String Quartet No.1 Op.20 (1948)

Allegro violente ed agitato

Vivacissimo

Calmo e poetico

Allegramente rustico

The first of Ginastera’s three string quartets introduced a new kind of vitality into the medium. There are precedents in Bartók, of course, but nothing as primitive as the devastating sonoroties and explosive energy of the Allegro violente ed agitato, based on the Argentinan “gauchesco” music Ginastera had celebrated in his Estancia ballet seven years earlier. The high energy output is sustained in the rather more delicately scored but still highly coloured Vivacissimo, relaxed in the eloquent solos and spectral whisperings of the Calmo e poetico, and resumed in the heavily bowed or gently plucked dance rhythms of the Allegro rustico.