String Quartet in C major op. 64

Preludio: Lento assai. Allegro animato – Andante sostenuto – Allegro energico – Finale: Allegro

In 1841, Onslow was considering making a journey to Germany and was hoping to appear there with new works: “I stitched together a good amount of ruled paper and set myself to writing a quartet: by only working when suitably inspired, I made my task a slower one, but in the end I finished it. I also completed a second quartet and I wouldn’t wish to swear that a third wasn’t finished before the end.” He was in all likelihood referring to the three quartets, Opp. 62, 63 and 64 in this letter addressed to his mother. The third of this group begins with a slow minor-key introduction, plaintive and elevated, which contrasts with the major-key Allegro animato; the same technique that Onslow had employed – for the first time – in his Quartet, Op. 4/2. If none of the individual instruments are ignored, the violin 1 stands out, however, on account of its virtuosity; this was a way of showing off the talents of the quartet’s dedicatee, the violinist Charles-Eugène Sauzay (the son-in-law of Pierre Baillot). In the Andante sostenuto, an intense lyricism is suddenly interrupted by a hammered-out episode, in the unusual key of G sharp minor (the enharmonic equivalent of the movement’s main key). The final two movements are representative of this composer’s rhythmic liveliness and of his skill in varying the instrumental arrangements. When Georges Kastner wrote a review in praise of the Opp. 62, 63 and 64 Quartets on the occasion of their first performance, he found regrettable the growing disinterest from performers and audiences alike with regard to the string quartet (Revue et Gazette musicale of August 27, 1843). Onslow was, as a matter of fact, to give up the genre after 1845 in order to devote himself to the quintet and to larger chamber groupings including those with wind instruments.