Armida Quartett: Fuga Magna Armida Quartett

• Valentin Haussmann (1565-1614):
• 1 Fuga prima 04:53
• 2 Fuga seconda 02:27
• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725):
• 3 Sonata a quattro No. 4: I. Largo 03:21
• 4 Sonata a quattro No. 4: II. Grave 01:30
• 5 Sonata a quattro No. 4: III. Allegro - Allegro - Minuet 02:10
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):
• 6 The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080: Contrapunctus I 03:25
• 7 The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080: Contrapunctus IV 03:02
• 8 The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080: Contrapunctus XI 04:15
• Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756):
• 9 Sonata in C Minor, DürG 14: I. Largo 02:51
• 10 Sonata in C Minor, DürG 14: II. Fuga. Allegro moderato 03:17
• 11 Sonata in C Minor, DürG 14: III. Grave 01:47
• 12 Sonata in C Minor, DürG 14: IV. Giga 04:36
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791):
• 13 Adagio in C Minor, K. 546 02:57
• 14 Fugue in C Minor, K. 546 03:24
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827):
• 15 The Great Fugue in B-Flat Major, Op. 133 14:31
• Total Runtime 58:26

Info for Armida Quartett: Fuga Magna

The act of thinking and composing in counterpoint – in fugues – has reigned as the supreme musical discipline ever since Western music emerged around the year 1200 from the shadows of purely oral transmission to be codified in writing, initially in mensural notation.

Our seven-league-boot journey across the realm of fugue begins with the two earliest published German works in the genre for instrumental ensemble from the year 1602. The first of them has ethereal motifs which it rather cautiously explores, whereas the second is based on the folk song O Nachbar Roland, mein Herz ist voller Pein (which Samuel Scheidt arranged as a magnificent canzone for strings in 1621). Haussmann’s Fugae are written “for all kinds of instruments”: idiomatic passagework for violin is thus entirely absent here, and only emerged as a stylistic trait in the course of the 17th century.

Alessandro Scarlatti is the composer of four sonatas that are to be performed senza cembalo, as he specifies, and which are often referred to as the first string quartets. The animated movements are complex counterpoint constructions; the middle movements are tortuous harmonic meanders brimming with ligature et durezze; the final movements are all short, ironic minuets with the two violin parts in unison.

Raphael Alpermann, harpsichord
Armida Quartett

Armida Quartett
Since its spectacular success at the ARD International Competition in 2012, at which the Armida Quartet received first prize, the audience prize and six other special awards, the career of the young Berlin string quartet has developed sensationally. The quartet has been nominated by the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg as one of the Rising Stars of the European Concert Hall Organisation for the 2016/2017 season.

The Armida Quartet has also made its debut at such renowned summer festivals as the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Davos Festival and the Heidelberg Spring Music Festival. In September 2014 the quartet was invited to join the BBC’s distinguished New Generation Artists series, which offers the ensemble the opportunity to appear in various concerts and broadcasts for two years.

Founded in Berlin in 2006, the quartet took its name from an opera by Haydn, the “father of the string quartet”. The ensemble studied with members of the Artemis Quartet, also drawing musical inspiration from Natalia Prischepenko, Alfred Brendel, Tabea Zimmermann, Eberhard Feltz and Walter Levin. The quartet has participated in master classes with the Alban Berg, Guarneri and Arditti Quartets and currently works with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) and Reinhard Goebel.

The Armida Quartet won first prize at the Geneva Competition in 2011 and received several scholarships, including those of the Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation and the Schierse Foundation in Berlin. The young ensemble’s debut CD, featuring works by Béla Bartók, György Ligeti and György Kurtág, was released in 2013 and selected by the German Record Critics’ Award for its critics’ choice list.

During the current season the quartet appears for the first time in Norway, China, Taiwan and Singapore, also presenting concerts in Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg, Bonn, Antwerp and Geneva.

Frequent collaboration with other artists is a priority for the Armida Quartet – the ensemble has worked with Anna Prohaska, Thomas Hampson, Ewa Kupiec, Max Hornung and Tabea Zimmermann. The four young musicians of the Armida Quartet have taught chamber music at the Berlin University of the Arts since October 2012.

Booklet for Armida Quartett: Fuga Magna