String Quartet

The last chamber music concert of this year’s artistic season will be given by a string quartet, with members of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. The quartet with members Anna Wrobel (violin), Ayşe Karaoğlan (violin), Ewa Bartmann (viola) and Miranda Papaneocleous (cello) will perform the String Quartet No. 1 in C major by K. Szymanowski as well as the String Quartet No. 5 (“Quarteto Popular”) by H. Villa-Lobos, for the 125th anniversary of his birth.

The concert will take place on Saturday 12 May 2012 at 5:00pm at the Pallas Theatre, Paphos Gate in Nicosia.

The Programme:

K. Szymanowski (1882-1937): String Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op.37
Originally planned as a four-movement work, Szymanowski’s first string quartet was composed in the autumn of 1917 and dedicated to Henry Pruničres. Yet the chaos of the October revolution prevented the composer from writing the final movement, hence the Scherzo, that was initially the second movement, became the finale. The quartet was awarded a first prize by the Polish Ministry of Culture and received its premiere by the String Quartet of the Warsaw Philharmonic in 1924.

H. Villa-Lobos (1887-1959): String Quartet No. 5, A.263 ('Quarteto Popular') Perhaps the most appealing and inventive of the seventeen quartets by Villa-Lobos, No.5 was composed in 1931. Its subtitle, ‘Quarteto Popular’, rather than referring to its popularity, actually allures to its frequent employment of folk music elements, exhibiting the composer’s fascination with Brazilian ethnic music.