Haydn's Op. 50 quartets, including the one on this album, are characterized by a monothematic layout in their opening movements, where all musical material relates to the main theme.
Composition History
The formation of the string quartet genre can be understood as a complex musical communication process, with Haydn's Op. 33 quartets prompting Mozart's response, and Haydn's Op. 50 quartets responding to Mozart.
Compositional Technique
Anton Webern's Five Movements, Op. 5, is his first instrumental work where his distinctive musical idiom, including freely atonal 'expressionistic miniatures,' fully unfolds.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Anton Webern deliberately avoided using the term 'string quartet' for his Op. 5 and Op. 9 works, indicating a stronger departure from the genre's tradition than even his teacher Arnold Schönberg.
Compositional Technique
Webern's Op. 5 exhausts the entire tonal spectrum of a string quartet, using various performance techniques like 'sul ponticello,' 'con sordina,' and 'pizzicato' to create individual 'tonal sculptures'.
Album & Artwork
This album juxtaposes two string quartets by Joseph Haydn with Anton Webern's Five Movements, Op. 5, to create a dialogue between different phases in the history of the string quartet.
Performer Biography
The Amaryllis Quartett won the Finalists' Prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani 2011 and, four weeks later, First Prize and the Grand Prize at the 6th International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne.
