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TALICH QUARTET 13
The Allegro opens with a lively march rhythm, which vanishes forthwith, buried
under a succession of musical ideas that successfully strive to prevent it from
returning.
The ensuing Romanze borrows its theme from the second act of Die
Entführung aus
dem Serail
, more precisely fromBelmonte’s celebrated aria ‘Wenn der Freude Tränen
fliessen’. This childlike tune unfolds in themanner of a popular song, interrupted by
passionate interrogations, but also by reminiscences of a lullaby.
TheMenuetto (Allegretto) is inspiredbydance steps in thepurest Baroque tradition.
A robust and virile first theme launches the ballet. The second theme, with its
refined phrasing, seems to allow itself time for (feminine) reflection. The central
Trio diverts the audience with a charming folklike melody. The musical language
remains courtly. So subtle is this game of mutual seduction that the return of the
first theme is more modest than at its first appearance . . .
The finale, Rondo (Allegro), is ravishing in its exhilaration, a sort of
perpetuum
mobile
, while the second idea deliberately pretends to be awkward, as if the better
to convey in music the complexity of human sentiments, of those mute
fêtes
galantes
one sees inWatteau’s paintings.