Passion and Whimsy
Join Nomad in the acoustic balm of St Margaret's Church for a Sunday afternoon concert of two fabulous though contrasting string quartets.
Mozart String Quartet No.19 in C major “Dissonance”, K. 465
Mendelssohn String Quartet No. 4 in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2
Mozart wrote his nineteenth String Quartet in Vienna a few years before the First Fleet set sail from Portsmouth. It is one of six that he dedicated to his mentor, friend and fellow Austrian composer, Joseph Haydn, who is often credited as the ‘inventor’ of the string quartet genre.
Residing as it does in the sunny key of C major, the Quartet’s ‘juicy’ opening minute sits in no key - a huge innovation for its time - giving rise to the piece’s nickname, “Dissonance”.
Queen Victoria dubbed Mendelssohn “the greatest musical genius since Mozart”. Mendelssohn was certainly an outrageous prodigy, and wrote some of his most famous music as a teenager! Incidentally, one of Mendelssohn’s favourite composers was Mozart.
Mendelssohn wrote his fourth quartet in his late twenties, shortly after marrying his beloved Cecile, and the music is laced through with deep passion. Melancholic moments envelope a beautiful slow movement that we interpret as a ‘song without words’ - Mendelssohn was a master at making instruments sing.
These are two of the Nomad String Quartet’s favourite pieces - join them for an afternoon of fantasy, drama, whimsy and excitement!
All members of Nomad are highly accomplished classical musicians who have performed with the major Australian orchestras; what brings them to Nomad is their love of folk, world music, jazz and other improvised traditions.
Nomad also breaks down the fourth wall to engage directly with the audience, and is passionately committed to breathing new life into classical music. Each Nomad concert experience is a curated journey that is refreshing and titillating to the connoisseur, inviting and accessible to the uninitiated, and emotionally captivating for all.
