Australian String Quartet

Friday, 16 May at 8pm

Members of former Australian String Quartet and Tankstream Quartet

Sophie Rowell (violin), Anne Horton (violin), Sally Boud (viola),
Rachel Johnston (‘cello)

Programme

BEETHOVEN - Quartet in E flat, op 74 Harfenquartett (Harp)
KATS-CHERNIN - From Anna Magdalena’s Notebook
(based on Bach’s third KIavierbüchlein, 1725)
MOZART - Quartet in B flat, K 458 Jagdquartett (Hunt)

About the artists

Following its formation in 2000, the now-defunct Tankstream Quartet established itself among the finest chamber-music ensembles in Australia. The group took on its new role as the current Australian String Quartet in 2006. The players are renowned as an ensemble having a distinctive musical approach, demonstrated by their success in international competitions and growing prominence on the concert stage. They have also had lessons with members of the Amadeus, Smetana, Hagen, Bartok, Kodály and Alban Berg Quartets.

In 2001, as the Tankstream Quartet, they won the 2nd Melbourne National Chamber Music Competition and, in 2002, the 4th Osaka International Chamber Competition String Quartet Division, and in 2003, the Third Prize and the Audience and Listeners’ Choice Awards at the 4th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition as well as being semi-finalists in the 9th London String Quartet Competition. In 2005, again as the Tankstream Quartet, they came second in the First Borciani Quartet Competition, in Italy, and won the Eighth International String Quartet Competition in Cremona.

Since their formation, the Tankstream Quartet/Australian String Quartet has played for the Sydney Mozart Society every year, and we are very happy to continue this association.

Programme Notes

BEETHOVEN - String quartet in E flat, op 74 Harfenquartett (Harp)

Poco adagio – allegro / Adagio ma non troppo / Presto – più presto quasi prestissimo / Allegretto con variazioni

Beethoven’s quartet in E flat is full and mellow in sound but, for the most part, more
intimate and thoughtful than any of the three Razoumovsky quartets which it followed, even though it is sparser in texture. Apart from its stormy third movement, the work could be described as ‘gentle’. It is one of three major works in E flat which Beethoven wrote in 1809, the others being the Emperor concerto and Les Adieux piano sonata.

The first movement of the quartet has a slow introduction that leads into the main,
allegro, section which is very warm in colour. In a bridge passage in this movement, two notes taken from a motif of the exposition are tossed, pizzicato, from one instrument to another, giving the harp-like effect from which the nick-name of the quartet is derived.

The long main melody of the adagio movement makes three appearances, each time coloured differently – one of the chief charms of the movement. It is dominated by the wonderful cantabile lines of the first violin.

The rapid third movement, which (although not labelled as such) is undoubtedly a
scherzo, contrasts sharply with the rest of the work. The movement has a scherzo– trio– scherzo–trio–scherzo form. It opens with great vigour but, after exploding in a tremendous outburst, gradually becomes more subdued and mysterious until the end of the first scherzo section, when the mood is shattered by the trio section whose pace is increased from presto to più presto quasi prestissimo. When the scherzo appears for the third time, the dynamics are gradually reduced after the first eight bars and the music moves through a number of key modulations and leads, without a break, into the finale, which consists of a set of variations.

In 1810, when it was published, Beethoven dedicated the Harp quartet to Prince
Lobkowitz, one of three noblemen who gave the composer grants to enable him to remain in Vienna during the French invasion of Austria.

MC

ELENA KATZ-CHERNIN - From Anna Magdalena’s Notebook

Polonaise 1 / Musette / Aria / Menuet 1/ Polonaise 2 / Menuet 2

When the fabulous players of the Australian String Quartet asked me to write a piece for the quartet, I had the privilege of listening to their playing in a concert in November 2006, soon after this request. I was more than impressed by their concert and it was then, on the evening of the concert, that I realized that, for this piece, I was interested in an unromantic, dry crisp and light sound.

Somehow, the thought of going to Anna Magdalena Bach’s Notebook seemed appealing to me. I had previously worked with two-part inventions of JS Bach and the neverending pool of inspiration was no less apparent in this Notebook. Several things played a role here. Anna Magdalena – singer, wife, and mother – was a superwoman in the Bach household, taking care of JS Bach and many children, looking after students and guest musicians passing through and at the same time keeping up the high role that the music played in their lives.

Bach gave her his third KIavierbüchlein (Keyboard Notebook) in 1725, which
he started with two partitas – the rest was gathered over years. So, in fact, it is not
always JS Bach himself who wrote all the pieces – sometimes they were written by
his sons or by students or friends. I decided to choose the ones that I liked the
most and also the ones which would work in contrast with each other. The way I
worked with the material was to give the original piece a chance to sound recognizable, and at the same time giving it an impetus to change direction.

Polonaise 1 – Based on a piece possibly written by CPE Bach. I was attracted by its
minimal and repetitive nature.

Musette – Musette from the Notebook is possibly one of the most popular pieces to learn when one is a beginning pianist. I liked its spiky rhythm and insistency.

Aria – Based on the excruciatingly beautiful piece, Bist du bei mir, and therefore for me the hardest to find a way to write a tribute rather than imitate it. I chose a chorale-like close chords and occasional snippets or fragments of the original to intersperse. It ends on an A dominant 7 which leads into the next movement.

Menuet 1 – Based on a popular Menuet from the Book. It starts with pizzicato and it
takes a little while until the first violin enters with the main melody.

Polonaise 2 – Starts out as a canon, starting with ’cello, then echoed by viola.

Menuet 2 – In this final movement, the material runs parallel in different instruments
in opposing tempi for a while.

Programme note © by Elena Kats-Chernin 2007

MOZART - String quartet in B flat, K 458, Jagdquartett (Hunt)

Allegro vivace assai / Menuetto: moderato / Adagio / Allegro assai

As we know, Haydn influenced Mozart’s earlier musical development to a significant
degree, a fact acknowledged by Mozart’s dedication to Haydn of a set of string quartets. Einstein writes that the “impression made by the [opus 33] quartets of Haydn was one of the profoundest Mozart experienced in his artistic life. [. . .] This time, he learned as a master from a master; he did not imitate; he yielded nothing of his own personality”. The musicologist, H C Robbins Landon, says that “on the whole, the six quartets dedicated to Haydn are even profounder and more accomplished masterpieces than the later three dedicated to the King of Prussia”. Mozart’s six so-called “Haydn” quartets, published by Artaria in Vienna in 1785 as “opera X” [ten] and listed in Köchel’s first catalogue as K 387, K 421, K 428, K 458 (Hunt), K 464 and K 465 (Dissonance), were written between 1783 and 1785.

Apart from the so-called “Salzburg symphonies”, K 136 to K 138, Mozart wrote two
major groups of early string quartets. The first group, K 155 to K 160 (written in northern Italy) and K 168 to K 173 (written in Vienna), were composed with one year: October 1772 to September 1773. His second major group, consisting of six much more mature works, was composed between the end of 1782 and the start of 1785. This is the set dedicated to Joseph Haydn, of which the “Hunt” quartet is the fourth. The “Hunt” was the first of the Viennese quartets entered in Mozart’s own thematic catalogue of his works, where it is dated 9th November 1784.

The hunting motif in the first movement, from which the quartet derives its name, was quite typical at the time but Mozart put his new experience to good use in its development. The adagio movement contains clear pointers to the Romantic era that was to develop shortly, while the main theme of the closing rondo movement is based on an old folk song which Mozart had already used (in a different form) in the last movement of his E-flat wind divertimento, K 252. Both the second and fourth movements appear to have preliminary studies in the incomplete minuet, K 458a, and in the fragmentary quartet movement, K 458b, respectively.

The musicologist H J Robbins Landon describes the “Hunt” quartet as “the most popular and, save for the Adagio, the weakest [of Mozart’s string quartets] . . . However, ‘weakness’ in our present context still means genius and mastery”. Well said, finally!

MC