The Atrium quartet:
Alexei Naumenko (violin)
Anton Ilyunin (violin)
Dmitry Pitulko (viola)
Anna Gorelova (cello)
PROGRAMME:
Felix Mendelssohn
String Quartet No.2 in A Minor, Op. 13
String Quartet No.1 in E Flat Major, Op. 12
String Quartet No.4 in E Minor, Op. 44 No. 2
Felix Mendelssohn had been preparing himself to compose string quartets from childhood. As a twelve-year-old he had already written fugues for a quartet, and when he was fourteen he took his first steps in this exceedingly complex classical music genre though he never published his first attempt. Mendelssohn completed the first of his six “adult” quartets on 26 October 1827 when he was eighteen years of age. Today, this quartet is known as the Second: the numeration follows the order in which the works were published. (The Atrium Quartet is performing the six quartets in the same order in which Mendelssohn composed them.)
Quartet Op. 13, strictly speaking, is written in A Minor. In A Major we have only the slow introduction to the first movement which, as if it were some magical vision, returns at the very end of the finale in order to melt and be dispelled. In this introduction we hear the sound of a question that opens the song Frage (The Question, Op. 9 No 1) which Mendelssohn also composed in 1827. The quartet amazes with its combination of genius and inspiration. From performers it requires perfect virtuoso skills: the structure is so opaque and has such filigree adornment that each note is on display. Even the “academic” polyphonic technique which Mendelssohn made active use of doesn’t weigh down this light, ethereal and dreamy music. The troubled first movement cedes to a Beethoven-like and noble Adagio non lento. Mendelssohn replaced the traditional scherzo with a romantic Intermezzo, though in the finale it returns once more to the technique of pure Beethoven, giving the first violin a dramatic recitative.
In Quartet Op. 12, completed on 14 September 1829, there is the same beauty and nobility of emotions, loftiness of ideas and harmony of proportions. It is as if this music brings to us the spirit of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe with whom the young Mendelssohn associated for many years. Instead of a scherzo Mendelssohn once again proposed something new – this time a dazzling canzonetta (“little song”) that makes us think of his famous Songs without Words to which the composer had incidentally turned at that time. The slow section is again in the manner of Beethoven while the finale is a tempestuous saltarella.
Eight years passed before Mendelssohn returned to string quartets. For a composer working with such intensity that is a very long period of time. Completed on 18 June 1837, Quartet Op. 44 No 2 presents us with an entirely different Mendelssohn. He is no longer interested in experiments connected with the introduction of unusual movements, song themes or violin recitatives. Mendelssohn’s inherent liveliness of tempo remains, but now the tempo is retained throughout each movement without change. The Quartet in E Minor is sterner and more classical in terms of form than the preceding two, though in its music there is no less energy, here concentrated in the extreme. In the passionate first movement there is a veritable ocean of emotions, the scherzo standing out with its original rhythmic structure and the third movement totally idyllic in its simplicity while nature storms in the finale.
Anna Bulycheva
One of the most inspiring, dynamic and charismatic ensembles on the music scene, the Atrium Quartet musicians have established themselves as performers of deep emotion, intellect, virtuoso skill and technical brilliance. Highly acclaimed by audiences and the media, the quartet has performed throughout Europe, Russia, the USA, Australia, Japan and Brazil.
The Atrium Quartet has been a winner of two of the most prestigious international competitions for string quartet, taking 1st prize and the Audience Prize at the IX London International String Quartet Competition in 2003 and the Grand-Prix at the V International String Quartet Competition in Bordeaux in 2007. Founded in 2000 in St Petersburg thanks to the inspiration of Professor Josef Levinson, members of the quartet graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatoire in 2003 and then completed their education as a quartet-in-residence in Amsterdam coached by Professor Stefan Metz at the Netherlands String Quartet Academy and at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Professor Eberhard Feltz. The quartet has also been coached by famous musicians from the Alban Berg Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet and Marc Danel Quartet.
Recent highlights for the Atrium Quartet have included recitals at Wigmore Hall and the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Library of Congress in Washington, the Frick Museum in New York, Les Invalides in Paris, BOZAR in Brussels, De Doelen in Rotterdam, deSingel in Antwerp, the Geneva Conservatoire, the Palau de la Música Catalana and L’Auditori in Barcelona, the Philharmonic Hall and the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Toppan Hall and Oji Hall in Tokyo and Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik in addition to recitals at prestigious festivals such as the Beethovenfest, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival in Germany, the Colmar and Luberon Festivals in France, the Orlando and Grachten Festivals in The Netherlands, the Haydn International Festival in Esterházy in Hungary and the Davos and Luzern Festivals in Switzerland.
Concerts in Berlin, Hamburg, Rotterdam, concert tours in the United Kingdom and festivals in the USA, The Netherlands and Russia, particularly in their native city of St Petersburg, are scheduled for the 2013-2014 season.
The quartet has performed with such eminent musicians as violist Richard Young of the Vermeer Quartet, pianists Brigitte Engerer and Jean-Bernard Pommier and cellist Antônio Meneses.
Teaching is another important part of the quartet’s activities. The members of the Atrium Quartet have shared their experience with young musicians from the UK, USA, Brazil and Russia. Since June 2012 the quartet has been the quartet-in-residence at the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, USA.
The Atrium Quartet’s discography includes a CD with works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich made for EMI Classics and the DVD Live in Concert in The Netherlands with music by Tchaikovsky. Another CD was recorded in Paris for Zig-Zag Territories (Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 74 in E Flat and Shostakovich’s Quartet No 5, Op. 92), and was Gramophone magazine’s Editor’s Choice in November 2008. The quartet recorded all four string quartets by Spanish composer Jordi Cervello. Two of his quartets (A Bach and St Petersburg) are dedicated to the members of the Atrium Quartet. Recent CD releases include Shostakovich’s Ninth and Eleventh Quartets and Piano Quintet, recorded in St Petersburg with Misha Fomin (piano); these were released on RCM in early 2012. This CD appeared in the top ten of Luister Magazin, a leading music publication in The Netherlands. The quartet’s next major project will be the cycle of all fifteen quartets by Shostakovich which is planned for the 2014-2015 season. New recordings of works by Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Arensky and Frid have been scheduled for coming seasons.
The Atrium Quartet presented the world’s first SHOSTAKOVICH MARATHON in 2013. The cycle of all fifteen quartets by Dmitry Shostakovich was performed by the Atrium Quartet in just one day. During 2013 the cycle was performed in concert halls in Iceland, Japan, France and Russia. Subsequent marathons are planned for 2015 and 2016 in Germany, The Netherlands and the USA. In the 2014-2015 season Atrium is celebrating the 175th anniversary of the birth of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s birth with the new and unique project TCHAIKOVSKY MINI FEST. The entire body of chamber music written by the Russian genius will be performed in just one single day. The repertoire of the quartet also includes complete cycles by Mendelssohn and Beethoven.
The quartet play unique instruments crafted by Italian violin makers – two violins by Paolo Castello (1770 and 1773), a viola by Lorenzo Carcassi (1775) and a cello by Giovanni Battista Ceruti (1798). The Russian-born quartet currently resides in Berlin, Germany.
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