The programme is:
I heard this performance of the 1st quartet when it was played during the Spitalifields music festival in June. It was the most enjoyable quartet concert I've ever been to. The programme then was:
Before the concert, Anthony Payne was interviewed on stage by Ivan Hewitt and said 2 things which struck me. He said that as a young man he'd listened over and over to a recording of Berg's chamber music without any understanding until it finally penetrated him. It was an endearingly un-intellectual way of grasping music and the kind of open-eared perseverance when puzzled which I've done myself.
Then he talked about a problem his music had in finding an audience because it combined elements of English pastoralism with Modernism. The modernists didn't like the pastoral aspects and the pastoralists didn't like the modernism. Either Ivan Hewitt or Payne said that he "fell between two stools", whichever of them it was, Payne agreed. What struck me at the moment he said that was, that means he has a different perspective on music.
The piece performed had been described by Payne as "very, very difficult music" (Payne) but, again, what struck me listening to it was that the only music which I find difficult is music which is boring. And Payne's quartet is not boring music. I'll be fascinated to ear this again.
I'd not heard the Serioso quartet and hadn't realised the Payne had taken me anywhere - shown me a different perspective - until the Beethoven started. I really couldn't hear the Beethoven, couldn't grasp it all; heard the notes, not the music. Then, when the first movement ended with its question, it was as if someone stood by me whilst I was sleeping and said, "Wake up." And then I could hear it.
What a cheeky, despairing, half-hearted, committed, funny piece of music that Beethoven quartet is. Why is Beethoven so funny? It actually made me laugh.
The Payne isn't the same sort of music at all but they made an amazing pairing.
Adlestrop - Jane Manning (Soprano), Jane's Minstrels
String Quartet No. 1 - Tippett String Quartet
Time's Arrow - BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Davis (conductor)
String Quartet No. 2 - Allegri String Quartet
String Quartet No. 1 - Tippett String Quartet
Time's Arrow - BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Davis (conductor)
String Quartet No. 2 - Allegri String Quartet
Joseph Haydn Quartet - Op.103 No.68
Michael Tippett - String Quartet No.1
Anthony Payne - String Quartet No.1
Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet - Op.95 No.11 ‘Serioso’
Michael Tippett - String Quartet No.1
Anthony Payne - String Quartet No.1
Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet - Op.95 No.11 ‘Serioso’
Then he talked about a problem his music had in finding an audience because it combined elements of English pastoralism with Modernism. The modernists didn't like the pastoral aspects and the pastoralists didn't like the modernism. Either Ivan Hewitt or Payne said that he "fell between two stools", whichever of them it was, Payne agreed. What struck me at the moment he said that was, that means he has a different perspective on music.
The piece performed had been described by Payne as "very, very difficult music" (Payne) but, again, what struck me listening to it was that the only music which I find difficult is music which is boring. And Payne's quartet is not boring music. I'll be fascinated to ear this again.
I'd not heard the Serioso quartet and hadn't realised the Payne had taken me anywhere - shown me a different perspective - until the Beethoven started. I really couldn't hear the Beethoven, couldn't grasp it all; heard the notes, not the music. Then, when the first movement ended with its question, it was as if someone stood by me whilst I was sleeping and said, "Wake up." And then I could hear it.
What a cheeky, despairing, half-hearted, committed, funny piece of music that Beethoven quartet is. Why is Beethoven so funny? It actually made me laugh.
The Payne isn't the same sort of music at all but they made an amazing pairing.