LUDWIG

LUDWIG (2019)

for piano quintet

pno, 2 vln, vla, vcl

1. Allegro con brio
2. Adagio sostenuto: delicatissimamente
3. Allegro vivace

Duration: c. 11 minutes

Programme note:

LUDWIG is a piano quintet in three movements that pays tribute to Beethoven by re-imagining key elements from three of his most iconic works. Rather than quoting directly, the music reshapes and re-contextualizes fragments of Beethoven’s material, casting them in a new, contemporary light while retaining their dramatic essence.

The opening movement, Allegro con brio, is a compressed reworking of the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92. The familiar ascending scales and low sustained pedal points are restructured and interwoven with vibrant, dance-like rhythms, infused with colours drawn from Latin American musical traditions. The result is both a tribute and a transformation – energized, rhythmically dynamic and fresh in character.

The second movement, Adagio sostenuto: delicatissimamente, takes its starting point from the opening bars of the “Moonlight” Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2). The well-known quaver-triplet figure becomes the basis for a delicately layered texture, first appearing as an interlocking pattern in the piano, then taken up and expanded by the strings. The atmosphere is hushed, introspective and gently luminous.

The final movement, Allegro vivace, draws inspiration from Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture, particularly its passages of dramatic tension and harmonic ambiguity. The movement opens with a subdued, subterranean energy that gradually builds, propelled by sudden dynamic bursts and unresolved harmonic shifts. As in Beethoven’s overture, the music moves with urgency – driven by the search for resolution, culminating in a cathartic, if ambiguous, close.

LUDWIG is a conversation across time – a creative engagement with Beethoven’s music that refracts his voice through the lens of contemporary language, colour and form.

Charlie Barber, August 2019

First performed on 17 November 2019 at Cardiff University Concert Hall with Giordano Ferla (piano), Christiana Mavron (violin), Rachael Elliot (violin), Niamh Aston (viola), Nicola Thomas (cello)