The Dissonance Quartet is so named on account of the slow introduction to the opening Allegro. The harmonic structure of the texture of the opening bars - a chromatically descending bass - is not extraordinary even in the context of the eighteenth century, but Mozart uses a series of false relations in the first eight bars to blur the tonality and to generate tension about how he will untangle the deliberately tangled skein. Like Wagner's Tristan chord, these few notes have been the cause of much erudite and impassioned debate - indeed many early performers even corrected what they thought were Mozart's mistakes. The Allegro when it arrives is of crystalline beauty, clear in structure and shining with joy. The only darkness amidst this light-filled music comes in the development when the cello seems to be dragging us back to the tensions of the opening introduction. 

 

The Andante cantabile is one of Mozart's most intensely beautiful creations. Perhaps its most affecting inspiration is a sighing figure that is passed magically amongst the four instruments. As the movement progresses the music is transformed from gentle beauty into a profundity that no words can reflect. 

 

Inevitably the Minuet must bring us back to ground level with a combination of earthiness and spirited energy. The Trio is led even more energetically by the first violin with some neat interjections by the cello near the end. The finale is clearly written in homage to Haydn as it uses several techniques pioneered by him, such as the sudden rests in the main theme used to build up tension. The second theme has a tendency to burst out into a cascade of brilliant semiquaver runs followed by an uneasy dream-like episode. Another trick of Papa Haydn's was the false entry of the recapitulation, which Mozart tries three times before eventually finding the correct key. So does the youthful master make obeisance to his mentor, while we listen transfixed.  Francis Humphrys 

Contemplating the vast quietude of space, I thought of Mr Shah, a Welsh astrophotographer, who - at the more dedicated end of the space-curious spectrum - spends his evenings exploring space through a telescope in his garden shed.

Through his window to the universe, he has created photographs of star clusters, light years from earth, rivalling images taken from the £2.5 billion Hubble telescope.

Night after night, in solitude, staring into vast, soundless space. 

 

Inspiration came from studying the scores of Bartók’s third and fourth quartets and Berg’s Lyric Suite – no chance of hearing such dissonant works performed in Hungary at that time – and from the classical model of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. From Bartók come the chromatically intense melodic and harmonic language and the textural contrasts, from Ligeti himself the explosive and disruptive forces that threaten to tear the fabric apart. Mind you the Quartet was submitted for the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium Competition in 1955 and was considered too conventional even to be short-listed.

 

The Quartet is presented as a single movement of almost symphonic dimensions, ostensibly in many different motivically linked sections, that can also be seen as a four-movement structure. There is a ternary exposition that opposes three contrasting presentations of the germinal four-note motif, grazioso, capriccioso and mesto in Ligeti’s typically brutal manner before resolving them in an exhilarating Presto. This accelerates to prestissimo from which mysterious nocturnal tremolos emerge later accompanied by a warm chordal chorale, Andante tranquillo, the equivalent of a slow movement, that fades to silence before the Tempo di Valse. This functions like a scherzo before the light-hearted rondo-style finale beginning with Allegretto, un poco giovale. This presents us with a kaleidoscope of special effects including a wild Prestissimo. The final section presents the original four-note motif like a cantus firmus over a whirring fabric of glissando harmonics.  Francis Humphrys