Three Idylls

Adagio molto espressivo : Allegretto moderato e poco rubato
Allegretto poco lento
Allegro con moto

Frank Bridge’s lone progressive voice in the otherwise rather conservative climate in England between the wars, suffered years of undeserved musical neglect. Even today, when his works are widely performed and much recorded, his distinction as a composer is overshadowed by the single fact that he was the first teacher and supporter of Benjamin Britten, Even when Britten himself tried to promote his teacher’s work, the effect was, ironically, to remind us of who Britten’s teacher was, This effect is perhaps intensified by the second of the Three Idylls, which is arguably Bridge’s most famous melody thanks to Britten having presciently appropriated it for the theme of his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.

Written in 1906, the Three Idylls are early works in Bridge’s Catalogue but his later, almost futuristically minded development can still be discerned to some degree. The first piece has a richness of sonority and real freedom in the way the music seems to unfold, and the second has some startlingly bending chromatic material. The final piece, jaunty and somewhat coy is the only one that can accurately be called ‘Edwardian’.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Quartet in Bb Op.50 no.1

Allegro
Adagio non lento
Poco allegretto
Vivace

In the late 1780s, Haydn resumed his writing of string quartets after only sporadic activity within the genre. Not only had he been heavily occupied at the court at Esterhaza but his publishers and clients from abroad had been asking him to fulfil a startling number of commissions. Despite public clamouring for more quartets and Mozart’s publishing his six quartets in 1785 with the famous dedication to Haydn: ‘Your approval above all encourages me to offer them to you and leads me to hope that you will not consider them wholly unworthy of your favour’, Haydn was to produce only one isolated quartet, Op.42, in 1786. It was not until the following year that the Op.50 set, dedicated to King Friedrich Wilhelm II appeared in print.

With this set, concentration of motivic structure is fundamental as Haydn becomes keenly aware of the possibilities of monothematicism - that is, he often allows an entire movement to evolve from a simple theme or close variant. The fine balance between unity and infinite variety forms the crux of these works and Haydn revels in discovering all the implications of a simple basic idea, These are quartets that are immensely satisfying in the tautness of their construction and yet stunningly inventive at the same time. The first and last movements of Op.50 no.1 are beautiful examples – both are deceptively simple in their themes and contain no extraneous clutter. They have a freshness and immediacy of appeal, an easy conversational style that belies the sophistication of their design.

The second movement is a set of theme and variations, a form which can become mechanical in the wrong hands. Haydn’s exquisite embroidery his almost unconscious use of fluid counterpoint and his innate sense of the ‘colour’ of harmony however, produces a movement that unfolds with the spontaneous twists and turns of the instinctive storyteller. The Minuet is poised and elegant with some wonderful harmonic ‘slithering’ whilst the Trio, with its outrageously rudimentary arpeggio at the start, develops into quite a tussle.

Quartet in Eb Op.127

Maestoso: Allegro
Adagio ma non troppo e molto cantabile
Scherzando vivace
Finale

String quartet writing was deeply important to Beethoven throughout his career as we can glean from the many letters, documents and contemporary left behind and, of course, from the music itself. His return to the medium in the last years of his life points rather movingly to the position of the string quartet at the very heart of his musical and personal identity. Having completed his two largest public works, the 9th Symphony and the Missa Solemnis and having received the kind of critical adulation at the premieres that had been lacking during the preceding ten years, one might have expected Beethoven to continue to write music very much for the public domain, However, he turned to quartet writing although it offered little potential for income and much less for public recognition. What it did offer him was the chance to combine the large-scale, rhetorical and public aspects of his music with an altogether more inward, esoteric and concentrated feel. There is an element of self-absorption, of the composer delving into and searching through his most secret imaginings and, as writer Joseph Kerman suggests, Beethoven seems to have created these last Quartets ‘without any listener in mind but himself’.

The Quartet in E flat, Op.127, the first of Beethoven’s ‘late’ Quartets was written during 1822–1825 as part of a commission for Prince Nicolas Galitzin, a skilled and enthusiastic cellist and a member of the St. Petersburg Quartet. The first performance took place on March 6 1825 and was given by the Schuppanzigh Quartet, the great early interpreters of Beethoven.

The Quartet opens with a Maestoso grand gesture in true Eroica Symphony and Emperor Concerto fashion. This call to attention though emphatic and arresting, is short-lived and melts into a sweet and tender allegro theme. In some of the early sketches this music was headed la gaieté. The movement unfolds with ease, exploring a wealth of keys, textures and emotions, never settling for long, always striving, The Maestoso material returns twice, increasing in scale and stature each time, its final version being in the triumphant key of C, richly scored and the culmination of a long climb, The recapitulation resembles the exposition largely in character and shape though Beethoven softens the key colours by emphasising the flat side of the harmonic spectrum. We end with a sense of true contentment.

The Adagio is a set of extended and complex variations, the contemplative breadth of which balances wonderfully with the preceding movement. It is built upon a sublime 18-bar theme rapt and expansive yet painfully intimate and there are 6 variations which explore not only textures harmony and rhythm but also pace, We have two actual changes of tempo, the first to a quicker Andante con moto with a daringly simplistic accompaniment and playful dialogue in the violins and the second, is to a broad Adagio molto espressivo. Here, suddenly by magically lifting C natural to C sharp, Beethoven transports us to the remote and luminous key of E major, surely the expressive climax of the movement,

The Scherzo, almost symphonic in scale, opens with four plucked chords that define rhythm, key, speed and character before the cello introduces an angular theme that is immediately inverted by the viola. Though this theme saturates this movement, the larger rhythmical picture is varied by cross-rhythms, silences and intrusions of bars of different meters and tempi, The fantastical Trio in E flat minor follows, at times demonic and at times rustic and joyous.

The Finale opens with a terse and harmonically ambiguous unison which soon subsides into a gently rocking and optimistic theme. Largely good-humoured and at times robust and unsophisticated, one might think that Beethoven was reverting to an older and lighter type of Finale. Not so, as we discover with the extraordinary Coda. Here the climate changes drastically as the music dissolves into a long trill on a C major chord. What then emerges is a lilting 6/8 version of the main theme, garlanded by the most delicate running triplets. Unearthly and mysterious, it is a breathtaking conclusion to a vast work.