For close to two decades the Saint John String Quartet has captivated the hearts of
listeners with their concerts, radio and television appearances and popular
recordings. Their list of successes includes an ECMA for "Best Classical Recording"
and in 1995 they presented the first chamber music concert on the World Wide Web
Internet. The Quartet's active concertizing schedule finds them touring Canada, the
USA and abroad to Japan, China and Hong Kong. The group can often be heard on CBC
Radio and on two other compact discs entitled Hidden Treasures and Saint John
String Quartet.
Acclaimed by critics for her floating, high pianissimos, soprano Sally Dibblee enjoys success in opera houses and concert halls throughout North America. A New Brunswick resident, Sally continues to perform in Maritime summer music festivals and is frequently heard on the CBC.
RESPIGHI
(1879-1936) String Quartet in D Major
Respighi's Quartet in D Major from 1907 closed the period of "juvenile quartets"--his exercises and essays--that dated from 1897 to 1907. This quartet is a considerable creation in four movements. The influence of Brahms is very apparent. The opening movement has a romantic, lilting theme that dances engagingly before it is overtaken by more hesitant, introspective material and lyrical pastoral episodes. The second movement (Lentamente con tristezza) has a beautiful, poignant melody, while other passages seem to anticipate Respighi's growing devotion to Gregorian inspiration. The third movement is frenetic and at times evocative of a windswept landscape, while the finale is strongly assertive.
RESPIGHI
Il Tramonto (The Sunset)
A century after the poet Shelley's, The Sunset was written, it attracted the attention of Ottorino Respighi. Respighi subtitles this work "poemetto lirico". He is very sensitive to Shelley's text, with the voice singing virtually throughout. Only the briefest instrumental interludes interject with the voice. The entire work is shaped by the evolving moods of Shelley's poem. Just as the events of the poem change sharply, moving from the passion of the lovers to the aging woman's plea for release, so Respighi changes the colors and textures of the music. The mood remains generally restrained: only occasionally mounting in intensity to the climax, on the word "Pace". The conclusion of the work fades away in an unearthly silence.
PUCCINI
(1858-1924) Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums)
Puccini's talent and originality were outstanding. He was famous for his melodic writing, dramatic harmonies and theatrical skill. His compositions have remained in the regular repertory of the world's opera houses. Crisantemi was taken from a particularly poignant scene in the opera Manon Lescaut. Rhapsodic in structure, Crisantemi is Puccini's only published chamber music piece.
THE SUNSET
There late was One within whose subtle being,
As light and wind within some delicate cloud
That fades amid the blue noon's burning sky,
Genius and Death contended. None may know
The sweetness of the joy which made his breath
Fail, like the trances of the summer air,
When, with the Lady of his love, who then
First knew the unreserved of mingled being,
He walked along the pathway of a field
Which to the east a hoar wood shadowed o'er,
But to the west was open to the sky.
There now the sun had sunk, but lines of gold
Hung on the ashen clouds, and on the points
Of the far level grass and nodding flowers
And the old dandelion's hoary beard,
And, mingled with the shades of twilight lay,
On the brown massy woods: and in the east
The broad and burning moon lingeringly rose
Between the black trunks of the crowded trees,
While the faint stars were gathering overhead.-
'Is it not strange, Isabel,' said the youth,
'I never saw the sun? We will walk here
To-morrow; thou shalt look on it with me.'
That night the youth and the lady mingled lay
In love and sleep-but when the morning came
The lady found her lover dead and cold,
Let none believe that God in mercy gave
And weak articulations might be seen
Day's ruddy light. The tomb of thy dead self
Which one vext ghost inhabits, night and day,
Is all, lost child, that now remains of thee!
'Inheritor of more than earth can give,
Passionless calm and silence unreproved,
Whether the dead find, oh, not sleep! but rest,
And are the uncomplaining things they seem,
Or live, or drop in the dead sea of Love;
Oh, that like thine, mine epitaph were- Peace!'
This was the only moan she ever made!
Shelley 1816
CREDITS
RECORDING DATE JULY 2005
LOCA TION
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Catholic Church, Rothesay, NB
P RODUCER
Mark Warren
ENGINEER
Rod Sneddon
DIGITAL MASTERING
Jeremy VanSlyke
CREAT I V E D E S I G N
INk. graphic design
COVER ART
Alexandrya Eaton "Fire Red Roses with Shadow"
TRANSLA TION
Viviane Bouffard, Marion Macfarlane
RESEARCH
Jonathon Macfarlane
CONTACT
Saint John String Quartet
41 Orange Street
Saint John, New Brunswick
Canada E2L 1L9
adamsd@nbnet.nb.ca
www.healthnet.ca/sjsq/english/main
THANKS TO
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church
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