Giacomo Puccini’S Chamber Music Is Perhaps Less Familiar to the Wider Audience

BIOGRAPHY Noûs (nùs) is an ancient greek word whose meaning is mind and therefore rationality, but also inspiration CONWAY and creativity. THE QUARTETTO NOÛS, composed of four young Italian musicians, was founded in 2011 at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. The quartet received its training at HALL the Accademia “Walter Stauffer” in Cremona in the class of the Quartetto di Cremona, at the Musik SUNDAY Akademie in Basel in the class of Professor Reiner Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) and also studied with internationally renowned Professors like Hatto Beyerle (Alban Berg Quartet) and Aldo Campagnari CONCERTS (Quartetto Prometeo). It is currently attending the Musikhochschule Lübeck in the class of Professor Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet) and the Escuela Superior de Música “Reina Sofia” in Madrid in the Günter Pichler’s class (Alban Berg Quartett). The quartet won the first prize at the “Luigi Nono” International Competition in Venaria Reale, Turin, and at the XXI “Anemos International Competition” in Rome. In Patrons 2014 it was awarded an honorable mention at the “Sony Classical Talent Scout” in Madesimo, Italy. - Stephen Hough, Laura Ponsonby AGSM, Prunella Scales CBE, Roderick Swanston, Hiro Takenouchi and Timothy West CBE It received from La Fenice Theatre in Venice the “Arthur Rubinstein - Una Vita nella Musica 2015” Artistic Director - Simon Callaghan Award for revealing itself in a few years as one of the most promising Italian chamber music group and for showing in his still brief career to be able to approach the great literature for string quartet in a mature manner, seeking a reasoned and not ephemeral interpretation in the masterpieces of the classic- romantic period and of the twentieth century, continuing at the same time a serious and not episodic research even within the language of the contemporary music. In 2015 the quartet was awarded the Sunday February 28th 2016, 6:30pm “Piero Farulli” Prize, given to the best emerging chamber music group in the current year, as part of the XXXIV “Franco Abbiati” Award, the most prestigious Italian music critics award. The Quartetto Noûs has performed for important Italian concert seasons such as Società del Quartetto in Milan, Bolognafestival and Musica Insieme in Bologna, I Concerti del Quirinale in Rome (broadcast live on Rai Radio3), GOG in Genova, Acm Chamber Music in Trieste, Amici della Musica in Palermo, Associazione Musicale Lucchese, Stradivari Festival in Cremona. The quartet is regularly invited to NOÛS perform in Germany, Switzerland and England; in 2013, after being selected among 74 groups coming from all over the world, it performed at Monteleón Chamber Music Festival in Leòn (Spain). In the same year it was “quartet in residence” at Festival Ticino Musica in Lugano. QUARTET NEXT AT CONWAY HALL Sunday March 6th 2016, 6.30pm MONTE PIANO TRIO VIOLIN TIZIANO BAVIERA Haydn Trio in D minor HobXV:23 ALBERTO FRANCHIN Clara Schumann Trio in G minor Op. 17 VIOLIN Smetana Trio in G minor Op. 15 VIOLA SARA DAMBRUOSO CELLO TOMMASO TESINI Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated about concerts and news. 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 PUCCINI CRISANTEMI (1890) A composer more often recognised for his operatic marvels, Giacomo Puccini’s chamber music is perhaps less familiar to the wider audience. Among his chamber music catalogue is Crisantemi (which translates Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) as ‘Chrysanthemum’, a flower which is regarded as a sign of death in Italy), a short but stirring elegy CRISANTEMI (1890) for string quartet (or string orchestra) written in memory of Amadeo, duke of Savoy and close friend of Puccini. Two mournful melodies in C sharp minor form the musical painting, the first expanding from silky chromatic ascents towards rich bursts of emotion. A more tranquil second theme is introduced in the first violin, and later repeated in octaves with the cello. A rhythmically augmented version of the chromatic motif takes us back to the opening theme, drawing the curtain on this sombre lament. Three years later, the lyrical vein and operatic quality of Crisantemi’s melodic material found new life in Puccini’s opera Manon Lescaut, where it was used in a prison scene between Manon and des Grieux, and more appropriately to mark Manon’s death scene which closes the opera. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) QUARTET IN B FLAT OP. 18/6 (1801) I. Allegro con brio BEETHOVEN QUARTET IN B FLAT OP. 18/6 (1801) II. Adagio ma non troppo Honouring a strong loyalty to Joseph Haydn as a student in his earlier years, Ludwig van Beethoven III. Scherzo: Allegro composed his sixth String Quartet, the last of his Op. 18 quartets. From thorough exploration and listening, one can pull out various musical ideas that speak for Beethoven’s fondness towards Haydn and IV. La Malinconia: Adagio - Allegretto quasi Allegro Mozartean Classicism. The first movement presents two light themes, the first decorated with a “turn” ornament to bring a buoyant Classical style to the fore. The other is an expectedly mellow theme in the dominant key, F major. The development engages in some dialogue between the upper and lower strings until the main themes are recapitulated with an even more exuberant spirit. A lullaby-like melody gently flows in the Adagio, followed by a shift in mood (into B flat minor), an embellished first theme and a coda briefly strolling into C major and then back home. Offsetting the eloquent Adagio is the Scherzo, twisting and tumbling in a textural and rhythmic circus with incessant syncopation, dynamic bursts and textural variation. A tale of two spirits, the Finale opens with a delicate “Malinconia” (“melancholy”) INTERVAL introduction juxtaposed with a nimble personation of an Austrian or German dance. After a sudden, (15 mins) almost cinematic fortissimo diminished seventh chord, the “melancholy” and the Allegretto alternate in a joke fashion, eventually gushing towards the final perfect cadence. BARTÓK QUARTET NO. 5 IN B FLAT SZ102 (1934) An important figure in 20th century music, Béla Bartók established a permanent position on the Béla Bartók (1881-1945) contemporary music map, equally respected as both composer and ethnomusicologist, as his research QUARTET NO. 5 IN B FLAT SZ102 (1934) interest in Eastern European folk music would complement his musical contributions. Bartók’s compositional voice is indebted to various musical idioms - Debussy’s impressionism, traditional folk I. Allegro motifs and Schoenberg-ian atonality and experimentation. His fifth String Quartet is an archetypal II. Adagio molto result of his musical identity. The Allegro is occupied by brisk rhythmic patterns and frantic textural variation between moments of punctuating octave unisons, polyphonic and tonal complexity. A stark III. Scherzo: alla bulgarese contrast follows with the Adagio Molto, slow burning in its use of icy dynamics, lugubrious chords and IV. Andante fragmented motifs scattered throughout each instrument. The Scherzo and Trio awakens a skittish Bulgarian folk spirit driven by exotic time signatures, bouncing rhythms, restless tempo changes and V. Finale: Allegro vivace melodic variation. A pizzicato conversation between each voice introduces the capricious Andante, forcing various textures and instrumental colours including glissando, one of Bartók’s favourite techniques. The adrenaline-rushed finale is based on material from the first movement, but set to a vigorous swirling tornado propulsion expanded through quick sequential repetitions, riotous dynamics, various playing Tonight’s performance will finish at approximately 8:15pm. techniques and a blazing coda. .

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