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Bela Bartok’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 7 is known as the first quartet, though it was preceded by three more unpublished quartets.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