Per Nørgård - String Quartet no. 2 "Quartetto Brioso" (1953/1958)

Kontra Quartet I. Allegro con brio II. Adagio III. Sostenuto My second string quartet – Quartetto Brioso – has a firm root in the Nordic tradition and is strongly inspired by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) and my teacher Vagn Holmboe (1909-96). The quartet has a motivic core, which manifest itself in all three movements, namely a descending half-tone and whole-tone. The first movement introduces this motive in a strongly rhythmic “brioso” elaboration, which after a culmination is succeeded by a more open and relaxed development of the core motive. This quieter character is found again in the opening of the second movement [ 5:25 ] but has been transformed into a static introspective tension. With imperceptible changes the sound is set in motion and the tension is released with a quavering manifestation of the core motive, which in the remainder of the movement repeats itself in the high register of the first violin. Meanwhile the other instruments establish the movement's wavering from sonority to melody. The last movement [ 11:06 ] is also characterized by the ideas of transformation and is actually called “Metamorphosis”. The core motive exists as an accompaniment to a slow, expansive melodic development in the viola. A rapid leggiero section suddenly replaces the expressive introduction and with dance-like lightness the core motive is treated from continually new angles. At the climax the expressive melody from the introduction emerges. With a pianissimo version of the viola melody (accompanied by a collegno syncopation in the other strings) the movement – and the quartet – ends, now transformed into a dance. Per Nørgård Art: J. M. W. Turner