precise details), but many of his quintets, including the present work, are well worth getting to know. Boccherini was often 1 adventurous, and the structure of Op 37/1 is interesting. All the movements are thematically e related; the first movement, with its c minor slow introduction, ends on a dominant 7th chord that leads directly into the slow movement. After the minuet and trio, the slow opening to the first movement returns as an introduction to the finale, which turns out to use the same material as the first movement, thus producing an unusually unified. composition for this period. The theme that opens the allegro assai sections dominates these movements, (perhaps to too great an extent). There are moments in the charming slow movement when the first violin seems to want to imitate a coloratura soprano, with brief florid cadenzas. Boccherini's Spanish connections are

2 reflected in a number of his compositions - one of his better known quintets actually includes castanets! and the perceptive listener may detect the occasional, but subtle, Spanish fingerprint in the present work. String Quartet no 2 in a minor Anton Arensky (1861-1906) Arensky was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he impressed his teacher greatly, and won a gold medal. He himself then became a teacher, at the Moscow Conservatory; his pupils included Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Gliere. Later he appeared frequently as a pianist and conductor, both in Russia and abroad. Like that of many of his countrymen, his health was finally ruined by his addiction to the bottle, and he died (in Finland) of tuberculosis. TE In fact, although Rimsky-Korsakov was his teacher, it is the influence of Tchaikovsky that is most apparent in Arensky's music. His chamber music output includes two string quartets, two piano trios and a piano quintet; he also composed much for his own instrument, the piano, including four suites for two pianos. The waltz from the first suite is one of the few pieces of his music to be heard outside Russia. Another is his set of variations on a theme by Tchaikovsky - and this work is actually an orchestration by the composer of the second movement of his 2nd string quartet. This quartet, composed in 1894, has an unusual (unique?) instrumentation - violin, viola and two cellos, as well as an unusual form two long movements, followed by a brief finale. The three movements of the quartet are imbued with the atmosphere of folk-song, and the solemn

3 sounds of Russian Orthodox chants, reflected in a love of low-pitched sounds that characterises much Russian music (Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony provides a good example). The solemn liturgical opening of the first movement leads to a beautifully lyrical main theme the idiom here may remind some listeners of Tchaikovsky's String Serenade. The solemn chordal writing returns at the end of the movement. The second movement is the set of variations on the theme from Tchaikovsky's song, Legend, Op 54/5. The theme, moderato, is followed by seven variations: (1) un poco piu mosso (2) allegro non troppo (3) andantino tranquillo - with beautiful arabesque accompaniment on the cello (4) vivace - with pizzicato accompaniment, and fragments of the theme thrown from voice to voice (5) andante - a flowing trio for the top three parts (6) allegro con spirito the grand orchestral gestures of this section thoroughly justify Arensky's later decision to rescore the work for larger forces, but its very power is undeniably thrilling with the smaller ensemble and (7) andante con moto the most. beautiful, a singing version of the theme on violin; all the instruments are muted. The coda which rounds the movement off begins with ethereal harmonics. The finale opens with another slow liturgical theme, treated contrapuntally. After a pause, there breaks in a theme that will be familiar to many listeners the traditional 'Slava' (Glory) theme, used in a number of Russian works, including Boris Godunov, as well as by Beethoven in his second 'Rasumovsky' quartet (Op 59/2). We assume that the slow opening was merely the prelude to a full-scale fast finale, but the Slava theme soon breaks off, and the slow section returns, briefly, before the Slava music, with furious accompaniment figures, brings this unusual but fascinating quartet to a

rousing conclusion. Quintet in C, D 956 * * * * * * INTERVAL ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ Allegro ma non troppo Adagio Scherzo and trio Allegretto Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Schubert's health was deteriorating rapidly throughout 1828, and his feverish rate of composition during the last eleven months of his life undoubtedly exhausted him. In April, the great f minor piano duet Fantasy was completed; in August he completed 13 of the songs published as Schwanengesang. Throughout the summer, he worked at a number of sacred choral compositions, including the Mass in E flat. It is likely that he also at this time sketched three movements of a symphony in D recently edited and published as 'number 10' (The 'Great' C major symphony, for long thought to date from 1828, is now thought to have been written in 1825/6). In a letter at the beginning of October, he mentioned he had just completed three piano sonatas (the final trio of masterpieces, D 958-960), and had 'finally turned out' a quintet i.e. the work we hear tonight not performed until 1850, and published three years later as Op 163. - Amazingly, after completing the quintet, Schubert arranged to have counterpoint lessons with the court organist, Sechter. At the beginning of November, Schubert had his first lesson, whose manuscript survives. At the end, Sechter set

5 Schubert his homework - a fugue subject based on Schubert's own name. But there was no time for a second lesson, and it was Sechter himself who wrote the fugue on the composer's name as a memorial to him after his death on November 19th, almost certainly as a consequence of his having contacted syphilis some years earlier. Schubert's quintet is one of the greatest chamber works ever written. It is full of wonderful moments: the cello duet presentation of the second main theme of the first movement, the rich instrumentation and poetic vision of the second movement, the confident vigour of the one-in-a-bar scherzo, with its elegiac quadruple-time trio forming a complete contrast, and the characteristically jaunty second theme of the finale, attractively scored for violin and cello in octaves against an interesting triplet accompaniment - another example of the great variety of colours Schubert achieves with his instrumental forces. The work as a whole is permeated by the so-called 'Neapolitan' relationship - that is, the juxtaposition of the tonic (key note) with the note a semitone higher; in the slow movement this relationship affects the key structure of the whole movement - E major outer sections are contrasted with a turbulent f minor central section. Similarly, the scherzo is in C, with its trio section a semitone higher in D flat. The finale becomes faster and faster as it rushes towards its close, until the whole work is brought to a magnificent conclusion with a final neapolitan relationship, a great resolving cadence, the note D flat settling emphatically on the home tonic of C. Programme notes by Alec Macdonald

6 TONIGHT'S ARTISTS Divertimenti Ensemble was formed in London in 1978. It has become widely known as the most exciting and imaginative group of its kind in London. Its members are some of the finest young. soloists and chamber musicians of their generation. Divertimenti has toured throughout Great Britain, playing for music clubs and societies. It has also appeared at some of the country's major Festivals such as the Aldeburgh, Bath, Camden, Petworth and Canterbury Festivals. In London Divertimenti gives an annual series of concerts for the London Borough of Camden, and appears regularly at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and St John's, Smith Square. In 1978 Divertimenti was asked by the composer Hans Werner Henze to take part in his festival in Montepulciano, Tuscany; this was followed by appearances in Florence and Siena. The Ensemble has also played in France, Germany and Greece. NEXT RECITAL NIGEL KENNEDY (violin) PETER PETTINGER (piano) Tuesday 19 April Elmwood Hall 7.30 pm