Greetings. I'm Arnold Steinhardt, and I am here with the Aizuri String Quartet.
We are once again going to visit the glorious string quartet repertoire,
and in particular, two gems, written by French composers Claude Debussy
and Maurice Ravel. When I was a young student, I had
the privilege of studying these quartets with Josef Gingold, the wonderful violinist
and teacher. And he himself had studied in Paris, France,
with the great Franco-Belgian violinist, Eugene Ysaye. Debussy actually
dedicated the quartet to Eugene Ysaye, and Eugene Ysaye was this enormous presence
in French music. Gingold came home in love with French music, but specifically
in love with these quartets. And he tried to infuse the character of this music
into us. In particular, the sort of gauzy Impressionistic style of some of the music,
but in contrast to that, something quite exotic and almost foreign-sounding in the--
in the strange effects, the pizzicato effects and other effects that were really
foreign to much of Western music. And I wonder what your take is
in the Aizuri Quartet, about some of these elements.
For example, in the Debussy String Quartet.
Well, we find these works incredibly imaginative,
and full of so many different types of music, types of colors, and types of sounds.
It's easy to tell that Debussy had some inspiration from Spanish music,
and maybe flamenco guitar playing. There's definitely a lot of Spanish flair
in this piece. But he also was inspired by Javanese gamelan.
And there are some harmonic passages that sound -- have the mellow sounds and
counterpoint of that type of music. That's so interesting. One other thing
that I find very interesting is his use of so-called cyclic form.
And he's taken a germ of an idea in the first movement, and he's used it
in every other movement of the quartet. But so disguised, that unless you're
really paying attention, you have no idea about it,
because the character of each movement is so different. The character of the
same group of notes. And I know you're going to play the beginning of the
second movement. But just as a contrast, I wonder whether you'd
first start with those notes, that germ idea, in the first movement. And--
and then we can compare that afterwards, with the same notes in the second movement.
Please.
[MUSIC]
Thank you. And now, can you show us how these notes are the same but
completely different when you play them in the second movement, the very beginning
of the second movement? And you will hear that when Ayane plays these
notes in the viola part.
[MUSIC]
Thank you so much. They were absolutely the same notes,
but absolutely different. And now, if you would, start from the beginning
of the second movement, and play a good healthy piece of the
second movement for us please.
[MUSIC]