A Sibelius Programme
TATIANA MAKUSHINA (Soprano)
SAMUEL KUTCHER (Violin) ERNEST LUSH (Pianoforte)
THE KUTCHER STRING QUARTET:
SAMUEL KUTCHIER (Violin); FREDERICK GRINKE
(Violin); RAYMOND JEREMY (Viola) ; Douglas
CAMERON (Violoncello)
SAMUEL KUTCHER and ERNEST LUSH
Sonatina
Lento—Allegro ; Andantino ; Lento, Allegretto Vivace
TATIANA MAKUSHINA
Autumn Night
The Spell of Springtide Heart's Morning
ERNEST LUSH
Sonata in F Sharp
TATIANA MAKUSHINA
When I dream Silent Town
Tho Tryst
QUARTET
Quartet, in D Minor, for Strings (Op. 56),
Voces intimae
Andante; Vivace; Adagio; Allegretto; Allegro
SIBELIUS' theme is almost always his own country, its rugged strength, its grey hues, its indomitable spirit in the face of enemies—grim Nature herself, and foemen on two of its frontiers. It is too big a subject to be expressed in the homely, fireside tones of chamber music ; the giant voice of the orchestra is needed to tell of anything so stark —forbiddingly stark it often seems. That is no doubt why he has called his one string quartet ' intimate voices.' They always are, these four voices which blend so happily, but hero Sibelius may well be revealing something of his personal outlook on life, something of his own joys and strivings. The quartet, composed largely during a visit which he paid to London in 1908, is in five movements, full of wonderful variety in detail, and yet each true to its own mood throughout. The contrasts which tradition demands between one section and another of the same movement are given us here by the whole movements themselves. Within its close-knit compass the work is as characteristic of him as any of his music in the larger forms; it appeared in 1909, his forty-fifth year.