CCXCVIII. LIGETI, György: String Quartet #1 ("Métamorphoses nocturnes")

CCXCVIII. LIGETI, György (1923-2006)

String Quartet #1 ("Métamorphoses nocturnes") (1953-54)
1. Allegro grazioso
2. Vivace, capriccioso
3. Adagio, mesto
4. Presto
5. Andante tranquillo
6. Tempo di Valse, moderato, con eleganza, unpoco capriccioso
7. Allegretto, un poco gioviale
8. Prestissimo
Verona Quartet
(19:53)

The term "prehistoric Ligeti" is used to describe the works he composed in Hungary before he fled the Communist regime in 1956.

It was written for the "bottom drawer" -- too modernist for the staid Party officials who controlled what was and was not acceptable for public consumption.

His principal influences were the Third (see Post LVII) and Fourth (see Post V) Bartók quartets -- which he had never heard performed and only knew from the scores!

"Melodically and harmonically, the piece rests on total chromaticism, whereas, from a point of view of form, it follows the criteria of Viennese Classicism, that is, periodic structure, imitation, the spinning out of the motivic material, the development section and the technique of breaking up the melody into short phrases, which are then distributed among the different voices."