Esen Kıvrak, violin; Nilay Sancar, violin; Efdal Altun, viola; Poyraz Baltacıgil, cello, with the pianist Özgür Aydın
In this concert, entitled ‘Masters of Chamber Music’ (Oda Müziğinin Ustaları), the excellent Borusan String Quartet – consisting of Esen Kıvrak and Nilay Sancar (violins), Efdal Altun (viola) and Poyraz Baltacıgil (cello) – will be accompanied on the piano by the equally excellent Özgür Aydın, who has in the past released an acclaimed recording of all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and his 5 piano concertos; his Beethoven performances are not to be missed. Together, this high-class ensemble are to play Beethoven’s String Quartet No 12 in E flat major, Opus 127, and César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor. Highly recommended.
Beethoven’s four-movement String Quartet No 12 in E flat major, written in 1825 to a commission from the wealthy Russian prince Nicolas Galitzin, an amateur cellist, was the first of his late quartets. It was this commission that brought Beethoven back to composing string quartets after a ten-year hiatus. Its extremely long second movement, a series of lyrical variations on a simple theme, is typical of late Beethoven in that it ignores the conventions of its time. Kai Christiansen, writing on the ‘Earsense’ website, says of this movement that it ‘places us squarely in the astonishing realm of late Beethoven with an epic set of variations on a very simple but exquisitely beautiful theme. These are not Beethoven’s typical variations full of brio, virtuosity and shocking contrasts. Instead, Beethoven offers a rhapsodic slow movement in which sustained lyricism spans great arcs of loosely braided contrapuntal textures in what is ultimately an extended and passionately emotional song.’
The three-movement Piano Quintet in F minor by César Franck (1822-90), written in 1879, is regarded as one of the composer’s finest achievements. At the first performance the piano part was played by the composer Camille Saint-Saëns, to whom the piece was dedicated. Wikipedia tells us that ‘A minor scandal ensued when at the piece’s completion, Saint-Saëns walked off the stage leaving the score open at the piano, which was interpreted as a mark of disdain. … Notwithstanding Saint-Saëns’s ungenerous behaviour, the work has been described as having a ‘torrid emotional power’.’
JSD
Esen Kıvrak, violin; Nilay Sancar, violin; Efdal Altun, viola; Poyraz Baltacıgil, cello, with the pianist Özgür Aydın
Issue 67, December 2024
Beauty in the Wilderness
