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String
Quartet No. 2 in C (1973-1975) - Opus 5
This
webpage provides information about the André Tchaikowsky String
Quartet No. 2 in C (1973-1975) - Opus 5. First are music links (as *.mp3
files) and then text that lists all known details regarding this composition
from the book, The Other Tchaikowsky - A Biographical Sketch of André
Tchaikowsky.
Here are
two brief audio clips, courtesy of the BBC, of a radio program "A
Study in Contrast" about André Tchaikowsky:
Lindsay Quartet meets André / contrast_lindsay.mp3
Lindsay Quartet mentions the quartets / contrast_quartets.mp3
(For the entire radio program, see the Miscellaneous link above.)
Here is
an audio clip, courtesy of the BBC, that introduces the live BBC Radio
3 broadcast from St. John's Smith Square, London, January 23, 1978.
This is the world premiere performance; the BBC announcer is Patricia
Hughes: 00_op5_introduction.mp3.
Music/MP3
There is a single professional recording of the String Quartet No. 2
in C (1973-1975) - Opus 5, recorded by the Lindsay Quartet to celebrated
their 25th anniversary. This CD is on the Academy Sound and Visions
(ASV) label, CD #DCA 825. Annette Morreau reviewed this CD for BBC
Music Magazine:
To celebrate
their 25th anniversary, in a typically imaginative gesture, the Lindsay
String Quartet has brought out a CD of four 20th-century works, all
‘live’ performances. The works by André Tchaikowsky
and Hugh Wood (both written for the Lindsays and here in world premiere
recordings) are less of an easy listen. The Polish-born pianist and
composer André Tchaikowsky left only seven compositions when
he died tragically in 1982 at the age of 46. The elegiac Passacaglia
of this quartet brings full-blooded, passionate playing, a Lindsay
characteristic, while Hugh Wood’s third quartet, a gritty, complex
single movement brings out the Lindsays’ remarkable range of
instrumental colour, intensity of feeling and vigorous attack. A highly
welcome anniversary disc.
The following
performance is the world premiere recording from January 23, 1978, courtesy
of the BBC.
String
Quartet No. 2 (Sonata) 1st / 01_op5_strng_qrt2_1st.mp3
String Quartet No. 2 (Passacaglia) 2nd / 02_op5_strng_qrt2_2nd.mp3
String Quartet No. 2 (Sonata da Capo) 3rd / 03_op5_strng_qrt2_3rd.mp3
Known
Details:
The
following text is from the book, The Other Tchaikowsky - A Biographical
Sketch of André Tchaikowsky, and describes what is known
about the String Quartet No. 2 in C (1973-1975) - Opus 5.
String
Quartet No. 2 in C (1973-1975) - Opus 5
It took
André more than two years to write his String Quartet No. 2,
a work of about 20 minutes in performance. Eventually it was dedicated
to the Lindsay String Quartet, the excellent musicians who premiered
André's String Quartet No.1 (Opus 3); the initial dedication
was again to Stefan Askenase, this time for his 80th birthday (the String
Quartet No. 1 was dedicated to Stefan Askenase for his 75th birthday).
André wrote his own program notes for the Quartet No. 2:
In July
1971, the Lindsay Quartet gave the first performance of my first quartet
and immediately suggested I write another. I was flattered by the
request and eager to show my gratitude. But I could think of nothing
more to say in the medium and was afraid of repeating myself, so I
merely promised to think about it.
Some
months later, I heard the Lindsay Quartet play the Shostakovich sixth
quartet. The slow movement of that work is a simple and beautiful
passacaglia, a form I should never have dared to attempt in a string
quartet for fear of boring the ·cellist. Bernard Gregor-Smith
suggested a passacaglia with a varied bass, and this immediately helped
to focus my ideas. Even then, the cellist was still restricted to
going 'round in circles,' so I decided to compensate in the outer
movements by giving him conspicuous and flamboyant solos.
The next
logical step was to extend the concertante treatment to the other
players. This at once allayed my fears of producing an identical twin
of my first quartet, in which my chief aim had been a close knit truly
chamber texture, and I now relished all the display I had denied myself
before: high positions, single and double harmonics, quick alternations
or arcato and pizzicato, and so on. It was quite a surprise that,
with all of this, the new quartet is easier than the first.
Dynamically,
the work is shaped like a 'V.' The first movement is a rapid, tense
sonata, which calms down towards the end to set the mood for the somber
passacaglia. The last movement is a continuous accelerando. As its
speed increases, so does the resemblance to the first movement from
which it is derived.
To help
the Lindsay prepare for the performance, André went to their
location in Sheffield and assisted with the rehearsals. Only a few changes
to the Finale were required. Everything went well and André reported
to Halina Wahlmann-Janowska:
"I
didn't need to give the Lindsay any advice, as they understood the
piece perfectly well and only needed a bit more practice in a few
small places. The most pleasant thing is they like this new quartet
even more than the first one, although they liked that one too. I'm
curious to know the general reaction, although I'm not going to break
down if nobody goes along with the performers' opinion."
The Lindsay
gave the first performance of String Quartet No.2 at St. John's, Smith
Square, London, on January 23, 1978. The performance was broadcast by
the BBC. A critical review by Paul Griffiths in The Musical Times
included:
The Tchaikowsky
quartet is a work of intense passions forced into a symmetrical argument
around a passacaglia slow movement. Its style, situated somewhere
between the middle Bart6k quartets and Berg's Lyric Suite, sounds
genuine; the writing for string quartet is certainly so, with none
of the awkwardness or hesitancy one might expect of a pianist-composer.
But I find it difficult to warm to second-hand histrionics.
Another
review by Arthur Jacobs in The Daily Telegram:
For those
who, like myself, were as yet unacquainted with André Tchaikowsky
as a composer, yesterday's premiere of his Second String Quartet made
an agreeable impression. Here is a craftsmanlike composer able to
turn old forms to individual advantage.
Born
in Warsaw in 1935, Mr. Tchaikowsky has lived in this country since
1960, and has pursed an admired career as pianist. He is shortly to
give a solo recital in this same BBC Monday lunch-time series which
brought the Lindsay String Quartet to perform his new work. Their
command of the music and their sympathy with it were evident, and
Bernard Gregor-Smith's decisive 'cello solos were particularly eloquent.
The BBC
presentation was not so happy. Presumably some producer writes or
supervises the introductions before they are handed to an announcer
[Patricia Hughes] for that plummy-voiced, holier-than-thou delivery
which has rightly been ousted from almost all other radio and TV programmes.
The only two things necessary for the listener to know about Mr. Tchaikowsky's
quartet were its approximate length (20 minutes) and the fact that
its three movements are played without a break. Neither was announced,
and instead we had the inexactitude that the last movement was to
be 'a continuous accelerando.'
The three
movements follow a traditional sequence -- forthright, contemplative,
agitated. The middle one is a passacaglia (owing inspiration to Shostakovich's
Sixth Quartet, the composer says) which manages considerable intensity
and never lets the repeated bass pattern become tedious. The first
movement, thanks to strong internal contrasts, grips the ear immediately;
the finale speaks in a more wayward and recondite fashion, but entices
to further acquaintance.
The Lindsay
Quartet remembers:
"We
love André's quartets. We love the music, especially the second
quartet. It has some incredible textures and is very difficult music.
We would like to keep it in our repertoire, but it's not an easy prospect
as it takes a lot of work."
After only
a few performances, the Lindsay had to put the work aside in favor other
repertoire. Weinberger Ltd. published the quartet in 1980 but it has
received no other performances that are known at this writing.
The Lindsay
Quartet also plays String Quartet No.1
(1973-1975) - Opus 3.
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