Joseph Haydn completed his Six Quartets, Op. 76 in June
1797 and were dedicated to the Hungarian Count Joseph Erdцdy. They include
such famous quartets as Quinten, Emperor and Sunrise.
Quartet No 5 in D Major was an experimental work. Its
first part, in the rhythm of a sicilienne, is surprisingly frivolous –
Haydn didn’t even bother to create a sonata form, limiting himself to something
simpler. When the only theme in this part is taken up by the cello and
is subjected to polyphonic development, the music becomes serious, albeit
not for long. Essentially, the first part is only a prelude to
the Largo, which the composer instructed should be performed
“songfully and mournfully.” This lofty music is a distant relation of
the slow section of Haydn’s Trauer symphony. The minuet with
the trio in minor key where the tone is set by the nagging cello
is a kind of intermezzo that allows the spirit of the work to “catch
its breath”, so that later we can follow uninterruptedly how Haydn creates a
lively, inventive opus from the most elementary theme, almost from nothing
in the dazzling finale.
Bela Bartok’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 7 is known as
the first quartet, though it was preceded by three more unpublished
quartets. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the composer
commands this incredibly complex genre of classical music with such freedom.
The quartet was begun in 1908, soon after a bitter dispute with
the violinist Stefi Geyer, and it was completed on 27 January the next
year. The indication of tonality is conditional, and the A Minor only
appears towards the end of the finale, prior to which the music
is atonal. The start of the first section speaks of deep depression.
Bartok did not hide the reasons for this, weaving a rising “Stefi motif”
into the music that can also be found in other works by the composer.
Free will also finds expression in the first section, as does
the acquisition of peace in a surprisingly peaceful passage, written in
the spirit of impressionism. The second section is a languorous waltz;
the weaving of its melodic lines brings to mind the ornamentation of
art nouveau. In the introduction to the third section the cello
has the strained melody of Elemer Szentirmay’s song Csak egy szep
lбny. The finale approaches the folkloric finales later to be
typical in Bartok’s works – energetic, powerful and free of any personal
emotions. However, the expressive third section of the quartet, Op. 7
is still full of trials.
Between 1900 and 1905 Maurice Ravel tried to win
the Rome Prize five times unsuccessfully by composing the required
academic cantatas. At the same time he also wrote his only String
Quartet in F Major, in which each bar is like gold. Without
destroying the classical form, the composer completely transformed
the dialogue between the four instruments. It suffices to hear any of
the sections from the quartet to see that Ravel would become a master
of orchestration in the future. With just four string instruments, using
combinations of register and performing techniques, he created a magical tableau
akin to the paintings of the impressionists. The musical material
vibrates and flows in all the colours of the rainbow,
the dialogue between the instruments ends and all that is left is
the lapping of water, the stirring of the air, hazy images of
dreams and melancholy depicted in the beautiful lyrical themes.
Anna Bulycheva