Cavatina - from String Quartet No 11

Score and parts on special sale from the Hire Library

Cavatina was commissioned by the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust. When I composed my Eleventh String Quartet, Simon Majaro of the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust asked me if I could include a Cavatina which could be performed separately. This I have done. The Quartet is a set of variations on Beethoven's Bagatelle for piano, op.119 no.8. The Cavatina is the last of twelve variations before the final fugue. By far the longest of the variations, it is an Adagio which also makes reference to Beethoven's Cavatina in his B flat Quartet, op.130, both thematically and in its shared tonality of E flat. At the end there is an unexpected cadenza like an outburst of bird song.

© David Matthews