BIOGRAPHY Prize winners at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition, the Karol Szymanowski International Competition, and the St Martin’s Chamber Music Competition, THE CONWAY JUBILEE QUARTET was formed in 2006 at the Royal Academy of Music, London. They have won awards from organisations such as the Tillett Trust, the Park Lane Group, the Hattori Foundation, the HALL Matin Musical Scholarship Fund, and the Worshipful Company of Musicians. SUNDAY

They have held fellowships at both the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of CONCERTS Music and Dance, and their mentors include Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet), and the .

The quartet has performed widely throughout the UK in venues such as the Wigmore Hall and the Patrons - Stephen Hough, Prunella Scales CBE, Roderick Swanston, Purcell Room, and this Summer performed the Shostakovich and Mendelssohn Octets with the Doric Quartet at Germany’s Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Hiro Takenouchi and Timothy West CBE Artistic Director - Simon Callaghan The Jubilee Quartet would like to thank the Mears/Speers family for their generous support and the Stradivari Trust for their assistance in acquiring two fine violins and a viola for the quartet’s use through a syndicate trust. For more information please visit www.stradivaritrust.org. Sunday October 23rd 2016, 6:30pm And for more information on the Jubilee Quartet please visit www.jubileequartet.co.uk. JUBILEE QUARTET

NEXT AT CONWAY HALL VIOLIN TEREZA PRIVRATSKA Sunday October 30th 2016 VIOLIN JULIA LOUCKS Pre-Concert Recital at 5:30pm ADAM BROWN (GUITAR) VIOLIN STEPHANIE EDMUNDSON Solo recital presenting varied dance forms from across CELLO LAUREN STEEL Latin America. Performed works will be recorded on a forthcoming album that will include dynamic new arrangements and exciting first recordings. Tonight’s concert is generously supported by The Musicians’ Company Main Recital at 5:30pm CORIOLAN STRING TRIO Beethoven String Trio in G Op. 9 No. 1 Helen Grime Aviary Sketches (after Joseph Cornell) Mozart Divertimento in E flat K563

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Conway Hall Sunday Concerts are an integral part of the charitable activities of Conway Hall. Please turn off all mobile phones and electronic devices. Conway Hall’s registered charity name is Conway Hall Ethical Society (n o . 1156033). No recording and photographing allowed at any time. PROGRAMME PROGRAMME NOTES MOZART QUARTET IN E FLAT K428 (1783) If we were to compare the history of the string quartet to a relay race in sport, Haydn would be the first leg runner, and Mozart would be next to take the baton. The ‘Father of the String Quartet’ left a lasting (1756-91) legacy, laying the foundations of a new compositional approach to the string quartet - one based on QUARTET IN E FLAT K428 (1783) equality for all four instruments in the musical narrative. Mozart took the new techniques and ideas into practice in his String Quartet No. 16, the third of the ‘Haydn’ Quartets dedicated to his Austrian I. Allegro non troppo friend. The piece opens with a chromatic statement in four-part unison that slithers into the bright first II. Andante con moto subject. A playful mood shines throughout the movement with short ornate phrases tossed between each voice with fleeting minor episodes that cast a darker musical spell. The Andante glides through III. Menuetto & Trio smooth and rich textures coloured with chromatic embellishments and soaring violin melodies. The IV. Allegro Vivace Minuet comes alive with foot-stomping chords and folk-like rhythms, while the Trio meanders through brooding legato chromatic melodies before the Minuet leaps back into action. The boisterous Finale is full of whimsical contrasts in dynamics and texture, adventurous tonal shifts and ends with a dramatic conclusion that would take any listener by surprise.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) QUARTET IN F MINOR OP. 95 ‘SERIOSO’ (1810) IN F MINOR OP. 95 ‘SERIOSO’ (1810) I. Allegro con brio II. Allegretto ma non troppo Beethoven’s Quartet No.11 (with the nickname ‘Serioso’) was an important epoch in his musical journey. This piece closed the curtain to his “Middle period” (characterised by a greater use of Romantic musical III. Allegro assai vivace ma serioso - Più Allegro language) and provided the springboard into a stylistic idiom that was more complex and ambitious than IV. Larghetto espressivo - Allegretto agitato - Allegro ever before. The first movement opens with a muscular unison statement that boasts a tour de force of rhythmic and dynamic energy that is untamed until all four voices fade away at the end. The second movement is a story of two chapters - it begins with a rich and lyrical narrative that relieves the players and listeners from the potency of the previous movement, but slowly foreshadows the Beethoven that was to come in the next years with brooding fugue episodes enriched with chromatic melodies. The bulk of the Scherzo and Finale convey the ‘serious’ nature of the quartet to extreme proportions. The INTERVAL Scherzo provokes a fiery atmosphere with bold dotted rhythms and mighty chords that cry of anguish. (15 mins) After a brief melancholic introduction, the players dash through a tumultuous Finale full of merciless passages, agitated textures and capped by a rapid and triumphant conclusion.

Béla Bartók (1881-1945) BARTÓK QUARTET NO. 4 SZ. 91 (1928) QUARTET NO. 4 SZ. 91 (1928) It was not just Mozart and Beethoven whose string quartets are of great importance. Béla Bartók’s I. Allegro six string quartets are considered to define a pivotal point in the development of 20th century music. II. Prestissimo, con sordino His Fourth String Quartet is perhaps the most celebrated of his six quartets. The piece follows an arch form narrative where two pairs of corresponding movements bracket a central slow chapter. Although III. Non troppo lento Bartók was not a string player, the quartet showcases an extraordinary musical arsenal extended with IV. Allegretto pizzicato new ideas of technique (including Bartók pizzicato where the string slaps the fingerboard), expression, harmonic colours and sonic effects. The outer movements carry out an assault of vigorous dynamics, V. Allegro molto harsh dissonance, contrapuntal textures and formidable rhythmic force. The second movement is played almost entirely with mutes to conjure a ghostly and agitated whirlwind, while the fourth movement is purely pizzicato and folk-like in harmony and texture, but still brews an oddly serpentine feel. Bartók describes the central movement as the ‘kernel’ of the piece, as icy harmonies shimmer a nocturnal mist around rhapsodic melodies in the cello and violin. Tonight’s performance will finish at approximately 8:30pm. © Isaku Takahashi 2016