Last week was amazing – I played cello in three different quartets, in addition to the rehearsals for Stroud Symphony Orchestra and the concert !
The first session was actually a flute quartet – the flute makes a fine ‘first violin’ ! First we played Pleyel’s Op 20 No 3 – mostly quite easy, simple and charming.
Then, as it was nearly April’s Fool Day the conversation turned to ‘foolish’ or ‘joke’ music. Haydn’s Op 33 No 2 nicknamed ‘The Joke’ was an obvious choice. It’s full of fun and not too difficult. I’ll leave you to spot the joke.
Then to give our flute some fun we played Mozart’s flute quartet K285a (in the edition by J-P Rampal – International Music Co) – followed by K285 itself (same edition). Two quite different pieces, oddly.
The same evening (different quartet) we played K285 again, but in the Peters Edition, and with a 1st violin not flute. Different, but equally successful and a delight to play.
And the next afternoon, with quartet 3, we played a much more demanding piece, Mozart’s ‘Hofmeister’ quartet K499. Both the adagio and the finale have quite complicated rhythms – worth looking at beforehand !
Followed by a concert including Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Quite a week !
Play String Quartets ! 