Classical Music | Music for Quartet

Recorded on 07/29/2015, uploaded on 04/17/2016

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

In 1933, while attending the Royal College of Music, 19-year old Benjamin Britten started a suite entitled Alla Quartetto Serioso: “Go play, boy, play” (a line from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale). Britten struggled with this work and completed only three of its projected five movements. He revised them in 1936 as his Three Divertimenti. After a poorly received performance — marked by “sniggers and cold silence,” according to his diary — Britten shelved the work, and it was not heard again in his lifetime. The whimsical March opens with glissandi, followed by a swaggering tune. The shadowy Waltz features repeated notes propelled forward by the dance rhythm and is marked by extremes of register. Where that movement is restrained, the Burlesque is flamboyant, dominated by a perpetual motion theme with a slightly exotic flavor. Even at this early stage, Britten shows a self-assured command of string writing.      Notes by Brian Hart

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.