This programme began as an opportunity to celebrate the music of David Matthews in this 80th anniversary year. In pursuit of our seasonal theme of The Ties between Pupil & Teacher, we have already remarked on David’s pedagogical pedigree, studying as he did with Anthony Milner alongside fellow young composer Nicholas Maw and working for Benjamin Britten as an apprentice in his Aldeburgh studio.
We may perhaps be unfamiliar with the music of the opera composer Mercadante. When we learn however that his teacher, Niccolo Zingarelli, was congratulated by no less an authority than Gioachino Rossini on the excellence of his pupil, we can begin to understand the circles in which this Apulian composer moved and the exalted company he kept. Likewise with Viotti, we can deduce much from knowing that his teacher was Gaetano Pugnani, the famed Italian violinist who graced the London seasons of the late 18th Century. (It was that same Pugnani whose name Kreisler borrowed as a nom de plume for some of his most celebrated works.) Viotti’s education under Pugnani was paid for by the Principe Alfonso dal Pozzo della Cisterna, a debt that the virtuoso violinist and composer repaid by serving loyally at the Savoia Court in Turin. The debt of scholarship is often financial as well as personal…
Richard Sisson (Programme Planner)
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Flute Quartet No.4 in A major K298
David Matthews – String Trio No.1
Saverio Mercadante – Flute Quartet in E minor
INTERVAL
David Matthews – Dance for Emma
David Matthews – A Blackbird Sang
Giovanni Battista Viotti – Flute Quartet in C minor Op 22 No.2
Performers
- Emma Halnan (flute)
- Jonathan Martindale (violin)
- Lucy Nolan (viola)
- Peggy Nolan (cello)
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