Category
Composed  
Duration (approx)
Parts  
Commission   


First performance   
Venue  

Orchestra/Ensemble  

Orchestra
2004
15 minutes
Piano, violin, viola, cello                                                                            
Philharmonia Orchestra's Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Ensemble Award, sponsored by Total with investment from Arts & Business New Partners scheme.
28th August 2004  
St Andrew's Church, Presteigne, Wales

Fidelio Piano Quartet

Here was a statement of intent. And the work itself confidently bore out that traditional title, sustaining both inspiration and energy over its quarter-hour, single-movement span.
The Fidelios' commitment to the piece was absolute. Hushed, close-harmony string passages danced and fizzed, while climaxes broke with torrential force and gleaming string-tone. The great sweep up to Brown's sonorous finish was superbly paced and delivered with breathtaking verve.
Enthusiastic applause greeted what would prove to be the high point of the evening.
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The challenge of combining the piano with strings in chamber music is often solved by some form of dramatic dialogue, setting the forces as antagonists in order to make a virtue of the opposing sonorities. I wanted however, to achieve a convincing balance within a kind of contrapuntal and harmonic propulsion where the piano and strings are often moving rapidly as a single force.
It is cast in one movement, which is sub-divided into a sonata structure and an extended coda. The first subject group expands from an initially quasi Mozartean framework into music of a tougher and more assertive nature. There is a slower, darker second subject and a climactic development. The recapitulation is substantially reorganised and re-interpreted.
The coda takes the form of an allegro Finale and is a variation of the sonata material both in terms of metre and character, intending to bring the work to an exuberant conclusion.
The Piano Quartet was first performed by the Fidelio Piano Quartet at St Andrew’s Church, Presteigne during the Presteigne Festival on 28th August 2004. The commission was funded by the Philharmonia Orchestra's Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Ensemble Award, sponsored by Total with investment from Arts & Business New Partners scheme.
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Click the images of score samples below to see full-sized versions.
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2nd movement: Adagio -- listen and view score sample
3rd movement: Allegro -- listen and view score sample