Chiaroscuro Quartet @ West Cork Chamber Music Festival 2019
Take this quartet as a small memorial of our friendship and whenever you play it recall the days we spent together and the sincere affection felt for you then… – Inscription by Beethoven to Karl Amenda on first violin part of Op.18/1
Beethoven’s first set of string quartets stand proudly alongside Haydn and Mozart’s greatest quartets, six daring works crackling with vitality and ingenuity. His first published Quartet opens with a question that becomes its own answer, building a witty and powerful movement from almost nothing before moving on to the profound and tragic Adagio.
Apart from the flowering of female singer-songwriters in 17th and early 18th century Italy, women composers had a tough time up until the late 20th century. One of the few who bucked the trend was Fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix, and clearly a distinguished composer and musician despite her brother’s scandalously active discouragement. Her only Quartet is a startling work; the Finale in particular is electrifying.
Andrea Tarrodi’s Light Scattering opens us to a new world of dazzling light dancing on the surface of the waters, whose power grows steadily to an almost blinding intensity. This scintillating work closes with the echoing cries of gulls. Vasks 4th Quartet was composed in the last year of the old century and to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday, the music leads the listener through his mother’s lifetime - the calms, the storms and the horrors inflicted on Eastern Europe. The Finale is a long Meditation led by a high solo violin bringing the Festival’s first concert to an optimistically peaceful close.
1. OPENING CONCERT – BANTRY HOUSE 20.00
Beethoven String Quartet No.1 in F major Op.18/1
Chiaroscuro Quartet
Fanny Mendelssohn String Quartet in E flat – Quatuor Zaïde Andrea Tarrodi Quartet No.3 ‘Light Scattering’ – Dahlkvist Quartet Vasks Quartet No.4 – Borusan Quartet
ADMISSION €50/€40/€30/€16 CONCERT ENDS 22.15
For booking, see here. For information on all 2019 events, download the festival brochure below or visit http://new.westcorkmusic.ie/chamber-music-festival.