JOHN FRANCIS (flute)
PAULINE JULER (clarinet)
MARIE KORCHINSKA (harp)
THE BROSA STRING QUARTET: Antonio Brosa (violin); Norman Chappie (violin); Leonard Rubens (viola); Livio Mannucci (violoncello)
Mozart's Quartet for flute, violin, viola, and 'cello was written at Mannheim on Christmas Day, 1777. Like the Quartet in A for the same combination (K.298), written a little later, it was probably composed for a Dutchman named De Jean (or de Jong), a wealthy admirer of Mozart's. The work is comparatively slight in build. the flute keeping well in the limelight, while the strings do little more than accompany. The String Quartet in D was Franck's last instrumental work designed on a large scale. It was written in 1889, a year before his death. With the exception of the delicate and finely pointed Scherzo, all the movements of this Quartet are designed in an elaborate manner. The first movement is in full sonata form, in the slow introduction to which the chief cyclic theme is heard at the outset on the first violin. The third movement, larghetto, is the most beautiful of all Franck's slow movements : in the Trio the opening cyclic theme is introduced with fine effect. The introduction to the Finale is after the style of Beethoven's introduction to the Finale of the Ninth Symphony : the principal themes of the three movements are passed in rapid review until the composer decides to make the opening cyclic theme the first subject of the movement. In view of the clever way in which the composer makes use in this movement of themes from previous movements, this Finale is an impressive and powerful summing up of the whole work.
Ravel's chamber music is undoubtedly one of the most valuable contributions to the modern repertoire. Such masterpieces as the String Quartet. Piano Trio, and ' Introduction and Allegro ' for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet show to perfection the composer's finely pointed style, delicate poetic feeling, and charming melodic invention. The ' Introduction and Allegro' is an early work, for it was composed in 1906 when the composer was thirty-one years of age. The harp is given a very prominent and brilliant part with many effective solo passages and a long, richly ornamented cadenza.