Ambroise Thomas - String quartet in E-minor, Op.1 (1833)

Ambroise Thomas

 

 

Ambroise Thomas, about 1865

(5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896)

French composer, best known for his operas Mignon (1866) and Hamlet (1868, after Shakespeare) and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.

 

String quartet in E-minor, Op.1 (1833)

 

Mov.I: Allegro Moderato 00:00
Mov.II: Menuetto 09:22
Mov.III: Andante 14:54
Mov.IV: Rondo: Allegro vivace 20:18

Ensemble: The Daniel String Quartet

Violin I: Benzion Shamir
Violin II: Misha Furman
Viola: Itamar Shimon
Cello: Zvi Maschkowski

The String Quartet in e minor, though numbered as his opus 1, was by no means his first work. To begin with, the Prix de Rome was a composition prize and Thomas had won it based on his composition of a cantata. He had written quite a number of other works even before entering the Conservatory. The quartet was his first work, after his student days, in his opinion worthy of an opus number. This light but brilliantly written quartet, dating from 1833, shows how well Thomas had assimilated the musical language of the Italian vocal and operatic style and one can clearly hear the influence of Rossini and Paganini, two of its leading advocates at that time.

In the first movement, Allegro moderato, the lovely but brooding main theme is first presented as a duet between the cello and first violin but then all of the voices join in its development. Short stormy episodes periodically punctuate longer, cantabile sections.

The second movement is marked Menuetto, but the music, characterized by fast descending and then ascending passages, is closer in feel to a scherzo than a minuet. The lovely trio section is a waltz in which the viola and then the cello are given long singing passages. Verdi, who knew Thomas' music well, must surely have borrowed this idea for his own quartet as the trio section to his quartet so closely resembles what Thomas did here.

The third movement, Andante, is clearly written in an operatic fashion. Each voice shares the beautiful theme in short responsions.

In hearing the thematic material of the toe-tapping finale, Allegro vivace--Allegretto, one might well guess the composer was Paganini. Here, brilliance comes to the forefront and especially in the exciting conclusion. There is very little like this quartet in the literature and of its kind, it is clearly first rate.