The Carducci String Quartet
On Saturday, April fourteenth, I had the privilege of attending a performance by
the Carducci String Quartet at the Carey Student Center performing Arts Auditorium in
Saint Vincent college, Latrobe Pennsylvania. It was a privilege to have this talented
group attend our small college because they are world renowned and offer many famous
performances throughout the World. I thought that this may be a great opportunity to
listen to some classical musicians and famous musical works as well as some newer
contemporary works. One of these newer works, we were told, was only the second ever
performance by this group, only played for the first time a week before at a previous
concert. First, let me introduce the musicians.
The Carducci String Quartet received their group name from one of their first
performances in the Castagnetto-Carducci festival. At that festival, the people claimed
possession of the group saying that they were “our’ string quartet. A string quartet is
comprised of two violins, a viola, and a cello. These instruments, I found, when
combined offer a wide variety of musical range. Mathew Denton and Michelle Fleming
are the two violinists, Eoin Schmit-martin, on the viola; and Emma Denton on the cello.
They were just two couples bringing together their great talents for our enjoyment. They
have been together for performances all over European tours, Japanese, Central
American, and American tours. They had won various awards and have been mentioned
with honors in various newspapers throughout the world. They are a very talented bunch
capable of performing many different and famous works of music as well as introducing
newer works.
Their first choice of music was titled String Quartet No. 41 in D Major, Op. 50,
No. 6 (“the Frog”). This work was written by the artist Franz Joseph Hayden (1732-
1809). This piece is broken up into four different movements. The first movement,
allegro, offered itself to be a happy and cheerful introduction. I first noticed how quickly
the notes were played and immediately recognized it to be a somewhat difficult piece of
music to play. It was in this movement that I realized their true talent being displayed for
a small audience at the college. It was something special to have this group perform for
us.
The second movement was the poco adagio. I found this movement to be
somewhat melancholic ion nature. It would skip at times to be representative of the
nature of the frog. Then it would break into a flowing movement to mimic the frog
dancing in the water. Then it would skip again as if the frog was on the lily pads, or a
