Peasmarsh Festival: East Sussex

Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Tim Horton, Sascha Bota, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Benjamin Gilmore, Graham Mitchell, Emily Nebel, Barbican String Quartet

R Strauss Sextet from ‘Capriccio’, Op. 85
Ligeti String Quartet No. 1
R Schumann Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
Dvo?ák String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77

Like his opera, Capriccio, of 1942, the final programme in the Peasmarsh festival opens with Strauss’s rich, Romantic Sextet. Inspired by Bartók’s third and fourth quartets, Ligeti’s quartet – titled Métamorphoses nocturnes – was composed under the restrictions of Communist Hungary, before Ligeti emigrated to Austria and was able to explore his passion for the avant-garde. Proclaimed by Clara Schumann to be ‘brilliant, fresh and compassionate’ and just the sort of work that she liked, Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro of 1848 is performed in this concert on horn and piano (Schumann also produced alternative parts for cello and violin). The festival draws to a close with Dvo?ák’s second String Quintet, with double bass instead of 2nd viola; a composition for which Dvo?ák won 5 ducats in a competition.