Summary
Phantasy Quartet, Op. 2, is the common name of a piece of chamber music by Benjamin Britten, a quartet for oboe and string trio composed in 1932. In the composer's catalogue, it is given as Phantasy, subtitled: Quartet in one movement for oboe, violin, viola, violoncello.[1][2] It was first performed in August 1933 as a BBC broadcast.
| Phantasy | |
|---|---|
| Quartet in one movement for oboe, violin, viola, violoncello | |
| Oboe quartet by Benjamin Britten | |
| Other name | Phantasy Quartet |
| Opus | 2 |
| Composed | 1932 |
| Dedication | Léon Goossens |
| Performed | August 1933 |
History edit
Britten composed Phantasy Quartet at age 18 as a student at the Royal College of Music,[3] after his first work to which he assigned an Opus number, the Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra.[4] He dedicated it to the oboist Léon Goossens, who played the first performance in a BBC broadcast on 6 August 1933,[3][5] with members of the International String Quartet.[3] The same players performed the concert premiere in London on 21 November that year. On 5 April 1934, it was performed in Florence for the International Society of Contemporary Music,[3] as the first piece to win the composer international recognition.[4]
Music edit
The music is in the form of a 16th-century fantasy, in an arch form with elements from the sonata form. As in Mozart's Oboe Quartet, the oboe has a solo function.[3] The duration is given as 15 minutes.[2]
It has been called "consummately crafted".[4] The music grows out of silence and in the end returns to it in symmetry. The first theme is a march, marked molto pianissimo,[4] with the cello beginning on the fingerboard of a muted cello, followed by viola, violin and finally the oboe.[6] The theme becomes later also the source of themes in a fast section, similar to the development section of the sonata form. In the slow middle section, the strings alone introduce a theme in which the oboe joins. It is followed, in symmetry, by a recapitulation of the fast section, and then the march. The musicologist Eric Roseberry summarises: "If the pastoral slow section echoes the leisurely folkiness of an Englishry that Britten had not yet entirely rejected, the Phantasy as a whole generates a tension and harmonic grittiness which are harbingers of a less complacent outlook."[4]
Recordings edit
A recording by oboist François Leleux with Lisa Batiashvili, Lawrence Power and Sebastian Klinger combines the quartet with Mozart's oboe quartet and other chamber music by the two composers.[6]
References edit
- ^ Matthews, David (2013). Britten: Centenary Edition. Haus Publishing. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-0-14-192430-4.
- ^ a b "Phantasy / Quartet in one movement for oboe, violin, viola, violoncello, op. 2". brittenproject.org. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Schüssler-Bach, Kerstin. "Britten, Benjamin / Phantasy Quartet op. 2 (1932) / for oboe, violin, viola and cello" (in German). Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Roseberry, Eric (1995). "Phantasy Quartet, Op 2". Hyperion Records. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ Kildea, Paul (2013). Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century. Penguin UK. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-1-90-832341-5.
- ^ a b Anthoni, Nalem (September 2008). "Britten Phantasy Quartet; Mozart Oboe Quartet". Gramophone. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
External links edit
- Mary Lindsey Campbell Bailey: Léon Goossens’s Impact on Twentieth-century English Oboe Repertoire: Phantasy Quartet of Benjamin Britten, Concerto for Oboe and Strings of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Sonata for Oboe of York Bowen (Dissertation, University of Cincinnati) ohiolink.edu 24 May 2010
- Benjamin Britten (1913–76) / Phantasy, for oboe and strings (1932) Jonathan Blumhofer
- Benjamin Britten / Phantasy Quartet, for oboe & string trio in F minor, Op. 2 AllMusic
- Benjamin Britten / "Phantasy Quartet", op. 2 kammermusikfuehrer.de
- Oboe Chamber Music britishmusiccollection.org.uk
- Listening to Britten – Phantasy Quartet, Op. 2 goodmorningbritten.wordpress.com
