(Ruth isn't available for this recital so we have co-opted Andrew (qv) to join us on 'cello.)
Liberty bell - Sousa
Quartet Op 63/5 The lark - Haydn
Leaning on a Lamppost - Noel Gay
Quartet No:2 Nocturne - Borodin
Sønderho bridal trilogy - Danish Quartet
Air and Chorale - Bach
Two Tangos - Piazolla
Quartet K465 Dissonance - Mozart
John Philip Sousa was an American musician of Portuguese and German heritage whose career was intimately linked to the U.S. Marine Corps, which he joined as a musician at the age of 13 in 1868. Although he is famous for writing marches for military band (of which this is perhaps one of the best known) he also wrote operettas and at least one whimsical novella - a Faustian tale about a violinist who dies after being persuaded by his lover to play the forbidden 'fifth string' on his magical violin.
This quartet is from 1790 and one of a set known as "Tost" after a Hungarian violinist who helped Haydn by finding a publisher for them.
Haydn was the most influential musical figure of the classical period. He was prolific and hard working, he enjoyed relatively good health, a long life, and continuous employment in the service of enlightened aristocrats. He rapidly developed a distinctive and attractive style which became very popular among audiences and composers all over Europe. He was also a likeable, good humoured man who influenced and promoted the work of Mozart when he was relatively unknown, and later taught composition to the 'next big thing', Ludwig van Beethoven.
A well known comic song that was introduced to the world by George Formby in the 1937 film "Feather Your Nest" but was also a minor hit for Hermans Hermits in 1966 (which was accompanied by a bizarre video of the band floating in space). The real star here is not the song as much as the whimsical and witty arrangement.
The string quartets are among Borodin's best known works and the movement we have chosen to play shows Borodin at his most lyrical. If you know no other Borodin there is a good chance that you will know this movement which is often played alone.
Borodin was a scientist, musician, physician, and educator. As an organic chemist he was notable, even famous, in his own lifetime - he called himself a "Sunday composer" but was recognised as one of the mighty handful of Russians alongside Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
The Danish Quartet have made a big impact by bringing their idiosyncratic arrangements of tunes from their own folk tradition to their recitals. These have proved to be both compelling and popular - and we are delighted to have discovered them. Today we are playing their arrangements of two bridal songs - one from the Faroe Islands, and one from the Island of Fanø.
Two short, beautiful, slow works by Bach . BVW 1068 is better known as "Air on a G string" and is perhaps the best known tune in the entire Bach catalogue. The version played entirely on the lowest string of the violin originated as a popular Victorian arrangement but we are playing something that is very close to the oldest surviving version found in the Suite in D Major from 1730.
BVW639 is the chorale "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" ("I Call Upon Thee, Lord Jesus Christ") and this version is an arrangement of the organ score.
Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was a composer, arranger and virtuoso Bandoneon player (a type of accordion). He was the founder of the nuevo tango style incorporating elements from jazz and classical music - having been taught to play Bach on his Bandoneon by Hungarian pianist Béla Wilda who was himself a student of Rachmaninoff.
Last year we played two tangos by the equally famous Carlos Gardel who, in 1935, was killed in a plane crash, along with his entire orchestra. Gardel had invited Piazzola to join him on this tour but Piazzola's father had told him he was too young to go. He later joked that if his father had agreed he would have been playing harp and not Bandaneon.
We finish with Mozart on top form. A slow introduction with some uncharacteristic crunchy harmonies - the "dissonance" that gives the quartet its name - is followed by an Allegro which is pure playfulness.
This is the last of a set of six quartets written between 1782 and 1785 which were dedicated to Haydn. We all regard Haydn as the father of the string quartet, and Mozart wrote in the manuscript:
"To my dear friend Haydn, A father who had resolved to send his children out into the great world took it to be his duty to confide them to the protection and guidance of a very celebrated Man ... Here they are then, O great Man and dearest Friend, these six children of mine. ... From this moment I resign to you all my rights in them, begging you however to look indulgently upon the defects which the partiality of a Father's eye may have concealed from me, and in spite of them to continue in your generous Friendship for him who so greatly values it ."
Details and video of the last recital can be found following this link.