Take Four - Piano Quartet

ABOUT

TAKE FOUR - Piano Quartet

The Quartet

Zanta Hofmeyr – violin

Jeanne-Louise Moolman – viola

Susan Mouton – cello

Elna van der Merwe - piano

Zanta Hofmeyr, Elna van der Merwe, Jeanne-Louise Moolman and Susan Mouton have been friends for many years. They are regarded as four of South Africa’s most accomplished classical musicians on violin, piano, viola and cello respectively. In August 2022, which very aptly is also Women’s Month, they will combine in their first performance as a formal piano quartet under the name Take Four.

Their programme will feature two major works by Johannes Brahms and Antonin Dvorak – the Brahms piano quartet Opus 25 in g minor and the Dvorak piano quartet Opus 87 in E-flat major. Brahms and Dvorak were also close friends.

South African audiences can look forward to participating in Take Four’s celebration of friendship and the uplifting power of music.

The Programme

Piano Quartet no.1 in G minor, Opus 25 Johannes Brahms

(1833 – 1897)

1. Allegro

2. Intermezzo. Allegro (ma non troppo)

3. Andante con moto

4. Rondo al Zingarese. Presto

INTERVAL - Wine and canapes will be served

Piano Quartet no. 2 in E-flat Major, Opus 87. Antonin Dvorak

(1841 – 1904)

1.Allegro con fuoco

2.Lento

3. Allegro moderato, grazioso

4. Finale: Allegro ma non troppo

Notes on the Programme

Johannes Brahms

Piano Quartet no. 1 in g minor, Opus 25

Brahms wrote his piano quartet in g minor at the age of 28. Clara Schumann was the pianist in the premiere performance of the piece in Hamburg in 1861. A year later it was played in Vienna with Brahms himself at the piano supported by members of the Helmesberger Quartet.

The first movement, Allegro, opens with a declamatory theme which pervades the rest of the musical material that follows.

The Intermezzo was intended to be a traditional Scherzo and Trio but because of its lyrical character, Brahms changed it to Intermezzo. There is a constant interplay between the major and minor keys until the end of the movement which concludes in C major.

The third movement is a slow Andante which starts with a very lyrical first theme. The second section is rhythmically very energetic and exuberant. Here the strings accompany the piano theme in C major with a short sixteenth note gesture which builds up to a majestic climax before the first theme returns with great warmth and lyricism.

The Rondo, subtitled Rondo alla zingarese, concludes the work. Brahms created a brilliant, rhythmic and melodic movement containing all the contrasts found in traditional Hungarian dances. The piano part at times evokes the sound of the cimbalom – a hammered dulcimer found among the Gypsies in Hungary and Romania.

Arnold Schoenberg orchestrated this piano quartet and Ernst von Dohnányi transcribed the last movement as a bravura showpiece for solo piano.

Antonin Dvorak

Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Opus 87

Dvorak composed this work in 1887 and the premiere was given in 1890. Brahms was his mentor and today Dvorak is considered part of the group of classical and romantic composers of major chamber works such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. His music is grounded in the classical forms while still projecting his own, very unique personality.

Dvorak’s E-flat major piano quartet is a rich and powerful composition. Similar to the g minor piano quartet of Brahms, he also starts the first movement with a strong theme of four notes played in unison that serves as a motif throughout the movement. There is a constant juxtaposition of darkness and light, tragic and heroic and brilliant passages which at the end calms down in a soft tremolo by the strings.

The Lento is a slow movement with songful, emotional outpourings of melodic lines. There are three themes starting with a tender line which leads to an explosive, turbulent second theme. The third has a pleasant charm which concludes the movement with a gentle and tranquil coda.

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