Amici Quartet to Record String Quartet’s I & II

The celebrated Amici Quartet —founded by Peter and Suzanne Martens— is one of the most versatile and artistically sensitive quartets in South Africa. The Cape Town central ensemble have recently signed on to record the first two string quartets of composer, Jonathan Blair.

The first quartet, written in 2017, is a neo-viennese work in it’s conception traversing the tradition from Haydn through Schoenberg. Janusian in spirit, the work anachronistically weaves a single tone-row through all four movements, culminating in what Blair considers to be the rightful origin of serial thinking; the fugue. Despite the familiarity with Schoenberg’s method the work is far from a presentation of serial procedures. Utilizing a liberal approach to the harmony, of both familiar triadic framing as well as chromatically open chords, the tone-row is confined to structural and motivic elements.

The quartet has been recognized for it’s ingenuity. Peter Martens, founder of the quartet, considered it ‘a spectacular achievement’ upon receiving the score, while head of composition at UCT, South African College of Music and renowned composer, Hendrik Hofmeyr, called it ‘an amazing quartet’ making special note of the ‘diversity of gestures that… are managed to cohere within a single structure and narrative.’

The second quartet(for quartet and electronics) is commissioned by the Amici Quartet who will present its first premiere. The composer conceived and outlined an electronic interface which takes an input tone and magnifies an artificial and re-constructed overtone-series that projects from that pitch. That idea was then designed and custom-built by New York based Artist, Sam Irwin, into the interface called ‘The Scout’s Pipe.’ The interface was built in MaxMSP and will be made available as an iPad app, packaged with the score upon purchasing the parts for performance.

The recording is scheduled for early 2022, and will be available on sale shortly after.