Belfast Music Society Celebrity Concerts 12.4.97 Programme

THE EMPEROR STRING QUARTET - violin violin viola 'cello PROGRAMME Martin Burgess Clare Hayes Fiona Bonds William Schofield Quartet in F minor, Op.95 'The Capsizing Man' and Other Stories Quartet in D, K499 (Hoffmeister) Supported by the Saturday, 12th April 1997 Elmwood Hall, University Road at 7.30pm ARTS COUNCIL BELE CITY AS - COUNCIL NATIONAL FEDERATION OF MUSIC SOCIETIES NEMS Beethoven Ian Wilson Mozart

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String quartet in F minor, op 95 Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827 allegro con brio: allegretto ma non troppo: allegro assai vivace ma serioso : larghetto allegretto agitato The autograph manuscript of the F minor quartet bears the inscription: 'Quartett serioso 1810 in the month of October - dedicated to Herr von Zmeskall by his friend L v Bthvn...' The popular division of Beethoven's music into three 'periods' - early, middle and late - like any attempt to categorise music, only works up to a point. The early and late works certainly show certain clear charac- teristics, but the middle period is much more vaguely defined and the boundaries between the periods are far from clearly differentiated. Thus it is with the present quartet. Those who like to pigeonhole Beethoven's music would tend to classify it as a middle period work, but in many respects it has more in common with the late quartets. To call it ‘transitional', however, implies that it is in some way ‘imper- fect'. Best to take the quartet on its own merits. As to the serioso subtitle, again it is better to take such an inscription at face value, and avoid attempting to find some biographical explanation (such as an unsuccessful love affair) to explain the composer's mood. The quartet as a whole is very short, but this brevity is due to concentration; in no way is the work a 'miniature'. The opening movement is representative of the whole quartet - it is in standard'sonata form', but a mere 151 bars in length. Characteristic of Beethoven's late idiom are the abrupt changes of mood, with brief motifs and dramatic pauses. After the passion, however, the movement ends gently. The hymn-like main theme of the second movement is in Beethoven's most lyri- cal vein. The second section is fugal; here we have another pointer to Beethoven's late works, in which he shows a great interest in contrapuntal textures (culmi- nating in the famous - or infamous - Grosse Fuge). At the end, hymn and fugue themes are combined. The scherzo (note the serioso marking) follows directly. It opens with a jerky four-note figure that develops into a fully fledged theme. The 'trio' section is, in great contrast, very lyrical. Typically for mature Beethoven, the scherzo has five sections, with the trio heard twice. The finale opens with a slow introduction which accelerates in to the allegretto - marked agitato. Again we find brief motifs that gradually coalesce into fully fledged themes. The music seems about to end quietly, but there is a surprise - a rushing, light-fingered coda. Commentators have been divided on the 'merits' or otherwise of this ending. Listeners may make their own minds up...

The Capsizing Man and Other Stories Capsizing Man: The Forest The Chariot : Seated Woman: The Cat I have read somewhere (I wish I could remember the details!) that someone once observed of a young composer that he could have been called 'up and coming' if he had not, in fact, already arrived. That observation could be equally appropri- ately applied to Ian Wilson. Still only in his early thirties, Belfast born Wilson can safely be described as one of the brightest stars in the Irish musical firmament. He has already acquired an enviable reputation both at home and abroad, his music having been performed in Europe, America, Israel, Scandinavia... In fact, The Capsizing Man was first heard in Maastricht, in Holland, in May 1995, performed by the Emperor Quartet, who gave the British premiere at the Cheltenham Festival that year. It is one of a number of chamber works he has written - a CD of his three piano trios is due out later this year. Ian Wilson b1964 ne as doua) The Capsizing Man and Other Stories - or, more prosaically, String Quartet No. 2 - bears the subtitle 'Studies after Giacometti' and represents the composer's per- sonal response to five of the remarkable stick-like, primitive, bronze sculptures of the Swiss artist, Alberto Giacometti (1901-66). The programme element is not totally dominant, however; the work can also be seen as five technical studies exploring the full gamut of textures available in the contemporary string quartet medium. Indeed, it could also be analysed in terms of the normal string quartet structure, with an extra slow movement (Seated Woman is actually subtitled 'Interlude') added between it and the finale. 'Each movement', says Wilson, 'concentrates on one specific idea'. Thus the sculpture that gives the quartet its name, picturing a man in the act of toppling for- ward, is represented in the music by constant falling figures. The Forest concerns itself with the things inside it'; the music is full of mysterious sounds. The Chariot is, to judge by the music's speedy progress, being drawn by high octane horse power (shades of Steve Reich's representation of more modern traction here!) In Seated Woman, 'the musical ideas are fragmentary and delicate, just like the sculpture'. The last study is the most obviously programmatic. It is a particu- larly successful feline portrait (my next door neighbour, Barney, might well recognise a kindred spirit in the music's frequently changing moods - 'episodic, like a day-in-the-life of a cat!') Two

Quartet in D, K499 ('Hoffmeister') nue allegretto: minuet and trio: adagio: allegro horarthlus W.A. Mozart 1756-1791 The beginning of 1786 saw Mozart heavily involved in preparations for the first production of The Marriage of Figaro. Intrigues and complications kept him fully occupied, but the premiere on May 1st was a triumph. Even so, the opera ran for only nine performances, having to give way to a rival, Martin's Una Cosa Rara (one of the operas whose music he was to borrow for the dinner scene in Don Giovanni, incidentally). Having seen Figaro safely born, Mozart was keen to put quill to paper, and he soon embarked on a series of important chamber works; in six months he had completed a piano quartet, two piano trios, the clarinet trio, the F major piano duet sonata, and this quartet. vandst ni ben Like Beethoven's op 95, it occupies an isolated position in Mozart's quartet canon, coming between the second set of quartets dedicated to Haydn (1784/5) and the three 'Prussian' quartets (1789/90). It was given its nickname, Hoffmeister, after the publisher, to distinguish it from its successor, also in D (K575); perhaps it was composed specifically for him. The quartet reveals how far Mozart had gone in making all four instruments equal partners. The opening theme on paper little more than a series of broken chords - proves to be very fertile, providing much of the material for the first movement, appearing in a wide variety of forms and with several contrasting thematic ideas, including a curious staccato 'ticking' motif that at the beginning of the development section, joins the main theme. From its clear D major opening, the music travels widely, tonally speaking,but returns safely home before the movement's whispered conclusion The minuet is placed second, rather than third, and has a rather sombre trio section in the minor. The slow movement, in G major, begins serenely, but there are emo- tions and passions lying not far below the surface, which break out at times throughout the movement. The first theme of the finale, in triplet rhythm, is a curi- ously stuttering affair (which gives it a rather Haydnesque personality!) The sec- ond theme is basically just a rising and falling scale passage, but Mozart's treat- ment of it brings one of those foretastes of the Romantic era that we find from time to time in his music. Eric Blom, writing about the minuet of this quartet, said that the chromatic inner parts made him think of Borodin. Curiously, it is passages in this finale that seem to me in a strange way to suggest that Russian composer. Alec Macdonald 1997 Copywright

TONIGHT'S ARTISTS Established in its present formation since 1992, the Emperor String Quartet has emerged as one of the outstanding ensembles of its generation and in 1995 became the first British Quartet to win the prestigious Evian International String Quartet Competition. During the 1996 season, the quartet performed to sell-out audiences at interna- tional festivals in Edinburgh, Bath and Cheltenham, appearing with artists such as Emma Johnson, Nicholas Daniel, Anya Alexeyev and Benjamin Frith. This season includes debut trips to the USA and Austria and concerts in France, Belgium Germany, Holland and Luxembourg. In the UK, as well as regular BBC engage- ments, they will give three recitals at the Wigmore Hall. In planning for 1997/8 are tours of Italy, Germany and Belgium and in February 1998, a trip to Sri Lanka, as part of the celebrations for the 50th Anniversary of Independence. "...acclaimed by an ovation from an audience that was both moved and admir- ing...the Emperor, a name to remember" Myriam Tetaz 24-Heures, Grand Quotidien Suisse' "Entirely natural and wonderfully musical, this quartet enchanted..." The Scotsman begala a to OR SHT inbu

NEXT CONCERT Saturday, 3rd May 1997 LONDON WINDS The Studio. Waterfront Hall - 7.30 pm Jade