Australian Chamber Music Festival

[semloh]

The web page for the Australian Chamber Music Festival held each year, here in Townsville is:  http://www.afcm.com.au/    Of particular interest to us on UC is the concert for 9th August:

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Forgotten Strings Quartets
Townsville Civic Theatre, 3:00 PM

Would you like to help program this concert?
Would you like to discover a masterpiece you've never heard before?

Composers throughout history have written some of their most important music in their string quartets. Did you know:
• that Saint-Saens wrote 2 gorgeous quartets?
• that Donizetti, these days known for his operas, wrote 18 of them!
• what Vaughan Williams' quartets sound like, are they anything like The Lark Ascending?
• that Benjamin Franklin, the Founding Father of the USA, wrote a string quartet?
• that the only major composer since Beethoven not to have written a string quartet is Richard Wagner?
• that there's one beautiful quartet by Beethoven that is virtually never heard?

In this special concert on the last day of the Festival, the Goldner String Quartet and the New Zealand String Quartet will give you the chance to hear some masterpieces that surely deserve to be better known.

And you can help programme the concert! You have until 9 June 2014 to vote. Go to forgottenstringquartets.com - The website contains lots of recordings of these neglected masterpieces. Give yourself the pleasure of listening to them and then vote for your favourite quartet. The quartet that gets the most votes will be announced at this concert and played as the finale.

We're calling this project "The Hunt for the Greatest Forgotten String Quartet".
Let the Hunt begin!



Clever idea?

The series already features a few less often performed works:

Guillaume Lekeu Piano Quartet in b minor (unfinished) - Dene Olding, Irina Morozova, Julian Smiles, Piers Lane
Eugène Ysaӱe Sonata No.3 for solo violin - Tasmin Little
César Franck Sonata for violin (oboe) and piano in A major - Diana Doherty, Tamara-Anna Cislowska
César Franck Quintet in F minor for Piano and Strings - Goldner String Quartet, Piers Lane
Ralph Vaughan Williams  Piano Quintet - Helene Pohl, Gillian Ansell, Alexander Baillie, Kees Boersma, Martin Roscoe

[eschiss1]

By my standards only the Lekeu and the Vaughan Williams (well, ok, nowadays the Ysaÿe too) are "really" unsung, but given the state of classical broadcast and concerts near where I am, well, yes, it's a relative thing. (And I can always use more hearings of those fine Saint-Saëns string quartets, and works of similar quality and temperament Though for myself I consider his piano quintet a more obscure work- and am still not sure if I've heard it at all (maybe... not sure; will try to remedy that, or hear it again...)- I'm fairly sure I first heard of it after having heard his 2 (string) quartets and 2nd (but only officially published) piano quartet a few times... )

As to Vaughan Williams' 2 string quartets (not counting revisions, etc.), samples can be heard at Naxos, Hyperion and other sites of companies that have recorded them, which should give an idea of their "sound", if that's the question. Brief answer to their question: it depends. As I recall (I haven't listened to the recording I have in some time) parts of them are on the "meditative"-ish side, but not their "scherzo"-ish movements... but nothing like , say, his 4th symphony's louder portions (as borrowed from Glanville-Hicks ) .

*that there's one beautiful quartet by Beethoven that is virtually never heard?

Two. The earlier (not exactly first, but earliest surviving) version of Op.18/1, and (a little more frequently heard) the arrangement for string quartet of the Op.14/1 piano sonata. I assume the former is meant; it wasn't recorded, I think, until rather recently, and maybe only once or twice?... Not often at all, anyway. It's more a "version" than an _entirely_ different quartet, though there are still quite a whole lot of - really a lot of (I seem to recall anyway...!)- differences from "Op.18 no.1-as-we-know-it"; it only still exists because he sent a copy to a friend of his, who kept it, against, I think, Beethoven's wishes...

Gah. Don't mind me. I'm a trivia magnet (and not always right. Double-check... and no, not being sarcastic/disingenuous/whatnot. Just- sleepy. Best!!)

[semloh]

When you've returned from the Land of Nod, Eric, ( ) let me know what you think about the idea of letting the public choose a major neglected composition to be included in a concert programme.

I think it's rather brave (or maybe it's what was called "a courageous decision" on BBC TV's "Yes, Minister!): the performers get a month to rehearse the chosen work, and plan the rest of the programme. I think this may be the (excellent) influence of Piers Lane, who is the regular festival director.

[matesic]

A step in the right direction, to be sure, although it seems inevitable that putting it to a popular vote will result in a choice that's immediately pleasing to the ear (please not another bird ascending!), rather than a bit more challenging. Still, I may as well have my two-penn'orth and propose Fricker's First - it may at least provoke a few youtube hits.

[JimL]

I just heard a bit of an intriguing SQ last night on KUSC.  It was a quartet in A minor by E.J. Moeran.

[eschiss1]

Moeran wrote two, though it's not, I think, known for sure which one he wrote first. I haven't yet heard his other quartet (in E-flat major) though it's been recorded a few times (including on Naxos). I like the A minor one though, and his E minor violin sonata, and especially his A minor cello sonata, concertos and symphony (off-topically), though the dates on them make them question marks for this forum (not, in my opinion, their styles and intentions, though that's not my judgment call!)