The Vega Quartet plays Beethoven and Garner
We are thrilled to share our most recent recording, featuring quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven and contemporary American composer David Kirkland Garner. We believe that great music is always modern, remaining vital, impactful and essential to both performers and audiences. Beethoven, when confronted with a violinist who complained about the difficulty of the Op. 59 quartets, replied that "they are not for you, but for a later age.” In this light it seemed appropriate to pair Beethoven's Op. 59 No. 1 quartet with a modern work. Garner's set of thirteen small movements, written in 2009 and collectively titled i ain't broke (but i'm badly bent) takes inspiration from the fiddle tunes of Cape Breton, Appalachia and the American South. The result is a partnership between traditional melodies and modernist compositional techniques.
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The movements included in this preview of the Garner are:
i. drowsy maggie iii. i ain't broke (but i'm badly bent)
ii. georgianna moon iv. sweet 'taters in sandy land
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This recording includes Beethoven's Quartet in F, op. 59 no. 1. This work is the first quartet of Beethoven's middle period and demonstrates the virtuosity, huge emotional range and expanded structure that characterizes this period.
David Kirkland Garner took inspiration for i ain't broke (but i'm badly bent) from the fiddle tunes of the American South, many of which have roots in the Celtic traditions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He then combined these traditional songs with modern compositional techniques, creating a series of thirteen connected but distinct vignettes.
This recording includes Beethoven's Quartet in F, op. 59 no. 1 as well as David Kirkland Garner's 2009 work, i ain't broke (but i'm badly bent): thirteen fiddle tunes for string quartet. These two pieces were composed almost exactly 200 years apart, yet together they demonstrate the breadth of expression possible within the quartet genre.