BRAHMS, Johannes
String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat major, Op. 67
II. Andante
Heime Müller, professor
Stoneshield Quartet
Desislava Vaskova, violin
Anna Siegreich, violin
Cristina Cordero Beltrán, viola
Anastasiia Averianova, cello
Professor Müller congratulates the Quartet after their performance of the Andante and asks them about the character of this movement. Comparing it to vocal music, it would be a very pure, tender, and loving song in the style of Mendelssohn. Afterwards, the professor and students discuss aspects of the formal and harmonic structure of the introduction: it is not yet a melody, the construction of a chord occurs, and he suggests playing purely, senza vibrato, without showing emotions yet and open to the possibilities that may come. He also suggests that the violin use the 3rd finger instead of the 4th at a certain point. From the beginning, they should feel the flow of the Andante.
Then Heime Müller makes comments on the sound balance of the voices: the cello should be the warm support but without standing out too much, and he reviews the intermediate voices (violin II and viola) in more detail based on the acoustics. They also discuss questions of phrasing and about syncopation and identification of voices (in reality, it is as if it were a quartet of violins). They reflect on Brahms and the evolution of his style in the composition of string quartets, making reference to the composition of quartets in earlier periods (Mozart, Beethoven). Afterwards, Müller reviews the dynamics and colors of the following section.
Language: English
