The Atrium quartet:
Alexei Naumenko (violin)
Anton Ilyunin (violin)
Dmitry Pitulko (viola)
Anna Gorelova (cello)
PROGRAMME:
Felix Mendelssohn
String Quartet No.5 in E Flat Major, Op. 44 No. 3
String Quartet No.3 in D Major, Op. 44 No. 1
String Quartet No.6 in F Minor, Op. 80
To a certain extent Felix Mendelssohn’s string quartets are autobiographical and connected with people close to him. Three quartets Op. 44 emerged at a very happy time for the composer soon after his marriage to Cécile Jeanrenaud. Quartet Op. 44 No 3, dated 6 February 1838, is one of Mendelssohn’s “exemplary” works. Here he absolutely matches his reputation as the most “classical” of the Romantics. The energetic principal theme of the first movement reminds us of Beethoven, its development is logical and intense, the form has nothing superfluous and every element is in an ideal balance. In the second movement Mendelssohn confirms his reputation as a maestro of light and original scherzos. The lofty Adagio and the fiery finale complete the quartet.
Quartet Op. 44 No 1, although it opens the opus, was actually the last to be written, completed on 24 July 1838. Of the three quartets it is the most “classical”, and even its key of D Major was the one most frequently used in the age of Classicism. Of course, we are not talking about banal imitation: the music of the quartet is full of intonations typical of Mendelssohn that are easily recognised when heard. The Quartet in D Major is one of Mendelssohn’s most positive works – the joyful and lively character of which is almost unclouded by anything at all.
Just once here does Mendelssohn use the minuet in the first movement, bringing to mind the traditions of Haydn and Mozart – fundamentally shaken up under pressure from Beethoven. And yet it is such a soft and songful minuet that Mendelssohn’s hand is felt in every bar. The song-like third movement of the quartet begins with deceptive simplicity, but it grows into a large-scale composition. The quartet’s finale is a glittering saltarella.
Quartet Op. 13, in which Mendelssohn first “tamed” this genre, is united by a common theme (“the motif of the question”) with the song Frage from Op. 9. Three of the twelve songs of this anthology were written by the composer’s sister Fanny. Her name is also connected with Mendelssohn’s last complete string Quartet in F Minor Op. 80, which appeared in September 1847, not long before the composer’s death (at the same time, he was also working on a new quartet in A Minor, but this was never finished). The tragic flavour of this work is linked with the sudden death of his beloved sister. Formally, it is a similar quartet to Quartets Op. 44, built on classical laws. The structure has not changed here, Minor regularly cedes to Major and the composition is as sharp as previous ones. But the music of the quartet is imbued with a sense of disharmony previously alien to Mendelssohn and the transfers from one theme to another are now harsh and sudden, already in the first movement there is a texture completely atypical of his style: the sound of all four instruments in an octave, which with the Classicists often symbolised inexorable destiny. Harsh and empty octaves return in the second movement which on this occasion Mendelssohn did not call a scherzo (i.e. a “joke”), leaving the piece with no title at all. The Adagio in funereal A Flat Major is as if to be found beyond the confines of this world. And the finale abounds in sounds that are unusually sharp for Mendelssohn and which give no hope for comfort.
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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