BIOGRAPHY Prizewinners at the 2015 International Competition, the PIATTI QUARTET is amongst the CONWAY UK’s foremost young ensembles with a host of awards and critically-acclaimed recordings to its name. They have performed in all the major venues around the country, including a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast from the Wigmore Hall. The Quartet has HALL also appeared in Italy, Australia, Spain, Austria, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland, with national broadcasts on ABC (Australia) and RTE (Ireland) radio. SUNDAY

The Piatti are laureates of the St Martin in the Fields Competition, a Martin Musical Fund/Philharmonia Scholarship, CONCERTS multiple Hattori Foundation awards, and the St.Peter’s Prize. At the 2015 Wigmore Hall International (formerly the London International) String Quartet Competition, the Piatti Quartet won joint 2nd Prize as well as the Sidney Griller Award for the best performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Contusion and the St Lawrence String Quartet Prize. The Quartet spent two years as Leverhulme Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music and have received both Tunnel Trust and Countess of Munster awards. Park Lane Group have also supported the group extensively with a UK-wide concert tour and a recording Patrons - Stephen Hough, Prunella Scales CBE, Roderick Swanston, on their Classical Label. Other recordings have been released on the Linn Records and Champs Hill labels, including the Piatti’s lauded contribution to the complete string quartet works of Felix Mendelssohn (Champs Hill), which was BBC Music Hiro Takenouchi, Petroc Trelawny and Timothy West CBE Magazine’s Critic’s Choice (September 2014). Director of Music - Simon Callaghan The Piatti Quartet holds the Richard Carne Junior Fellowship for String Quartet at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance for 2014-15, and are delighted to have had this Fellowship renewed for 2015-16. The group continues to actively expand the quartet repertoire with premieres of commissions from several acclaimed British composers. A major new work, ’ String Quartet No.1, was commissioned through the generous support of the Britten Pears Foundation and Sunday January 29th 2017, 6:30pm Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust which the quartet have plans to record and release in 2016. Other recently commissioned compositions include pieces from Richard Birchall (performed live on BBC Radio 3), and Jacques Cohen. The Quartet also works regularly with the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, enjoying the opportunity to help secure the future of chamber music by bringing the wonders of the String Quartet to young children and their families in schools and halls around the country.

A busy current season has included a debut in Istanbul, tours of Scotland and Ireland, a new CD recorded at the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, Oxford - generously supported by Tony Stuart, and Resident Quartet at the 2014 Rye Arts Festival. Recent collaborations include concerts with Michael Collins, Moray Welsh, and Rebecca Gilliver. Upcoming highlights include Piatti Quartet a summer residency at the Academie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and a tour to the Netherlands in the autumn.

The Quartet is currently mentored by the Belcea Quartet through the Belcea Quartet Trust, as well as receiving regular coaching from Simon Tandree (ex-Doric Quartet). VIOLIN NATHANIEL ANDERSON-FRANK The group takes its name from the great 19th-century cellist Alfredo Piatti, who was a leading professor and exponent of MICHAEL TRAINOR quartet playing at the Royal Academy of Music. VIOLIN DAVID WIGRAM NEXT AT CONWAY HALL CELLO JESSIE ANN RICHARDSON Sunday Feburary 5th 2017, 6.30pm BARBICAN PIANO TRIO Beethoven Trio in D Op. 70 No. 1 ‘Ghost’ Beethoven Trio in E flat Op. 70 No. 2 Beethoven Trio in B flat Op. 97 ‘Archduke’

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 HAYDN QUARTET IN C OP. 76 NO. 3 ‘EMPEROR’ (1796-97) Among Haydn’s wealth of quartet masterworks, his Op. 76 set of string quartets is widely considered to be his finest achievement in the style. The third of six quartets, the ‘Emperor’ quartet, was partly Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) inspired by his visit to England where he was struck by their national anthem ‘God Save The King’. Haydn QUARTET IN C OP. 76 NO. 3 ‘EMPEROR’ (1796-97) decided to write one for Austria, Gott Erhalte Franz Den Kaiser (“God Save Emperor Franz”), the same melody known to today’s listeners as the German national anthem. The Poco adagio uses the ‘Emperor’ I. Allegro Hymn as the main theme followed by a series of gentle variations. The opening movement also makes II. Poco adagio, cantabile use of the Austrian anthem with a theme comprising the notes G-E-F-D-C(K), which represent the first letters of the anthem’s title. The Minuet and Trio recapitulates the spirit of the first movement in III. Menuetto: Allegro a rustic dance that pictures the Austrian countryside rather than Viennese nobility. To conclude the IV. Finale: Presto quartet, the Finale brews a musical tempest that plunges into the idea of Sturm und Drang, but it also foreshadows the revolutionary sound world of Beethoven.

Benjamin Britten (1913-76) BRITTEN THREE DIVERTIMENTI (1933 REV. 1936) THREE DIVERTIMENTI (1933 REV. 1936) In a time of radical thinking in Western music, the pastoral tradition of Vaughan Williams and Elgar I. March prevailed as the voice of British music in the 20th century. However, a precocious set out II. Waltz to restore vitality and a sense of progress to the country’s musical language. A neoclassical, Stravinsky- like spirit resonates from his Three Divertimenti. The piece is laid out in three distinct movements, and III. Burlesque as the title implies, meant to serve as “light-hearted entertainment”. The March embraces both a tonal harmonic idiom and a modernist outlook with hazy harmonics, clear-cut rhythms and glissando phrases (sliding notes). The Waltz is more silken in texture and tranquil in harmony, and unearths glimpses of pastoral musical qualities. The Burlesque amplifies a contemporary vitality with a whirlwind of rich string timbres, sprightly pizzicato exchanges, filigree rhythms and theatrical dynamic contrasts. Composed at such a young age (in his twenties), Britten displays great musical imagination and innovation with this remarkable work.

BRAHMSSTRING QUARTET IN A MINOR OP. 51 NO. 2 (1873)

Johannes Brahms (1833-97) Ever since Beethoven took the string quartet to new heights, an artistic burden hanged over Brahms - to match and eclipse the achievements of his German predecessor. It took around 20 attempts, an STRING QUARTET IN A MINOR OP. 51 NO. 2 (1873) extended period of time and greater self-criticism until he deemed his first two string quartets worthy I. Allegro non troppo to publish. The first movement of his String Quartet No. 2 sings a reference to renowned violinist Joseph Joachim’s motto ‘frei aber einsam’ (‘free but lonely’) represented by the last three notes in II. Andante moderato the opening A-F-A-E motif. Seamless and turbulent in equal measure, the movement is coloured with III. Quasi minuetto, moderato - Allegretto vivace shimmering triplet passages in the accompaniment with melodic outbursts and wistful dynamics. The Andante moderato swims with delicate lyricism, opening with a silky melody in the violin before the IV. Finale: Allegro non assai lower strings summon a torrent of tremolo effects in the central section and finally returning to the lyrical gaze. The third movement wanders through a ghostly A minor section followed by a central episode heated in pulse, rhythm and brighter tonality. As the recapitulation fades away, the Finale arrives with rhythmic vitality and vengeance. Rich dynamics and vivacious melodies wrestle against episodes of textural serenity until the piece hurtles towards a climactic finish. Tonight’s performance will finish at approximately 8:30pm. © Isaku Takahashi 2017