Geoff Nuttall, violin

Owen Dalby, violin

Lesley Robertson, viola

Christopher Costanza, cello

String Quartet in D minor, K. 421 (1783)

Allegro moderato

Andante

Menuetto (Allegretto)

Allegretto, ma non troppo (Variations)

String Quartet No. 3, in D, Op. 34 (1944-5)

Allegro moderato

Scherzo: Allegro molto

Sostenuto

Finale: Allegro – Allegro con fuoco

-intermission-

String Quartet in F minor Op. 20, No. 5 (1772)

Allegro moderato

Menuetto

Adagio

Finale: Fuga a due soggetti

Notes on the program

Haydn Op. 20, Number 5, in F minor

The Opus 20 quartets by Haydn are the first great masterpieces—by any composer—for the medium of two violins, viola, and cello. In addition to solidifying the formal four-movement structure of the string quartet, for the first time in a small ensemble context one can hear the democratic participation of four truly equal voices. Haydn draws on an immense range of emotional expression in Op. 20, with brilliant compositional flourishes to match. He synthesizes the very pinnacle of baroque-era counterpoint with his distinctive wit, whimsy, pathos, and the groundbreaking use of silence as “topic”. It is these six quartets specifically that threw down the gauntlet and which inspired every major later composer to compose their most profound utterances for the medium of string quartet.

F minor was Haydn’s key of choice to express his darkest and most potent thoughts. The opening movement is one of his most powerful in any genre. There is a moment of respite from the brooding opening music with a second theme in smiling major, but when this music returns later it’s back in F minor with devastating effect. The two themes are jammed together in the coda, distilling the essence of the movement with a dramatic conclusion. The darkness continues with a frustrated and angry minuet. The trio arrives as a ray of sunlight in F major. The adagio is a simple cavatina, the kind that a minstrel might strum and sing under the balcony of his beloved. The fugue returns to F minor and demonstrates that Haydn knew and loved Handel’s oratorio Messiah. The first of the two subjects is stolen from the chorus, ”And with his stripes we are healed.”

-SLSQ