BIOGRAPHY CONWAY HALL SUNDAY CONCERTS

Patrons - Stephen Hough, Prunella Scales CBE, Roderick Swanston, Hiro Takenouchi, Petroc Trelawny and Timothy West CBE Director of Music - Simon Callaghan

Based in the UK, the CARDUCCI QUARTET performs over 90 concerts worldwide each year whilst running their own annual festival in Highnam, Gloucester, and holding residencies at and Dean Close School, Cheltenham. Sunday January 15th 2017, 6:30pm Highlights of the current season include collaborations with Craig Ogden, performing in Venice at the Palazzetto Bru Zane and their first recording for Signum Classics - contemporary works premiered by the quartet. Highly celebrated for their interpretations of contemporary repertoire, the Carducci Quartet is regularly invited to premiere new works. Recent highlights include a new by John McCabe and Oboe Quintets by Michael Berkeley and Sven-Ingo Koch with Nicholas Daniel. Educational work remains important to the quartet who set up the Carducci Music Trust, to support their work in schools. The quartet studied with members of the Amadeus, Alban Berg, Chilingirian, Takacs and Vanbrugh quartets and, as part of the ProQuartet professional training programme in France, with Gyorgy Kurtag, Walter Levin and Paul Katz. CARDUCCI QUARTET Steinway Artist SIMON CALLAGHAN performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. His recent tours have taken him to Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and on two occasions to the Banff Centre in Canada. He has performed at all of the & SIMON CALLAGHAN UK’s major concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and St David’s Hall Cardiff. 2017 will see Simon undertake concert tours in the UK, Italy, Holland and Switzerland. Simon puts great value on teaching and in 2016/17 will give masterclasses, lead a course at Benslow Music and continue his work as Head of Piano at the Ingenium Academy (Winchester). In addition to his performing schedule, Callaghan is Director of Music at Conway Hall, where he oversees the longest-running chamber music series in Europe. VIOLIN MATTHEW DENTON NEXT AT CONWAY HALL VIOLIN MICHELLE FLEMING Sunday January 22nd 2017, 6.30pm EOIN SCMIDT-MARTIN TRIO ANIMA CELLO EMMA DENTON Dubois Terzettino PIANO SIMON CALLAGHAN Hahn Romanesque Ravel Sonatine en trio Fauré Après un rêve Debussy Syrinx Debussy Children’s Corner, arr. Salzedo Ravel Le tombeau de Couperin, arr. Silverthorne Couperin La Superbe Debussy Sonate We are hugely grateful to the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust for their support in providing free tickets for those aged 8-25

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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 B FLAT K458 ‘THE HUNT’ (1784) The long tradition of the string quartet has, and will always be indebted to Haydn, the emblematic Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) figure who took the style to remarkable artistic heights. To mark the important contributions Haydn made, Mozart dedicated a set of six string quartets to him. This Quartet in B flat earned the nickname QUARTET IN B FLAT K458 ‘THE HUNT’ (1784) ‘The Hunt’ after its publication from the opening bucolic horn call, which inspires much of the material I. Allegro vivace assai for the bubbly first movement. The second chapter tells a tale of a regal Minuet filled with rich four-part harmonies, countered by a clockwork Trio. Like many of his slow movements, the Adagio glistens in a II. Menuetto and Trio: Moderato spacious yet intimate air with every phrase yearning and fading with each stroke from the players’ bows. III. Adagio The bristling Finale rounds the piece off with an exciting chase with sprightly melodies and rhythms bouncing off the strings and shimmering episodes of tension to enrich the unpredictable narrative. IV. Allegro assai

WEBERN SIX BAGATELLES (1913) Anton Webern was one of the three torchbearers of the Second Viennese School, an artistic movement Anton Webern (1883-1945) that sought to free from its traditional harmonic and tonal values. His Six Bagatelles is an archetypal result of the serialist sound world. Despite lasting only four minutes (only 57 bars), SIX BAGATELLES (1913) the minimalist façade of this piece belies the sonically vivid narrative that lies waiting to penetrate the listener’s senses. The piece is scattered with an array of performance techniques ranging from pizzicato to more abrasive effects such as tremolandi, sul ponticello and piercing harmonics, to conjure a totally radical musical landscape. Over a century has passed since Webern first presented this musical curveball, yet its influence on the composers that followed him is tangible and remains an integral part of the contemporary music canon. Anton Webern (1883-1945) LANGSAMER SATZ (1905) I. Langsam, mit bewetgem - Ausdruck WEBERN LANGSAMER SATZ (1905) Unlike the capricious, madcap nature of the Six Bagatelles, Langsamer Satz (meaning ‘Slow Movement’) takes a trip back to the time when Webern was engaged in the lush and lyrical language of the Late Romantics like Wagner and Mahler. However, it also reveals a stylistic character akin to Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. Like Schoenberg’s piece for string sextet, Langsamer Satz is a work inspired by love, INTERVAL written while indulging in the picturesque countryside of Waldwinkel, west of Vienna with his future wife (15 mins) Wilhelmine Mörtl. While the music can be considered as a vivid evocation of his emotional outpourings from its yearning Brahmsian melodies and voluptuous harmonies, it also shows shades of chromaticism and thematic devices (particularly the use of melodic inversion in the main theme) that foretells the intrinsic features of Webern’s serial works.

Johannes Brahms (1833-97) BRAHMS PIANO QUINTET IN F MINOR OP. 34 (1864) PIANO QUINTET IN F MINOR OP. 34 (1864) One of the giants of chamber music, Johannes Brahms sets a narrative of pure richness and adventure I. Allegro non troppo alight in his Piano Quintet in F minor, showcasing his ability to amplify chamber music to epic proportions. II. Andante, un poco Adagio The first movement erupts with a turbulent force in its resolute yet wayward musical flow. The slow movement in A-flat major rocks gently in a calm cradle of tender melodies and swaying rhythms, while the III. Scherzo: Allegro Scherzo unleashes a thunder strike of triumphant marches, majestic harmonies and sinuous syncopated IV. Finale: Poco sostenuto - Allegro non troppo phrases, finished off with an almost manic ending. A mournful introduction builds suspense towards a winding rondo in the Finale. The movement juxtaposes a sequence of contrasting episodes that seesaws between vigorous statements and tender answers, before driving relentlessly towards a final whirlwind that is sure to bring any audience to their feet. Tonight’s performance will finish at approximately 8:30pm. © Isaku Takahashi 2017