Willy Sucre and Friends play String Quartets

The program should include:

String Quartet in D Major
by Ottorino Respighi

I.  Allegro Moderato
II.  Tema Con Var

III. Intermezzo
IV.  Finale

Respighi was born in 1879 in Bologna, Italy.  He was a versatile composer who translated into music powerful visual experiences and feelings of deep attachment to cherished places.  From 1891 to 1900 he studied at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. In 1900 and 1902, he traveled to Russia, where he played the viola in the Imperial Orchestra in St. Petersburg. During his two extended visits to Russia, he studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, absorbing the Russian master's ideas regarding orchestral color. In 1903, Respighi focused on a career of a concert violinist; he also played chamber music, joining Bologna's Mugellini Quartet as a violist. During the early 1900s, he started writing music, but his chamber and orchestral works compositions received little attention. In 1908-09, he was in Berlin, where he immersed himself in German musical culture. In 1913, Respighi settled in Rome, accepting a composition professorship at the Liceo di Santa Cecilia. He was enchanted by Rome and found inspiration in the city's unique atmosphere and consequently formulated an original, personal musical language.     

About 1917, he sought inspiration in Renaissance and Medieval music, introducing such themes into his compositions. Works composed in the 1920s reflected both his fascination with early music and his desire to translate visual sensations into music.  In 1924, Respighi was named director of the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, only to resign two years later to have more time to compose. During this time, he went on two American tours as a conductor and pianist, one in 1925-26 and the other in1932. He also accompanied singers, including his wife, Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo, who was also a composer.  This string quartet was  written in 1930 and just two years late he was elected to the Royal Academy of Italy.  He died in 1936 in Rome.

Notes adapted from the Music Match Guide web site.

"La chasse"

by Franz Joseph Haydn

I. Presto

II. Minuet and Trio

III. Adagio

IV. Menuetto and Trio

V.  Finale: Presto

Haydn was born on March 31, 1732 in Robrau, Austria.  His early work dates from a period in which the compositional style of the High Baroque (seen in Bach and Handel) had gone out of fashion. This was a period of exploration and uncertainty, and Haydn, born 18 years before the death of Bach, was himself one of the musical explorers of this time. When he was a chorister, Haydn had not received serious training in music theory and composition, which he perceived as a serious gap. To fill it, he worked his way through the counterpoint exercises in the text Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux, and carefully studied the work of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, whom he later acknowledged as an important influence. As his skills increased, Haydn began to acquire a public reputation, first as the composer of an opera Der krumme Teufel, "The Limping Devil." The work was premiered successfully in 1753, but was soon closed down by the censors. Haydn also noticed, apparently without annoyance, that works he had simply given away were being published and sold in local music shops. In 1760 Haydn married  the former Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller, the sister of Therese, with whom he had previously been in love. Haydn and his wife had a completely unhappy marriage, from which the laws of the time permitted them no escape; and they produced no children. Both took lovers.  This first numbered quartet was written in 1762 during his time as Vice Kapellmeister (assistant music director) to the Esterházy family, one of the wealthiest and most important in the Austrian Empire. When the old Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister. Haydn died on May 31, 1809 in Vienna

Notes adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia web site.

I N T E R M IS S I O N 

String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11

“Accordion”

by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

I.  Moderato e semplice

II. Andante cantabile

III. Scherzo: Allegro non tanto e con fuoco

IV.  Finale: Allegro giusta

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 at Votinsk and died on Nov. 6, 1893 at the age of 53 years, 6 months at St. Petersburg.  In 1871, despite a salary increase as professor at the Moscow Conserv­atory and a growing number of private students, Tchaikovsky was living in straightened circumstances, some even say he was starving, when a friend suggested a concert of his music to raise funds. Since hiring an orchestra was too expensive, Tchaikovsky decided to present a program of solo and chamber compositions. Lacking a major chamber work, he composed his first string quartet during the month of February 1871. The main theme of the quartet's second movement comes from an old Russian song, well-known during the 1870s, with the words "Vania sat on the divan, smoking his tobacco pipe."  Tchaikovsky heard this song while visiting his sister at Kamenka in the Ukraine during the summer of 1869 from a carpenter, who was a native of Kalush province.  The concert was held on March 28, 1871, in Moscow and was an artistic and financial success. The string quartet was performed by members of the Russian Musical Society and was dedicated to Sergei Rachinskii.

Notes adapted from Melvin Berger's Guide to Chamber Music.

Time, date, and program subject to change.