String Quartet No.4 in D major (1904)

Allegro moderato

Tema con variazioni

Intermezzo

Finale: Allegro vivace

Respighi is rare among Italian composers born in the 19th century in that his fame rests not so much on operatic as on instrumental music. He did write operas – nine in all – but none of them is anywhere near as well known as any of his three Roman tone poems, Fontane die Roma (The Fountains of Rome), Pini di Roma (The Pines of Rome) and Feste Romane (Carnivals of Rome) written between 1916 and 1928. His chamber music, which includes six string quartets, is not so familiar, but that’s the usual situation where orchestral and chamber music are concerned.

There are several reasons for Respighi’s interest and accomplishment in instrumental music. A major factor was that he studied at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, the director of which was Giuseppe Martucci, one of the few Italian composers of his generation who had successfully resisted the prevailing “tyranny of opera.” Another was that, an accomplished violinist and violist, he regularly played chamber music, not least as a member of the Mugellini Quartet. In two periods in the early years of the 20th century he had a senior position in the opera orchestra in St Petersburg where he succeeded in being accepted for a few “but for me,” he said, “very important lessons” with Rimsky-Korsakov.

Respighi’s outstanding brilliance in instrumentation is reflected in the scoring of his Quartet No.4 in D, which was written just after his second visit to St Petersburg. Few composers in 1904 would have risked such perilously high positions on the E-string as those required of the first violin in elaborating the main theme of the first movement, an expressive melody rising to a prominent flourish. The first of these stratospheric occasions is on a pianissimo not long after the introduction of the main theme in the opening bars. The cello is similarly exposed and so are the viola and, less frequently, the second violin. Treatment of the slower but rhythmically lively and contrapuntally engaging second subject is not so challenging. Much of the interest in the development section is devoted to the flourish, which retains its prominence as the movement gradually slows down and finally dies away on a hushed, muted cello.

The second movement, constructed as a theme and variations, is technically less demanding. Although he first violin has an elaborate part to play in the first variation, the essential    requirement in this case is characterisation of the widely contrasting variations – like the fourth, a slow waltz harmonised throughout by an unchanging open-fifth drone on the cello, the seriously fugato fifth variation, beginning on the cello and expanded to twice the length of the others, the following scherzo featuring mainly the viola, and the sadly expressive Lento doloroso which, over nagging cello quavers, becomes the emotional climax of the movement.

Where a scherzo would be in a classical quartet Respighi offers an entertaining                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Intermezzo. The main material, following a very short slow introduction, is a scurrying Allegretto vivace which is presented on either side of a contrastingly slower central marked Appassionato. The movement ends with a slightly longer, attenuated recall of the slow introduction.

The high spirits of the Finale, based on the theme introduced in a skipping rhythm by violin and cello in octaves in the opening bars, inspire a few displays of virtuosity and some energetically imitative counterpoint. Twice the progress of the Allegro vivace is interrupted by more reflective material beginning with the cello recalling the slow introduction to the previous movement. But the highlight of the Finale, of the whole work in fact, is a nostalgic memory (high on first violin of course) of the main theme of the first movement with its unmistakable flourish. This structural achievement is celebrated in a vigorous coda.