Australian String Quartet: Florescence

A celebration of the string quartet across continents and contexts.

A dramatic proclamation sets the scene as Australian composer Justin Williams’ Movement for String Quartet begins this concert with an exploration of distinct and juxtaposing musical material. From twenty-first century Australia we travel to eighteenth century Austria, where Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet No.1 in B minor thrills with an impulsiveness that makes for a virtuosic and exuberant experience.

Henry Purcell’s Fantasia No.6 showcases this Baroque composer’s mastery of suspension and release in a meditative ‘fancy’ before we are whisked into the program’s celebratory finale. Antonin Dvořák’s melodically rich and festive String Quartet No.14 — the composer’s final instrumental chamber work—brims with inventive interplay and influences from the composer’s experiences abroad and connection to his Bohemian homeland’s folk traditions.