Grainger Quartet 2008

Bohemia

Janácek's final quartet 'Intimate Letters' is a very personal work that draws the listener into its unique and alluring sound world. Setting the scene before this is the world premiere of Roger Smalley's Suite for quartet based on Janácek's charming piano collection 'On an Overgrown Path' and an arresting Capriccio by Mendelssohn.

Beethoven's third 'Razumovsky' quartet is a central work from the repertoire, with a finale that leaves both players and audiences on the edge of their seats.

Mendelssohn - Capriccio in E minor, op 81
Janácek/Smalley - Little Suite (world premiere)
Janácek - String Quartet no 2, 'Intimate Letters'
Beethoven - String Quartet in C major, op 59 no 3, 'Razumovsky'

It is a great pleasure for us to be premiering another work by one of Australia's leading and most important composers, Roger Smalley. We have enjoyed a close and fruitful association with Roger, having performed the world premieres of his String Quartet no 2, Piano Quintet and Suite for Two Violins. His music draws strongly on the great European tradition and always takes the listener on a thrilling and wonderful journey. This work - Little Suite - is a transcription for string quartet of several of Janácek's distinctive solo piano works.
James Cuddeford

'Samuel Barber's String Quartet Opus 11 was exquisitely realised. The famous sustained melodic lines of the second movement sounded ethereal dressed as they were in distinctive whispered tones underpinned by delicately integrated harmonies.'
The Australian 27 March 2007

Darkness And Light

One of Haydn's most virtuosic and masterly quartets makes the perfect concert opener for this musical feast. We are delighted to perform for you a new work written for us by our close friend David Harris, an exciting Australian composer we have wanted to collaborate with for some time.

Schubert's final String Quartet is a colossus of the repertoire. Its immense power and great breadth will enthral you from beginning to end. The work is a titanic harmonic struggle between minor and major, darkness and light. It rewards listeners with some of the most profound music from the early Romantic period.

Haydn - String Quartet in G major, op 76 no 1
Harris - New Work (2008) (premiere performances)
Schubert - String Quartet no 15 in G major, op post 161, D. 887

Grainger Quartet is a great asset to Australian music exhibiting independence, bold programming and exceptional playing. Each player holds a personal long-standing passion for new music which culminates in the sensitive performance of new quartets. As such, Grainger is a friend of the composer and it is my immense pleasure to write for them.
David Harris

"The Britten impressed for the ardour displayed in the final Chacony, a sequence of variants on a ground bass interrupted by cadenzas that found ready exponents in the Grainger members for its humane rhetoric"
The Age 30 July 2007

Night At The Opera

Alban Berg wrote two significant operas, Wozzek and the unfinished Lulu. His op 3 quartet has one of the most dramatic openings in the quartet repertoire, thus providing the perfect curtain raiser for this concert. Mozart excelled in both genres achieving perfection in great operas such as Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan Tutte and in his ten celebrated string quartets. Mozart wrote so much music in his short life it is difficult to comprehend how he managed to notate it all down on paper.

Two of the most loved composers of opera, Verdi and Puccini added a small but significant contribution to the quartet repertoire. No evening at the opera would be complete without them both.

Berg - String Quartet op 3
Mozart - String Quartet in E flat major, KV 428
Puccini - Crisantemi

The works by Puccini and Verdi are a joy to play and are masterpieces from two composers who wrote very little chamber music. Puccini's Crisantemi is a short piece taken from his opera Manon Lescaut. The haunting melody used in the quartet appears in the final act where De Grieux and Manon Lescaut wander the plains of New Orleans, exiled from France awaiting Manon's inevitable death.
Verdi's four movement string quartet in E minor is so full of lyrical melody and dramatic drive that it could so easily be transferred to the opera house. The ultimate tenor solo appears in the trio of the third movement in the form of a gushing cello solo. I am in awe that Verdi, who composed only one quartet, could produce such a wonderful masterpiece.
Jeremy Williams

"The Grainger Quartet has a distinctive, robust sound. The players blend and balance stunningly in all combinations, and they dovetail shared phrases with remarkable seamlessness."
Herald Sun 1 August 2007

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