DOROTHY ROBSON (Soprano)
THE CHARLES WOODHOUSE
STRING QUARTET:
CHARLES WOODHOUSE (First Violin). HERBERT KINSEY . ERNEST YONG (Yiola).CHARLES CRABBE (Violoncello)
1. Allegro mocterato ; 2. Piacevole (poco andante); 3. Finale: Allegro motto
FIRST MOVEMENT (Moderately quick). The first mam tune really consists of several detached figures, each of a mere two or three notes. It is not easy to follow these in detail. but the most important is a drooping figure. which is heard at the third bar (i.e., about six seconds from the beginning !).
The second main tune is a more definite melody—swaying, very expressive. It is first heard in First Violin, in tender vein ; out it can be highly impassioned, as we find later.
The SECOND MOVEMENT is marked ' pleasantly,' and that is really all one needs to know about 'its mood. There is nothing of mere pretty-pretty pleasantness about the music ; it comes from the heart, is given to us as modestly as graciously as some subtle bits of lovely tone colour, which string players especially will relish, and ends in purest, sweetest calm.
THIRD MOVEMENT (Very quick). The Finale begins with terse, peremptory ejaculations from Viola and Violoncello. These quickly lead into the first main tune, in which the First Violin rushes up to one note, then to another, then back again. This rather rough going lasts for some time. At length things become smoother, and the more 'lyrical second main tune arrives, at first in First Violin. When this -seems finished with, the Viola comes upon a fussy little, chattering figure-orily to find we are not really rid of the second main tune.
The Movement is. in fact, barely begun ; but practically -everything is derived from what has now been ihoard.