Louise MARSHALL (Contralto)
THE STRATTON STRING QUARTET:
GEORGE STRATTON (1st Violin), WILLIAM MANUEL (2nd Violin), LAURENCE LEONARD
(Viola), JOHN MOORE (Violoncello)
BRAHMS' chamber music has not yet won the same popularity as much of his other music, though musicians count it a very valuable part of his whole output. The first of his three string quartets, however, is not difficult to under. stand.
The first movement begins at once with an impulsive soaring tune, played by the two violins. Immediately afterwards another tune is introduced by the first violin with fragments of the first accompanying it, and on these two a very concise and straightforward movement is built up.
The slow second movement is called a Romance. It is built on a song-like tune with something of sadness in it.
Here, as in the first movement, it will be seen how naturally triplet figures grow out of Brahms melodies.
The third movement, in the form of the usual
Scherzo and Trio, has a theme made up of a wistful descending scale, heard at the beginning on the first violin. The Trio section has, for contrast, a brighter melody. Here Brahms makes use of a device which is peculiarly his own. The second violin plays a waving figure which is made up of the same note played across two strings.
The chief tune of the last movement is a fiery one which appears in unison at the outset, and which undergoes interesting transformations.
MISS GUIRNE CREITH is a young British composer whose work is not quite unknown to wireless audiences. Orchestral music of hers has already been broadcast. As a student at the Royal Academy of Music, she made a special study of conducting under Sir Henry Wood , and is one of the few women musicians who can successfully take charge of an orchestra. She has already conducted one orchestral broadcast from London.
This Quartet is still unpublished.