Ligeti, György: String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes Partytura + głosy
György Ligeti's String Quartet No. 1, titled Métamorphoses nocturnes, was composed in 1953–54. It is thus representative of what the composer himself used to call "the prehistoric Ligeti", referring to the works he wrote before leaving Hungary in 1956. Ligeti was heavily inspired to write this quartet by Bartók's third and fourth quartets, so much so that it was even called "Bartók's seventh string quartet" by fellow Hungarian composer György Kurtág.Ligeti knew of these works only from their scores, performances of them being banned under communist regimes at the time.
The quartet is approximately 21 minutes in duration, and was premiered at the Vienna Musikverein on 8 May 1958 by the Ramor Quartet,an ensemble that had also fled into exile. The work is written in one continuous movement, which can be divided into seventeen contrasting sections:
- Allegro grazioso
- Vivace, capriccioso
- A tempo
- Adagio, mesto
- Presto – Prestissimo
- Molto sostenuto – Andante tranquillo
- Più mosso
- Tempo di Valse, moderato, con eleganza, un poco capriccioso
- Subito prestissimo
- Subito: molto sostenuto
- Allegretto, un poco gioviale
- Allarg. Poco più mosso
- Subito allegro con moto, string. poco a poco sin al prestissimo
- Prestissimo
- Allegro comodo, gioviale
- Sostenuto, accelerando – Ad libitum, senza misura
- Lento
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