VCH Presents London Haydn Quartet

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

LONDON HAYDN QUARTET 21 September 2017 Victoria Concert Hall

LONDON HAYDN QUARTET Catherine Manson, violin Michael Gurevich, violin John Crockatt, viola Jonathan Manson, cello Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Joseph Haydn

String Quartet in D major “The Lark”, Op. 64 No. 5 19’00 1. Allegro moderato 2. Adagio 3. Minuet. Allegretto – Trio 4. Finale. Vivace String Quartet in E major, Op. 54 No. 3 30’00 1. Allegro 2. Largo cantabile 3. Minuet – Trio 4. Finale. Presto

INTERMISSION 20’00

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581 34’00

1. Allegro 2. Larghetto 3. Minuet 4. Allegretto con variazioni

Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg.

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LONDON HAYDN QUARTET One of the world’s leading period instrument string quartets, the London Haydn Quartet was born out of a passion for Haydn. The quartet has received invitations to many of the most important concert series in UK, USA, Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. The London Haydn Quartet’s series of recordings of Haydn’s quartets on the Hyperion label (the Op 9, Op 17, Op 20, Op 33, Op 50 and Op 54/55 quartets to date) have met with international critical acclaim. The quartet has given recitals of all-Haydn programmes at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Cheltenham Festival, Utrecht Festival, Bath Mozartfest, Klara Festival the Granada International Festival and at Haydn festivals in Esterhazy, Lincoln and Lyon and the English Haydn Festival.

In collaboration with period clarinetist Eric Hoeprich with whom they also recorded the Brahms and Mozart quintets on the Glossa label, their recent concerts have included a tour of the USA and Canada including a recital at the Library of Congress, and appearances in Serbia, Switzerland, France, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Last season’s highlights include the quartet’s Australian debut with performances at the Melbourne Festival and the Sydney Opera House and a return to Canada for a series of concerts across the country. Recent events this season for the London Haydn Quartet have included a series of five concerts in Germany and a tour in the USA with concerts in Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Milwaukee and finishing at Yale University. This summer the quartet will give a series of five concerts at the Berlioz Festival in La Côte-Saint-André and in the autumn they will appear in Singapore and Japan.

C AT HE R INE M A N S ON violin

Catherine Manson enjoys a versatile performing career specialising in period performance as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. She was appointed as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 2006. As first violinist of the classical London Haydn Quartet she has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall. The quartet’s series of recordings of the Haydn quartets on the Hyperion label has met with high critical acclaim internationally.

In a duo partnership with Ton Koopman she has recorded the six obbligato sonatas by Bach, Haydn’s Concerto for Violin and Organ and the complete chamber music by Buxtehude. They have given many concerts together throughout Europe.

Teaching has always been an important part of her musical life; in 2001 she co-founded and now directs MusicWorks, presenting chamber music courses for young musicians. In addition to giving classes and seminars at King’s College, the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music, she has taught at the Baroque Performance Institute in Oberlin College, USA, the Granada International Festival’s Musical Interpretation course, the Domaine Forget chamber music courses in Canada and has given masterclasses at The Juilliard School, Yale and Indiana Universities.

MIC H A E L G UR E V IC H violin

Dutch violinist and violist Michael Gurevich enjoys a varied performing career. Michael is devoted to chamber music, not only as member of the London Haydn Quartet which he joined in 2008, but also as a guest with the Nash Ensemble and many other groups. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Royal Concertgebouw, the Louvre, Melbourne Recital Centre and at festivals including Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Aix-enProvence and Verbier. His recording of Schumann’s piano trios with the Rhodes Piano Trio is on Champs Hill Records and he has appeared on all the London Haydn Quartet recordings from the Opus 20 set.

Alongside this, Michael is frequently invited as a guest leader or principal by various ensembles including Arcangelo, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The King’s Consort, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

As a teacher Michael was on the faculty at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester for nine years and has given chamber music masterclasses at The Juilliard School, Indiana University, Yale University, Oxford University, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Sydney Conservatorium, Australian National Academy of Music, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore and at the Domaine Forget in Canada.

JOHN C R OC K AT T viola

Born and brought up in Norfolk, John’s interests extend into many areas of music. As a player he performs on both the violin and viola specialising in the music of the baroque and classical eras. He has performed as Principal Viola with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Principal Violin with Solomon’s Knot, played and recorded with groups including the English Baroque Soloists, the Gabrieli Players and the Early Opera Company. In 2015 he performed as Principal Violinist in the Globe Theatre’s new play, Farinelli and the King, starring Mark Rylance and Iestyn Davies. Projects in 2016 include concerts and recordings with Arcangelo, performances in China with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra as well as recitals with harpsichordist Tom Foster in the UK and Spain.

As well as the performance of early music, John also has a keen interest in the anthropology of music and holds a Master’s degree in ethnomusicology from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

JON AT H A N M A N S ON cello

Cellist and viol player Jonathan Manson was born in Edinburgh and received his formative training at the International Cello Centre in Scotland under the direction of Jane Cowan, later going on to study with Steven Doane and Christel Thielmann at the Eastman School of Music in New York. A growing fascination for early music led him to Holland, where he studied viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken. For ten years he was the Principal Cellist of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, with whom he performed and recorded more than 150 Bach cantatas and, together with Yo-Yo Ma, Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos. As a concerto soloist he has recently appeared at the Wigmore Hall, the Carnegie Hall and the South Bank Centre.

Jonathan is an active chamber musician, performing repertoire from the Renaissance to the Romantic. A long-standing partnership with the harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock has led to critically acclaimed recordings of the Bach gamba sonatas and, together with Rachel Podger, Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concerts. In recent years they have joined forces with the flautist Emmanuel Pahud and violinist Matthew Truscott, leading to two recordings of Bach and successful tours of Europe, the USA and the Far East. Jonathan is also Co-principal of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a founder member of the renowned viol consort Phantasm. Jonathan lives in Oxfordshire and is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

E R IC HOE P R IC H clarinet

Eric Hoeprich is a specialist in performing on historical clarinets, in music from the Baroque to the late Romantic. Educated at Harvard University and the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, he is currently on the faculties of the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, the Royal Conservatory of Music (The Hague), Indiana University (Bloomington) and the Royal Academy in London. A founding member of Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the 18th Century (1982), Eric has performed frequently as a soloist with this orchestra as well as many of the major early music ensembles, and several “modern” orchestras. His dozens of recordings have appeared on labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, EMI, SONY, Harmonia Mundi, Glossa and Decca. Collaboration with string quartets, chamber ensembles and vocal soloists also feature regularly on his calendar. Recent recordings include clarinet quintets (Mozart and Brahms) with the London Haydn Quartet (Glossa), the three clarinet concertos by Bernhard Crusell with Kölner Akademie (ARS Production) and “Sei Sinfonia”

by J.C. Bach with his wind ensemble, Nachtmusique (Glossa). Yale University Press published his comprehensive monograph, The Clarinet, in 2008.

J OS EPH HAYDN (1732–18 0 9 ) String Quartet in D major “The Lark”, Op. 64 No. 5 19’00 String Quartet in E major, Op. 54 No. 3 30’00 In 1761, Haydn began working for the Esterházys, a rich, influential musicloving family of Austro-Hungarian aristocrats, where he would stay for over 30 years, cosseted and well paid. That had not always been the case, as his first years as a freelance musician in Vienna were hard, which he recalled as “eking out a wretched existence” by teaching, performing and composing “diligently, but not correctly”.

Eventually the golden handcuffs began to chafe however, especially as Haydn could only compose for the Esterházy court. That restriction was eased in 1779 and from that time forward most of his music was written for a wider audience. Eleven years later, a new prince inherited the title and promptly disbanded the court orchestra and opera, effectively relieving Haydn of most of his official duties, while still paying him. This enabled Haydn to make his two celebrated visits to London, which cemented his reputation as the most famous composer of the day.

The string quartets, Op. 54, 55 and 64 were composed during the years 1788 to 1790. Collectively they are known as the Trost quartets, as they were published by Johann Trost, a violin virtuoso who had played in Haydn’s court orchestra. Trost was a colourful and somewhat unscrupulous character who dealt in musical manuscripts and courted rich widows, finding a measure of success in both endeavours. Haydn and Mozart both entrusted him to publish some of their works, while a successful marriage permitted him to abandon his musical career and establish a successful textile business in Vienna.

The “Lark”, once described as “a story, a song, a dance and a party”, is the most celebrated of the Op. 64 quartets. It takes its soubriquet from the melody of the first movement, a high, soaring tune that takes flight over a staccato march played by the lower three instruments. The second movement is in the form of an aria, a lovely melody contrasted with a more sombre middle section, followed by a minuet. The finale is a swirl of perpetual motion, whose quick tempo and upbeat mood prompted its nickname, “Hornpipe”, a British sailor’s dance.

The Op. 54 quartets are markedly different in character than those of Op. 64, even though they were composed just a few months earlier. Haydn was returning to the genre after a break of about seven years, and with new audiences in mind, he began experimenting with the quartet structure and the

treatment of the individual instruments. The first movement demonstrates Haydn’s conversational approach to quartet writing, as the main theme is introduced by the viola and second violin, before being taken over by the first violin, a dialogue which continues throughout. The slower second movement is noted for its intricate ornamentation, while the rhythmic vitality of the minuet and unexpected dissonances in the trio are examples of the composer’s innovative touch. In the finale, listen for one of Haydn’s famous musical surprises.

WOLFG AN G AMADEUS MOZART ( 17 56–1791) Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581 34’00 The Clarinet Quintet was written for Anton Stadler, a colourful personality and conniver of whom Mozart was quite fond. More importantly, he was a brilliant clarinetist.

Mozart’s finances were always precarious, but December 1789, when he composed the Clarinet Quintet, was a particularly bleak time for him; he had lost favour with the Viennese public, teaching jobs had dried up, and he was reduced to producing operas for other composers. His health was also deteriorating, while his wife, Constanza had lost their fifth child, a daughter, an hour after her birth that November.

The opening Allegro has three lyrical themes with the first violin and cello playing solos alongside the clarinet. The heart of the piece is the Larghetto which begins as a melancholy aria for the clarinet, later joined by the violin, and ultimately ending with the shimmer of muted strings. An elegant courtly dance contrasts with the more raucous playing of the clarinet in the minuet.

The finale is a theme and a series of variations, with the opening melody making a final appearance in the coda.

In the words of the eminent musicologist H.C. Robbins Landon, “If there is any one work that sums up this unhappy year, this must be it – parts of it seem to reflect a state of aching despair, but the whole is clothed not in some violent minor key, but in radiant A major. The music smiles through the tears”.

Programme notes by Rick Perdian

UPCOMING CONCERTS AT THE VICTORIA CONCERT HALL

THE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA PRESENTS BEETHOVEN’S SYMPHONIES NO. 1 & 9 15 October 2017, 7.30pm

CELLISSO 22 October 2017, 4pm

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA 26 October 2017, 7.30pm Featuring Dorothy Papadakos (organist)

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