Repertoire
Quartet Atenea
Benet Casablancas: String Quartet No. 3 “Raging in the Dark” (2008-2009) 23′
Jerusalem Quartet
W. A. Mozart: String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K. 575 “The Violet”
Korngold: String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, op. 26
Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 “American”
Artists
Jerusalem Quartet
Quartet Atenea
Program
Dvořák, Korngold and Mozart in the hands of the acclaimed Jerusalem Quartet
Antonín Dvořák composed the String Quartet No. 12, Op. 96 during a summer stay in Iowa, USA, shortly after composing the New World Symphony. The influence of American music is present in the work through various elements, such as the use of the pentatonic scale and the syncopated rhythms. In this quartet, Dvořák manages to balance melodic creativity and structural clarity.
Erich W. Korngold’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26 was composed shortly before Korngold’s triumph in Hollywood. It has some features of the Viennese tradition, such as luminosity and the use of waltz form. However, there are also some hints at certain melodic and harmonic elements that later find their way into his film scores.
W. A. Mozart’s String Quartet No. 21, K. 575, dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia, is a relaxed work that Mozart composed at full maturity and contains outstanding virtuosic cello passages.
Benet Casablancas String Quartet No. 3, explores darkness and night, as he does in works such as Darkness Visible and Shade and Darkness. Based on verses by W. B. Yeats, Casablancas creates a single movement with three clearly differentiated parts. The first and final sections, which evoke night storms, are of great emotional and rhythmic intensity, while the central part is delicate and suggests an atmosphere of calm and rest.
