String Quartet No.3 Op.94 (1975)

Duets: With moderate movement

Ostinato: Very fast

Solo: Very calm

Burlesque: Fast, con fuoco

Recitative and Passacaglia (La Senissima): Slow

Britten’s last piece of chamber music is closely related to his last opera, Death in Venice. The fifth movement (La Serenissima) was actually written in Venice, whose bells were the source of the gound bass of the closing Passacaglia. Emotionally, given its thematic allusions to the opera and its valedictory nature, the last movement is the most significant of the five. Structurally, it balances the opening Duets at the base of an arch form with the four-part cadenza of Solo its apex and the two adventurously scored scherzo-like movements balanced on the level below, Burlesque on one side and Ostinato on the other.

its thematic allusions to the opera and its valedictory nature, it is the most significant of the five. Structurally, it balances the opening Duets at the base of an arch form with the four-part cadenza of Solo at its apex