Argus Quartet: "New Sounds, Old Forms" promo

Argus Quartet: New Sounds, Old Forms

Throughout many centuries, composers have broken out of the bounds and limits of form to express new and innovative musical ideas. Conversely, they have also often returned to forms of the past to reflect on the transformations they have undergone and reconsider their meaning in the musical landscape of their own time. “New Sounds, Old Forms” explores the resulting dialogue across musical eras through works spanning almost four centuries. Central to the program is the connection between Britten and Purcell, a lifelong influence on Britten’s musical thinking. Britten’s String Quartet No. 2, written to mark the 250th anniversary of Purcell’s death, features a monumental chaconne – a set of wildly inventive variations that threaten to break out of their form. Purcell’s own Fantazias for viols were written around 1680, when the genre of viol consort music was already going out of style – yet these are works of extreme invention, with shocking harmonies and sudden changes in tempo. And though it is in a traditional sonata form, Schubert’s Quartettsatz explores ferocious extremes of emotion, paving the way for the mature style of the composer’s final monumental quartets, which themselves stretched the limits of what a string quartet could be. Two contemporary works look back towards music of the past. In Three Rameau Pieces, Joey Roukens does more than simply arrange Rameau’s keyboard works, rather reimagining them for string quartet. Molly Herron’s Three Sarabandes “meditate on the long history of the Sarabande and its transformation over time as details are lost and replaced, guided by our imperfect yet resourceful human minds.”

Henry Purcell: selected Fantazias
Molly Herron: Three Sarabandes
Franz Schubert: Quartettsatz, D. 703
intermission
Joey Roukens: Three Rameau Pieces
Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No. 2 in C major, Op. 36

(Total Time: 77 min)