Modigliani Quartet Philippe Bernhard violin Loïc Rio violin Laurent Marfaing viola Christophe Morin cello Modigliani Quartet The Modigliani Quartet, formed by four close friends in 2003, has already become one of the world’s top string quartets, playing in venues like the Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, BOZAR in Brussels, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Mozarteum Salzburg, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Konzerthaus Berlin, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Auditorium du Louvre and Cité de la Musique in Paris, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Prinzregententheater and Herkulessaal in Munich, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, and L’Auditori in Barcelona, and appearing at the Lucerne, Schwetzingen and Rheingau Festivals, Kissinger Sommer, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, and the Schwarzenberg-Hohenems Schubertiade. In North America, the Quartet has performed in Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, Seattle’s Meany Hall and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and featured at the Maverick Festival, Houston’s Friends of Chamber Music, the Lanaudière Festival, and the Toronto Summer Music Festival. Next month, the Quartet will play several concerts at Tokyo’s Oji Hall as part of a Japanese tour. The Modigliani Quartet has recorded for the Mirare label since 2008 and has released five award- winning CDs, all receiving international critical acclaim. Their first album, a Haydn disc, was a Strad selection, as was their 2013 album featuring Debussy, Ravel and Saint-Saëns; their Mendelssohn CD in 2010 was a Fono Forum selection (Disc of the Month). In 2012 the Quartet released an album dedicated to youth, with quartets by young Mozart, Schubert and Arriaga. A second Haydn CD, released in 2014, has been praised as a ‘true homage to the clarity and eloquence of Haydn’s work, while at the same time sacrificing none of the master’s roguishness … It sounds effortless, sovereign and extremely supple.’ The Quartet’s most recent album features music by Bartók, Dohnányi and Dvořák. The Modigliani Quartet began to attract international attention just one year after it was formed, winning the 2004 Frits Philips String Quartet competition in Eindhoven. The Quartet then took First Prize at the Vittorio Rimbotti competition in Florence in 2005 and won the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York in 2006. Following their studies at the Paris Conservatoire, the Modigliani Quartet studied with the Ysaÿe Quartet, attended masterclasses by Walter Levin and György Kurtág, and then had the opportunity of working with the Artemis Quartet at the Berlin University of the Arts. The Quartet regularly plays chamber music with Sabine Meyer, Renaud Capuçon, Nicholas Angelich, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Daniel Müller-Schott. In 2014, the Modigliani Quartet became Artistic Directors of Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, relaunching the festival to great acclaim after an interval of 13 years. Thanks to the generosity and support of private sponsors, the Modigliani Quartet plays on four outstanding Italian instruments: Philippe Bernhard plays a 1780 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Loïc Rio plays a 1734 violin by Alessandro Gagliano, Laurent Marfaing plays a 1660 viola by Luigi Mariani, and François Kieffer plays a 1706 cello by Matteo Goffriller (former ‘Warburg’). The Modigliani Quartet is also very grateful for the support of SPEDIDAM, the French performing rights collection agency ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMS WITH CHRISTOPHE MORIN (CELLO) Program 1 (Brisbane, Hobart Sydney 10 October, Newcastle, Melbourne 17 October) Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809) String Quartet op 50 no 1 (1787) 21 min I. Allegro II. Adagio non lento III. Menuetto. Poco allegretto IV. Finale. Vivace Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828) String Quartet no 10 in E-flat major, op 125 (c1813) 26 min I. Allegro moderato II. Scherzo. Prestissimo III. Adagio IV. Allegro INTERVAL Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827) String Quartet no 11 in F minor, op 95 ‘Serioso’ (c1810) 21 min I. Allegro con brio II. Allegretto ma non troppo III. Allegro assai vivace ma serioso – Piú Allegro IV. Larghetto espressivo – Allegretto agitato - Allegro Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) String Quartet no 1 in C major, op 49 (1938) 18 min I. Moderato II. Moderato III. Allegro molto IV. Allegro Joseph HAYDN (1732–1809) String Quartet no 36 in B-flat major, op 50 no 1 (c 1787) I Allegro (Fast) II Adagio (Slow) III Menuetto: Poco allegretto (Minuet: Moving along a little) IV Finale: Vivace (Quick and lively) Haydn's op 50 quartets bear a dedication to the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm II. As a keen amateur musician, Friedrich would have appreciated the fact that his instrument – the cello – has the stage to itself for the first two bars of the very first quartet. But, whereas Mozart's quartets for the king contain a great deal of genuinely soloistic writing for the cello, Haydn, apart from this single, somewhat token compliment, takes no further opportunity to favour the king's instrument. For the rest, the first movement of this quartet concerns itself only with the quite definite musical aims of its composer. In it we meet a Haydn who has almost totally relinquished extended song-like melodies in favour of a handful of short, pithy (but nonetheless elegant) motifs, which he combines and sets against one another with a seemingly limitless ingenuity. Two motifs come to dominate the texture as the movement proceeds: the repeated-note idea heard at the outset from the solo cello, and the triplets which begin as a mere decoration, but then take over the development almost completely. Like the first movements of a number of its op 50 companions (the popular sixth quartet in D major, in particular), the recurring principal theme of this movement starts harmonically off-centre, on a point of tension. Haydn, as did Beethoven and Brahms after him, seems to have liked this device, and exploited it to the utmost for building up tensions, complications and surprises throughout the movement. After such lean material in the first movement, the beginning of the slow movement, in 6/8–time, seems almost extravagantly lyrical – but it soon becomes apparent that this is to be no lush Mozartian aria. In fact, Haydn's is a relatively simple melody, again made out of small motivic pieces, and his process of elaboration is by variation: three self-contained variations and a coda following on from the original statement of the theme. The Menuetto, in a sinuously chromatic version of the work's home key of B flat, highlights the cello briefly towards the end of its first section, while its Trio (in the same key) is a playful dialogue between the first violin and the full ensemble. The mood of the Finale comes to the string quartet straight from the world of the contemporary opera buffa, where ostensibly simple, rhythmically lively pieces such as this made up the numbers of act finales. This one, if rather more sophisticated in the thorough development of its ideas, is nevertheless full of surprises: sharp chromatic turns, rhythmic syncopations, marked dynamic contrasts, a soloist's cadenza for the first violin, flamboyant semiquaver passages for Friedrich's cello, and a particularly dislocating two-bar pause interposed before the final return of the main theme. © Musica Viva Franz SCHUBERT (1797–1828) String Quartet no 10 in E-flat major, op post 125 no 1, D87 (c 1813) I Allegro moderato (Moderately fast) II Scherzo: Prestissimo (Extremely quick) III Adagio (Slow) IV Allegro (Fast) Despite its having been published in 1830 – two years after Schubert’s death – and its high opus number, the E-flat major Quartet actually dates from 1813. Schubert’s teenage years saw, among many other things, the composition of some eleven string quartets (and possibly more, as there is reason to suppose that a number of scores were not preserved for posterity). Franz’s first instrument was the violin, but like many composers he liked to experience chamber music from within by playing viola. During school holidays in the Schubert home, his brothers Ignaz and Ferdinand played first and second violin while their father played cello. The music played by the Schuberts included quartets by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The E-flat major work is nothing if not Mozartian, especially in the first movement. Here Schubert, like Mozart, is concerned less with rigorous construction and manipulation of material than with the spinning of a number of immediately engaging tunes. Despite the length of the movement, the central development section is relatively short. Unusually, each of the four movements is in the home key of E-flat, although the tiny Scherzo has a central Trio section in C minor which recalls rustic dancing, with its drone and repetitive figures. The solemn lyricism of the Adagio has invited comparison with the Mozart of The Magic Flute but the Allegro finale clearly points to the emergence of Schubert’s own voice. Between the ages of 11 and 19, Schubert studied with the conservative classicist Antonio Salieri, and was suspicious of the influence of Beethoven, whom he deemed ‘eccentric’. Only when he was able to assimilate Beethoven would Schubert produce his three and a half mature quartets. This work, however, shows a sure understanding of the principles of classicism and of idiomatic writing both for each instrument and for the ensemble as a whole. © Musica Viva udwig van BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) String Quartet no 11 in F minor, op 95 ‘Serioso’ (c 1810) I Allegro con brio (Fast and lively) II Allegretto ma non troppo (A little quickly, but not too fast) III Allegro assai vivace ma serioso – Più Allegro (Very fast and lively but serious – Faster) IV Larghetto espressivo – Allegretto agitato – Allegro (Quite slow and expressive – A little quickly, agitated – Fast) Quartette serioso was Beethoven's own subtitle for this quartet, and it seems to have been written un-commissioned, with no one's needs in mind but his own.