Galitzin Quartet: Pedro Meireles & Owen Cox violins, Thomas Kirby viola, Ken Ichinose cello play:
JF Haydn (1732-1809) String Quartet No 63 in B-Flat Major Op 76/4 “Sunrise” Allegro con spirito ~ Adagio ~ Menuet. Allegro & Trio ~ Finale. Allegro ma non troppo
Lv Beethoven (1770-1827) String Quartet No. 8 in E minor Op 59/2 "Rasumovsky No. 2"
Allegro ~ Molto adagio ~ Allegretto ~ Finale. Presto
First Prize Winners of the 22nd Charles Hennen International Chamber Music Competition in Holland, 2007, the Galitzin Quartet was formed in 2003 at the Royal Academy of Music in London. After playing together for two months they won the ‘Sir Edward Cooper Prize’ at the which led to a public masterclass at the Wigmore Hall, London. They have since won the Czech-London International Music Competition, receiving the Marjorie Bunty Lempfert award for chamber music, reaching the final of the Royal Overseas League Competition and winning the ‘Sir Arthur Bliss Prize’ for their performance of Bliss’ Clarinet Quintet. They held the Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music in 2006/07. The quartet received a scholarship to attend the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, the Britten-Pears International String Quartet Academy in Aldeburgh and Zeist Music Days in Holland and has been fortunate to receive tuition from members of some of the world’s leading quartets including the Alban Berg, Amadeus, Belcea, Debussy, Endellion, Jerusalem, Mosaïques, Vermeer and Ysaÿe Quartets. In 2005 The quartet was commissioned by the contemporary English composer, Professor John Ramsay, to record three of his string quartets and he dedicated the 3rd to them. The Quartet has regular tours in Germany, often visiting all the major cities of North-Rhine Westphalia and Euregio regions and performing several concerts in connection with the KlangKulTour and the Euriade Cultural Festival. The Quartet is named after Prince Nicholas Galitzin of Saint Petersburg, the dedicatee of three of Beethoven's late Quartets: Op.127, 130 and 132.
Haydn’s quartet is well named, with the violin emerging from the ensemble exactly as the sun rises. This figure alternates with another more bustling theme. Each time the one participates more in the qualities of the other. The adagio unfolds with a dependence on the cello that shapes and directs. There is even a short canonic passage for violin and cello. The minuet is almost a country-dance and its trio suggests a bagpipe. The finale encompasses great variety within a very short time. The melody is sedately gay set off with contrasing passages in which the violin ventures into a near-harmonic range. The music becomes more strongly inflected, there is a brief fugue and a bravura finish at breakneck speed.
Although only six years had passed since the publication of the Opus 18 quartets, Beethoven's style changes immensely for the Op 59 set. Composed in the wake of the "Eroica" Symphony, and the vastness of the individual movements; the symphonic, orchestral character of the string writing; and the stretched formal boundaries led some critics to dub the first of the set an "Eroica" for string quartet. The 3 Rasumovsky quartets were dedicated to the Russian Ambassador in Vienna, Count Andreas Kirillovich Rasumovsky, who had commissioned them. The Ambassador was one of Beethoven's principal supporters until a fire destroyed much of his wealth. Beethoven completed them in 1806, but because Rasumovsky had exclusive rights to the pieces for a year, their publication was delayed until January 1808. Beethoven planned to use Russian folk themes in each of the three quartets, but did so only in the finale of the first and the slow movement of the second. Two widely spaced chords introduce a very tight and nervous atmosphere, with the theme traditionally repeated in a development section. The prominence of the Neapolitan, both the pitch F natural and the harmony of F major, creates a palpable pathos. The large coda takes a path as harmonically adventurous as the development section. Carl Czerny, a former student of Beethoven, noted that the composer was inspired to write the slow movement in E major, while contemplating a starry sky. The chorale-like opening of the movement looks forward to the Heiliger Dankgesang, Op 132. The recapitulation of the hymn-like theme features an active cello line and a second violin part that sails above the first violin's melody. As in the first movement, the E minor scherzo emphasizes the Neapolitan F major. The Russian theme appears in the E major Trio, where it is given extensive contrapuntal treatment, appearing first in the viola, followed by the second violin, cello, and lastly, first violin. The fast finale again flirts with F major, it is generally light and jovial, featuring a carefree main theme, rather atypical of the composer's style at this time. The second subject leads to a development section, after which the themes reappear to suggest a Rondo.
