大象传媒

Live from Cardiff University Concert Hall

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Cardiff University Quartet in Residence, the Carducci Quartet, perform two powerful works from the 20th century repertoire along with a mature masterpiece from the 'Father of the String Quartet'

Haydn: String Quartet in C, op.54 no.2

Shostakovich: String Quartet no.11

c. 2015 Interval Music

Britten: String Quartet no.2

Britten's Quartet No.2, composed in 1945 for the 250th anniversary of Purcell's death, was written in the wake of a tour of Germany to play for survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. In the huge, final 'Chacony' movement Britten uses Purcell's technique of variations over a repeated bass line to build a telling climax that, despite it's triumphal final chords, seem infused with with sadness and regret.

Shostakovich's String Quartet No.11 also seems filled with thoughts of mortality. It was composed after a serious illness which marked a beginning to the long, slow decline of Shostakovich's final decade. The strange, fractured music seems to be infused with fear and thoughts of impending death, with none of the sense of resignation that would come in his later works.

The concert begins with a quartet from the composer who, arguably, invented the String Quartet form and brought it to maturity. His Op.54 No.2 was written in 1788 when he was at the height of his powers and on the cusp of becoming the most famous composer on the world. The last movement has a typical bit of Haydn subversion, leaving the usual fast finale until very late in the music, and then immediately throwing it over for a slow and gentle ending.