Day 74
Arriaga String quartet no 1 in d minor
Aris Quartett
Arriaga was known as the Spanish Mozart. This is partly because he died young, partly because they shared the same birthday and two baptismal names but mainly because he was a child prodigy.
I'd know the name for a long time but as far as I know I had never heard any of his music. This, the first of three quartets, was written in 1822 when the composer was 16. I thought that it was a delightful work - full of charm, grace and elegance and beautifully written for the quartet. It inhabits the same musical world as Haydn and early Beethoven and either of those composers would I think have recognised the extraordinary maturity of the work of the teenage composer. Cherubini, who has had several mentions in this project, is supposed to have said of the composer after hearing his Stabat Mater 'amazing. you are music itself'.
The one thing that surprised me was the comparatively lack of Spanish touches in the music. My expectation, based on all I had read, was that the whole piece would be suffused in a Spanish atmosphere. There were certainly some touches of Spain here and there, but the music seems to me to be firmly in the Viennese tradition. There are two other quartets, which I will definitely try to get to know, and also a symphony. What might he have written had he lived even as long as Mozart, let alone Haydn. It is one of the great imponderables of early 19th century music.
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