Talking about string quartets

[teamsaint]

Indeed so - but, to return to the string quartet, most of the works mentioned are by composers no longer with us; what about those by David Matthews, who now has a dozen of them to his name (all of which are either already recorded or in the process of being so)?

vol 3 due out on November 3rd, which includes quartets nos 1, 2 and 3.

http://www.toccataclassics.com/cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0060

[vinteuil]

Going back to the opening post:

... There are so many composers who seem to me to have more to say in their quartets than in,for example,their symphonies...

... I don't know whether it's a question of age, but for me [æt: lxii] it's certainly true that more and more I find smaller forces are more speaking. Overall, I now much prefer chamber to symphonic repertoire, the spare piano writing of Janáček to his operas, Mahler songs in their piano versions rather the orchestral, Brahms works in their piano/piano/duet/chamber versions.

I know that my late father went through a similar process of 'thinning down' in his musical preferences. Is this a phenomenon others have experienced?

[aeolium]

I would have thought that the Symphonie is the epitome of autobiographical programme music. If, as you say, the term really means anything precise at all.

Yes, that's clear from what we know about the composition and what Berlioz himself wrote about it. Is it clear to the listener who does not know that but is just listening to the music: the ball, the march to the scaffold (originally written apparently for the opera Les Francs-juges), the witches' sabbath? Would that be recognisable as "episodes in the life of an artist"?

Sorry, getting a bit OT from string quartets.

[aeolium]

... I don't know whether it's a question of age, but for me [æt: lxii] it's certainly true that more and more I find smaller forces are more speaking. Overall, I now much prefer chamber to symphonic repertoire....

I know that my late father went through a similar process of 'thinning down' in his musical preferences. Is this a phenomenon others have experienced?

Yes. It's ages since I last went to a concert with symphonic repertoire and it's nearly always chamber music concerts, and piano and song recitals, that I attend now, apart from occasional opera productions from WNO and ETO. And I don't often listen to orchestral works on R3 or on CD.

[Richard Barrett]

Would that be recognisable as "episodes in the life of an artist"?

No. But my point (and yours too I think) is that this applies to all supposedly "autobiographical" music.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You want autobiography in Music?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAfUUgg25_U

[EdgeleyRob]

Some wonderful posts here which I find fascinating,many thanks everyone.

Not wanting to get all "heavyweight" on you but for me this begs the question of what it means (to you) for a piece of instrumental music to be "autobiographical". I'm not saying there's no such thing, there are explicit examples from Beethoven and more cryptic ones from Shostakovich and Janáček of course, but outside those...? (and those composers certainly didn't limit their "autobiographical" music to their string quartets)

I wish I could explain more clearly what it is I'm trying to say.
Malcom Arnold's symphonies,to me,at times seem full of the anguish and despair of his mental illness,and yet the string quartets go a step further,I think.
Some of Weinberg's symphonies too are reactions to personal tragedy,but listen to the heartwrenching 16th quartet,almost as if he is going into more detail about how he feels.

[EdgeleyRob]

Going back to the opening post:



... I don't know whether it's a question of age, but for me [æt: lxii] it's certainly true that more and more I find smaller forces are more speaking. Overall, I now much prefer chamber to symphonic repertoire, the spare piano writing of Janáček to his operas, Mahler songs in their piano versions rather the orchestral, Brahms works in their piano/piano/duet/chamber versions.

I know that my late father went through a similar process of 'thinning down' in his musical preferences. Is this a phenomenon others have experienced?

Same here vinteuil.
I will never tire of orchestral music,but the older I get,the more I turn to chamber and piano works.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

James Dillon on writing for the Arditti S4tet:

I was fortunate enough to work with the Arditti Quartet when they were establishing their identity. I met them in the early ‘80s and the last thing on my mind was that this was going to be a long relationship. When I was asked by Richard Steinitz to write a quartet for them, I began to think much more about the history of the genre, and so the first string quartet comes out of listening to a lot of the Mozart and Haydn quartets.

Thinking about the string quartet has stayed fresh for me in a curious kind of way because members of the quartet have changed over the years, but with this ‘phenomenon' called Irvine Arditti always at the heart of it. It's like a new planetary system each time, and one of the things that has been a constant is not only the ‘virtuosity' but the ‘individuality' of the players that Irvine surrounds himself with. My particular attraction to the string quartet is in part to do with the fact that it's this homogenous sound world, its intimacy and chamber music potential. Do you work against that or go with it? This homogenous soundworld means that you begin to experiment on other levels.

Of course one of the things that you're given licence to do when you write for the Arditti Quartet is that you know they're fearless. It really is a truism to say that you don't have to worry about how difficult something is for them to play. So that's already unlocking a degree of freedom.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Same here vinteuil.
I will never tire of orchestral music,but the older I get,the more I turn to chamber and piano works.

Me, too.

[Serial_Apologist]

Same here vinteuil.
I will never tire of orchestral music,but the older I get,the more I turn to chamber and piano works.

I too share this experience.

I wonder what it is? Perhaps orchestral music in its many forms impresses itself on younger minds for its immediate power, but above all maybe because this is the area of classical music through which we are more likely to be inducted into the genre as a whole, and thereafter that which one wishes first to introduce to others.

[gradus]

Me too.

[Bryn]

And who could forget Rosenzweig's 2nd?

Sorry. Don't know what came over me. Must be listening to Schoenberg's 2nd.

[amateur51]

Going back to the opening post:



... I don't know whether it's a question of age, but for me [æt: lxii] it's certainly true that more and more I find smaller forces are more speaking. Overall, I now much prefer chamber to symphonic repertoire, the spare piano writing of Janáček to his operas, Mahler songs in their piano versions rather the orchestral, Brahms works in their piano/piano/duet/chamber versions.

I know that my late father went through a similar process of 'thinning down' in his musical preferences. Is this a phenomenon others have experienced?

To a certain extent certainly but I have also increased my need to hear music 'live', whether it is orchestral or solo,
chamber or vocal. The cause/meaning of this is, as yet, unclear to me.

[gradus]

Perhaps it is more engaging live - I have also noticed that I tend to prefer recordings of live performances.