String Quartet No. 3
(Quartetto Lirico) played by the Amadeus String Quartet:
Norbert Brainin (violin) Siegmund Nissel (violin)
Peter Schidlof (viola) Martin Lovett (cello)
(first broadcast performance)
Matyas Seiber was engaged on the Third String Quartet for about three years; he completed it at Baden-Baden in 1951, shortly after the performance of his cantata Ulysses at Frankfurt. The work was first performed by the Amadeus Quartet (for whom it was written) at a concert of the London Contemporary Music Centre last April. It has since been played a good deal abroad, and was given in June at special concert held in connection with the I.S.C.M. Festival at Salzburg, when its imaginative qualities created a deep impression. There are three movements: Andante amabile. Allegretto leggiero, and Lento espressivo.
Harold Rutland