String Quartet No. 1

Though it spans three inventive and often deeply lyrical movements, Barber’s String Quartet, Op. 11 is best known for its second movement, from which the famous Adagio for Strings is adapted. Barber began the quartet in the summer of 1936 while staying with his partner, composer Gian Carlo Menotti, in a mountain cottage near St. Wolfgang, Austria. Progress on the score was slow, and an anticipated premiere by the Curtis String Quartet didn’t materialise. Still, Barber persevered, and three weeks later he declared that the second movement was complete, describing it as a “knockout”. The Pro Arte Quartet eventually introduced the three-movement quartet in Rome that December, though Barber remained dissatisfied with its finale. He revamped the movement twice before the Quartet was finally published in 1943. Whether or not Barber was haunted by the ghosts of past string quartets, the asserted opening gesture recalls Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95 (the "Serioso" of 1816). A chorale-like passage and a yearning third theme follow, but the work’s dramatic core is the second movement, based on a three-note motif that evolves into a stepwise melody and builds to an impassioned climax. As the Adagio for Strings (1938), it became the music of choice for moments of national mourning or contemplation. The third movement, an agitated sonata rondo, marks Barber’s last word in the string quartet medium.