RNS @ The Maltings, Berwick
Royal Northern Sinfonia
Stamitz Oboe Quartet in E flat Major, Op.8, No.4
Britten String Quartet No.3
Elgar Andante and Allegro for Oboe and String Trio
Mozart String Quartet in D major, K.499 ‘Hoffmeister’
Stamitz completed the Oboe Quartet in 1773 for the Paris Music Society. It was initially written for clarinet, but the oboe part was written to increase sales. It is subtle and tender to start, before a lively finale based on folk melodies.
Britten’s five-movement String Quartet No.3 is his latest completed major work, written during his years of illness. Each movement is in ternary form, and the work explores all six possible relationships between four instruments in a quartet.
Written around 1878 when Elgar was just 21, the Andante and Allegro for Oboe and String Trio was one of his earliest works, probably written for performance at Worcester Glee Club, but was only published in recent years having been discovered in a folder at the British Museum.
The concert closes with Mozart’s jaunty and charming String Quartet in D major, published by, and perhaps written for, Mozart’s friend Franz Anton Hoffmeister.