String Quartet No. 16 is the penultimate of seventeen quartets by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1955. A performance lasts approximately twenty minutes.
Villa-Lobos composed his Sixteenth Quartet in Paris in 1955. It was first performed by the Rio de Janeiro String Quartet (also known as the Iacovino Quartet) on 3 September 1958 in Rio de Janeiro.[1] The first British performance was given at the College of Further Education Hall, as part of the Bromsgrove Festival of Music, on 25 February 1964.[2][1]
The quartet consists of the traditional four movements:
For its voice leading and tonal balance, the Sixteenth Quartet is regarded as one of the composer's best, particularly the first movement.[3]
Chronological, by date of recording.