NSQF Autumn Series: Marmen Quartet
Featured Artists
Marmen Quartet: Johannes Marmen, violin; Laia Braun, violin; Bryony Gibson-Cornish, viola; Sinéad O’Halloran, cello.
Programme includes the first performance of a work by CMC Composer Sam Perkin.
MY YOUNG LOVE WAS GONE (2024)
Composed by Sam Perkin.
Dedicated to The Marmen Quartet.
Special Thanks to The National String Quartet Foundation.
When I was composing 'Pause' for the Ortús Chamber Music Festival in 2016, almost 10 years ago, I had done a number of experiments with Irish folksong from a contemporary perspective. My aim was to authentically offer an original point of view from which to view these masterful songs, or at least to show how I would dream of arranging them.
For 'Pause' in 2016, I decided on arranging 'The Foggy Dew', though I had carried out a number of irresistible compositional experiments with 'She Moved Through The Fair'. In 2024, I finally had to revisit these sketches, as they were just asking to be written and I would not have forgiven myself for not allowing the structure to flower into the piece that it is, 'My Young Love Was Gone' (2024).
The compositional idea was like a magnet pulling me towards it. My ear guided me towards arranging this timeless melody in such a way as to express the heart of the text while not getting in the way, only saying just enough throughout (a delicate tight-rope walk with the String Quartet), allowing the soul of this overwhelmingly beautiful song to breathe a new breath.
- Sam Perkin, 2025.
Programme
Haydn - String Quartet Op.76 No.4 Sunrise [1797]
Sam Perkin - My Young Love Was Gone [2024]*
Bartók - String Quartet No.3 [1927]
Beethoven - String Quartet in F major Op.135 [1826]
*First performances
Venues & Dates
WATERFORD - Wednesday 5th November at 7.30pm - Dr. Mary Strangman Large Room, City Hall - presented by Waterford Music
CORK - Thursday 6th November at 7.30pm - MTU Cork School of Music - presented by Cork Orchestral Society
SLIGO - Friday 7th November at 7.30pm - The Model - presented by Con Brio
WEXFORD - Saturday 8th November at tbc - tbc - presented by Music for Wexford
DUBLIN - Sunday 9th November at 3pm - National Concert Hall