Proms Chamber Music 3: Webern/Matthews/Beethoven (3.08.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

13:00
Cadogan Hall

The Apollon Musagète Quartet - former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and eloquent champions of contemporary music - makes its Proms debut, bringing the European premiere of the Fifth Quartet by one of Britain's leading living composers, Colin Matthews - a work commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Festival. It is paired with Webern's youthful Langsamer Satz, an ecstatic piece that showcases the composer's formal skill within a lyrical idiom. Of Beethoven's six Op. 18 quartets, No. 3 is the lightest, and the hardest to pin down. The scherzo is fleeting, and even the framing movements have an unusual delicacy and wistfulness about them.

Webern: Langsamer Satz
Colin Matthews: String Quartet No. 5 (European premiere)
Beethoven: String Quartet in D major, Op. 18 No. 3

Apollon Musagète Quartet

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This one definitely looks worthwhile. I wish I could be there!

However -

Of Beethoven's six Op. 18 quartets, No. 3 is the lightest, and the hardest to pin down.

I wonder what this means?

[Serial_Apologist]

I wonder what this means?

The score weighs the least?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The score weighs the least?

They're confusing it with Haydn's Lark?

[Roehre]

...
I wonder what this means?

I haven't the slightest.
Opus 18/3 was the first of the set to be composed and one which wasn't revised as its immediate successors in F op.18/1 and G op.18/2 were. But, as was observed in the 1860s : More Beethoven than Quartet

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Let's hope we discover the answer this lunch-time.

[Serial_Apologist]

Let's hope we discover the answer this lunch-time.

But why this particular Webern, which is so untypical, unless they're going for the soft option? There's no shortage of short works between Ops 2 and 30. Langsamer Satz must qualify as his lightest score!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But why this particular Webern, which is so untypical, unless they're going for the soft option? There's no shortage of short works between Ops 2 and 30. Langsamer Satz must qualify as his lighest score!

They're going for the soft option.

[edashtav]

Webern: Langsamer Satz
Anton could have been a rich man had he not forsaken such high quality drawn-out schmaltz. It may be redundant but, of its outdated type, it's very good. The playing of Apollon Musagete Quartet was a delight. Petroc’s barking provided a disturbing postlude

Colin Matthews: String Quartet No. 5 (European premiere). A mere 11 minutes long, this one movement quartet packed more musical activity than Webern managed in a similar span. Colin Matthews is a great eclectic, a consummate consumer of 20th century music. I warmed to the opening figure and the exposition that was fractured by helpful silences; helpful in the sense that they gave me, the listener, time to absorb and reflect. An outburst of “tough” Matthews led to a scurrying passage that cooled quickly to reveal spectral music derived from the quartet’s start. I was enjoying the open textures and the clarity of the composer’s scoring. An important, quick pizzicato passage seemed to become drunken- did the quartet lose its poise or was the dissolution carefully scripted by CM? A repeat suggested the latter as unanimity collapsed, once again. An attractive work possessed of a serious mien. It ended, I felt, with an unanswered question. I shall listen to it, again.

This is the type of new piece that Chamber Music Societies should consider – its ten minutes can expand and enhance a traditional programme; the latter being the hook to guarantee “bums on seats”.

Beethoven: String Quartet in D major, Op. 18 No. 3

Beethoven’s first essay in the medium. I loved the aptness of the quotation that Roehre unearthed: […] as was observed in the 1860s : More Beethoven than Quartet.

There’s plenty of quintessential Beethoven especially his ability to “worry” a figure, exploiting all of its potential. On the other hand, parts of its slow movement are gauche in their abuse of the quartet – not a dialogue between players, more of a pre-echo of homophonic hymnody. I enjoyed the quartet’s performance that was elegant and pointed to the quartet’s forebears: Haydn and Mozart.

I felt the programme was very kind to Colin Matthews as his mature piece, short though it was, was show-cased between two apprentice works. Colin’s piece became the throbbing heart of the concert and his muscular “meat & gristle” music was displayed to good effect. That’s the sort of support that's so helpful to living composers.

[EdgeleyRob]

I enjoyed the Colin Matthews quartet.
Those bits where the ensemble seemed to go awry were very clever.
Nice to here the composer speaking beforehand to introduce the work.