Purcell, Haydn, Britten

Music with a nationalistic flavour was in vogue in the 19th and 20th centuries. Composers such as Edvard Grieg, Jean Sibelius, Antonín Dvořák and Ralph Vaughan Williams drew on material and music from folk culture for this purpose. Benjamin Britten found his own way of expressing national identity musically by engaging intensively with the work of Henry Purcell and drawing inspiration from it; the best-known example is probably the Variations on a Theme by Purcell, entitled ‘A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’. Just in time for the 250th anniversary of Henry Purcell’s death on 21 November 1945, Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 2 was premiered, featuring numerous references to Purcell. This is most evident in the third movement, entitled ‘Chacony’. Its main motif, which is explored and transformed across 21 variations and four sections – first harmonically, then rhythmically, melodically and finally formally – is based on Purcell’s famous Chaconne in G minor, which took the ‘sweet’ dissonances typical of English string music at the time to the extreme. Britten himself arranged this work for string orchestra in 1955. The Winterthur String Quartet juxtaposes both ‘Chaconnys’: the original arranged by Britten and his homage in the string quartet. In between, Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 54/2 will be performed. Although this was composed a good three years before his first trip to London, its experimental form, which breaks with numerous conventions, fits perfectly into the programme.

6.45 pm Concert introduction with Lion Gallusser in the City Council Chamber