{"id":65726,"date":"2013-11-10T04:51:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T02:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=65726"},"modified":"2016-11-26T13:41:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T12:41:01","slug":"the-la-scala-string-quartet-at-the-amici-della-musica-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/the-la-scala-string-quartet-at-the-amici-della-musica-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Verona: The La Scala String Quartet at the Amici della Musica Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Verona. Teatro Ristori. Amici della Musica, 104th<\/sup> Concert Series 2013-2014. <\/em>
\nIl Quartetto D’Archi della Scala<\/strong>
\nViolini \u00a0 Francesco Manara,\u00a0 Duccio Beluffi<\/strong>
\nViola\u00a0 Simonide Braconi<\/strong>
\nVioloncello Massimo Polidori <\/strong>
\nGiacomo Puccini: “<\/em>Crisantemi”, elegia per quartetto d’archi
\nGiuseppe Verdi<\/em>: Quartet in E minor
\nAnton Webern:<\/em>“Langsamer Satz”
\nLudwig van Beethoven:<\/em>“Great Fugue” op.133
\nVerona. 7th<\/sup> November, 2013.<\/p>\n

The Veronese chamber music society, Amici della Musica,\u00a0 recently hosted a concert by the Quartetto d’archi della Scala<\/strong> in the third concert of their 104th<\/sup> season. The first half of the\u00a0 programme was devoted to a repertoire not heard frequently in string quartet concerts; the elegy,\u00a0 Crisantemi, by Puccini, and Verdi’s only string quartet.\u00a0 It was a fine coupling to collocate together, the\u00a0 works of two operatic composers who were venturing into a musical language which was uncommon to both of them.\u00a0 The quartet launched into Crisantemi<\/em> with gusto, in a very straightforward rendition of this piece<\/strong>, dedicated to the memory of Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta. The themes, laden with pathos, are those of Puccini’s opera Manon Lescaut<\/em>.\u00a0 Rather than linger over the elasticity of the ‘rubati’ or the interiority of the searing, heart-rendering harmonies, the group privileged a forward moving, passionate thrust, with the counter voices given their just relief.\u00a0 The Verdi String Quartet in E minor<\/strong>, written in 1873, during a period\u00a0 forced inactivity in Naples while waiting for a production of Aida, is a delightful work, which\u00a0 reveals melodic charm and technical skill in the instrumental writing. It has the four classical movements and is characterized by a formal unity and rigour mated to the hues of operatic taste. There are rather strong overtones of Amneris in the first movement, and the final fugue in the last movement anticipates Falstaff.\u00a0 From the beginning of the first movement, the writing is rich in Verdian operatic devices; the urgent, syncopated rhythms, and plucked accompaniments, the long solo instrumental line, imitating a vocal line, and cascading, descending, unison scales.\u00a0 The quartet presented it with vigour, although at times there appeared to be a lack of agreement on balance and phrasing,<\/strong> in particular with the second violin often overwhelming the first.\u00a0 In this first half of the programme, the four players\u00a0 gave the impression of playing independently, with little apparent contact between them.
\nThis changed in the second half of the concert,<\/strong> where the interplay between the quartet members in Webern’s luscious, post-romantic, Langsamer Satz<\/em>,<\/strong> exhalted the long taut chromatic lines, the counter melodies emerging from the dense musical weave, the sudden drops to pianissimo, the rolling\u00a0 waves of sound and the overall complexities of the rich and expressive score. The perfect prelude to the administration of the tension of the sonorities of which the\u00a0 mighty Great Fugue 0p.133 by Beethoven<\/strong> is formed. However in the more energetic sections the articulation,was not always decipherable. The quartet was applauded enthusiastically by the audience and after repeated curtain calls, conceded two encores which were briefly and charmingly presented by the cellist.\u00a0 The first, Contrapunctus 1, from J.S. Bach’s The Art of the Fugue, was movingly played with great simplicity. The second, a transcription for quartet of the aria Caro Nome, from Rigoletto<\/em>, as an ulterior tribute to Verdi in his bicenntenial year, was performed\u00a0 with grace and levity, and an innate sensibility to this repertoire which betrayed their appurtenance as principal players of the La Scala orchestra. Photo Brenzoni<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Verona. Teatro Ristori. Amici della Musica, 104th Concert Series 2013-2014. Il Quartetto D’Archi della Scala Violini \u00a0 Francesco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":60832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8909,8908,9354,8907,136,153,3645,8905,9340,8906],"class_list":["post-65726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-anton-webern","tag-duccio-beluffi","tag-foreign-readers","tag-francesco-manara","tag-giacomo-puccini","tag-giuseppe-verdi","tag-ludwig-van-beethoven","tag-massimo-polidori","tag-quartetto-darchi-della-scala-di-milano","tag-simonide-braconi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}