Australian String Quartet Provenance Tour – Melbourne, 29 July

What’s on? ASQ travels the musical globe in its third national tour - Provenance, Melbourne 29 July

The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) travels the musical globe in its third national tour, with repertoire from Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic; music deeply rooted in the soil of the composers’ native lands. 

Performing in Melbourne on Wednesday 29 July, the concert program begins with Arriaga’s String Quartet No.1; an exquisite work from the composer who is aptly nicknamed the 'Spanish Mozart'. While a short-lived life (he died shortly before his 20^th birthday), he was a child prodigy, having played second violin in a professional String Quartet by age 10.

Following is Shostakovich’s String Quartet no.8. Written in three days it is considered one of his most private bodies of work. He described it as ‘an ideologically deficient quartet nobody needs... It is a pseudo-tragic quartet.’

ASQ violinist Anne Horton describes it as “full of manic urgency and fiery repetition. This Quartet was written as a reaction to having to take on a role within the communist party. The piece is bound together by Shostakovich’s musical signature in which he uses a recurring pattern of notes. This is one of his most popular works, and a personal favourite, exhilarating for both performer and listener.”

In Smetana’s first Quartet, the composer’s life story unfolds alongside loving references to the joyous village polkas of his native Bohemia.

“From joyful youth and first love, to misfortune, fate and the beginnings of deafness, the four movements take us through his life's journey,” says Horton.

The Australian String Quartet is Quartet in Residence at the University of Adelaide and is generously supported by the Government of South Australia and the Australia Council. For further information visit the website (www.asq.com.au) or ph: 1800 040 444.

ASQ’s Provenance Concert

Wednesday 29 July 2009, 7pm