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26
Thu
Nov
2018
20:00 |
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$340, $280, $220, $160 |
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Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall |
BUY TICKET
Music
Encore Series: Kodály Quartet
Rich and Subtle Quartet Playing from Hungary
Johnny Lam (working in the music field)
The name of the Kodály Quartet is mostly associated with their renowned complete recording of Haydn's string quartets, which makes their name known to international audience. This quartet just celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2016. Despite their personnel changes over the years, their no-frills playing, yet with rich expressive palette with subtlety, makes them an individual voice among many edgy-playing young ensembles nowadays.
The founding of the Kodály Quartet is largely associated with the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest. In 1966, four students of the academy formed the Sebastyén Quartet, which was soon awarded the jury's special diploma at the 1966 Geneva International Quartet Competition, and won the First Prize at the 1968 Leó Weiner Quartet Competition in Budapest. Their victories were soon recognised by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education, who granted them approval to use the name of the then-deceased national composer Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) as the quartet's name in 1972. Since then, the fame of the Kodály Quartet soon raised nationally with their recordings of Hungarian composers for their national record label, including works by Kodály, Dohnányi and contemporary composers of their country.
Even the current members of the Kodály Quartet are all graduates of the Franz Liszt Academy. The first violinist Falvay, who is the Second Prize recipient of the 1979 József Szigeti International Violin Competition, and the winner of 1980 Hubay Competition, joined the Kodály Quartet in 1980, is now the longest-serving member of the quartet. Cellist Éder, who founded his own quartet in 1973, and won the Second Prize in ARD International Music Competition in Munich, joined the Kodály Quartet in 1990. Fejérvári, who attended chamber music classes conducted by renowned composer Kurtág and pianist Schiff, joined the quartet as violist at the turn of the century. With Bangó who joined the quartet as second violinist recently in 2015, the current Kodály Quartet comprises of 4 members who excel and are well-experienced in chamber music and ensemble playing with dedication and passion.
Since 1988, the Kodály Quartet recorded a number of Haydn's string quartets for a record company and these recordings soon received well critical acclaims. That company then promptly expanded the recording project to cover the composer's entire oeuvre for string quartet, which took 12 years to complete. The same company also recorded the complete quartet works by Beethoven and Schubert with the Kodály Quartet, as well as works by Debussy and Ravel. Their album with Haydn's Six String Quartets, Op. 76 received a Penguin Guide Rosette. The Gramophone also praised the quartet as a "polished, beautifully balanced group".
The Kodály Quartet will make their long-due re-appearence on Hong Kong concert stage after several decades, bringing works by three Austro-German musical masters at the turn of 18th and 19th centuries – Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The three works featured in the concert were written within the span of merely 22 years (1784-1806), but they represented entirely different facets of quartet writing. The works in the concert also brought the life of three composers at the crossroad – Mozart's String Quartet No. 17, K. 458 is part of the six quartets dedicated to Haydn. Inspired by the latter's special quartet writing, giving the four instruments equal share in terms of musical argument, Mozart had to seriously work out these six quartets in an unusually long time span. While Haydn's String Quartets, Op. 77, commissioned by Prince Lobkowitz in 1799, are among his last full statement of the genre, at the time when Beethoven composed his first group of six quartets, Op. 18, and dedicated to Lobkowitz, challenging Haydn's supremacy in the quartet genre. Kodály Quartet's Hong Kong programme well reflects the stylistic changes of quartet writing during the turn of the century.
TICKETING
DATE VENUE PRICE 26.11.2018 (Mon)
20:00
20:00
Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall
$340, $280, $220, $160