Takács Quartet Beethoven Cycle

Concerts III and IV

January 21–22, 2017 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor CONTENT

Concert III Saturday, January 21, 8:00 pm 3

Beethoven’s Impact: Shulamit Ran 8

Beethoven’s Impact: Sebastian Currier 13

Essay: , Beethoven, and the Inception of Listening to String Quartets by John M. Gingerich 14

Concert IV Sunday, January 22, 4:00 pm 19

Beethoven’s Impact: William Bolcom 22

Artists 29 Takács Quartet

Concert III

Edward Dusinberre / Károly Schranz / Violin Geraldine Walther / András Fejér /

Saturday Evening, January 21, 2017 at 8:00 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor

32nd Performance of the 138th Annual Season 54th Annual Chamber Arts Series This evening’s presenting sponsor is the Helmut F. and Candis J. Stern Chamber Arts Endowment Fund, which supports the annual presentation of a performance as part of the Chamber Arts series in perpetuity.

Media partnership provided by WRCJ 90.9 FM.

Special thanks to Steven Whiting for his participation in events surrounding this weekend’s performances.

The Takács Quartet records for Hyperion and Decca/ Records.

The Takács Quartet is Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Colorado in Boulder and are Associate Artists at Wigmore Hall, London.

The Takács Quartet appears by arrangement with Seldy Cramer Artists.

In consideration of the artists and the audience, please refrain from the use of electronic devices during the performance.

The photography, sound recording, or videotaping of this performance is prohibited. PROGRAM

Beethoven String Quartets Concert III

String Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5

Allegro Menuetto Andante : Thema – Variations I – V – Coda: Poco Adagio Allegro

String Quartet in c minor, Op. 18, No. 4

Allegro ma non tanto : Andante scherzoso quasi Allegretto Menuetto: Allegretto Allegro — Prestissimo

Intermission

String Quartet in a minor, Op. 132

Assai sostenuto — Allegro Allegro ma non tanto Molto adagio — Andante — Molto adagio — Andante — Molto adagio Alla marcia, assai vivace — Piu allegro — Allegro appassionato

The fourth and fifth movements are played attacca (without pause).

5 STRING QUARTET IN A MAJOR, OP. 18, NO. 5 (1798–1800)

Ludwig van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany Died March 26, 1827 in

UMS premiere: Flonzaley Quartette; January 1912 in University Hall.

Snapshots of History…In 1800: · The US is founded in Washington, DC · Christmas Day first becomes a public holiday on an international scale · President John Adams becomes the first US President to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House)

When the young Beethoven left his thoroughly assimilated and carried on native Bonn for Vienna in 1792, his the genres of concerto, piano sonata, patron, Count Waldstein, sent him and chamber ; by 1799–1800, he on his way with these words: “With was ready to write his first . the help of assiduous labor you shall In Beethoven’s six string quartets receive Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s published as Op. 18, the influence of hands.” What the Count meant was Haydn and Mozart cannot be denied. that even though Mozart had died What is more, scholars have shown the previous year, Beethoven could that some ideas in these quartets still study with Haydn, the other great even predate the move to Vienna, and Viennese composer. Things didn’t originate in compositional essays from quite work out that way, though, for the Bonn period. Yet at the same time, Haydn and Beethoven didn’t get along Beethoven’s unique voice is already very well and the composition lessons manifest on every page. never really got off the ground. Still, The quartets were written for and Waldstein’s words were prophetic dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph on another level, as they implied that von Lobkowitz, one of Beethoven’s Beethoven could some day inherit most important aristocratic patrons. the mantle of the two older masters. Simultaneously with Beethoven, the And in fact, once installed in Vienna, 67-year-old Haydn was also working Beethoven lost no time in claiming on a set of quartets for Lobkowitz. his place as im Bunde der Dritte (the Yet Haydn eventually withdrew from third in the alliance, to quote a famous the project, not wanting to compete phrase from Beethoven’s favorite with his rebellious former student. poet, Friedrich Schiller). Having He finished only two quartets, out absorbed the style of Haydn and of six that had been planned. These Mozart early on, he now began to put two, eventually published as Haydn’s on his own personal stamp on that Op. 77, give some indication that the style. With his first 20 opus numbers, influence between the two composers written between 1795 and 1800, he ran both ways, and the older man

6 was responding to a challenge from necessarily over after the standard the unruly young genius he referred length of eight bars. The sudden to, with a mixture of admiration and outburst in a minor key in the middle jealousy, as the “Grand Mogul.” of the minuet, followed by a general Commentators on Beethoven’s rest, is certainly a surprise, as is A-Major Quartet, in particular, never the varied recapitulation involving fail to point out the young composer’s some contrapuntal imitation. The trio debt to Mozart’s quartet in the same would be “simple” indeed, and even key (K. 464) from the set of six works “Schubertian” as has been claimed, dedicated to Haydn. No one will were it not for those persistent and dispute this claim, which is based on disquieting offbeat accents. the external structuring of the work: With its theme all made up of like Mozart, Beethoven placed his scales, going first down and then minuet in second place, and included up, the third movement again a set of slow variations in the key of looks like a model of simplicity. It D Major. The more important question, is one of many variation themes by however, is whether this quartet Beethoven that are kept purposely sounds anything like Mozart. And “bare-bones” in order to allow for there, the answer has to be a definite some spectacular development in no. From the very first measures we the variations. But the latter turn out hear the sudden offbeat accents to be much more than the figurative so typical of Beethoven, a certain embellishments of traditional variation dance rhythm rarely used by Mozart, writing. The very first one introduces and myriad other fingerprints that counterpoint. The second variation unmistakably belong to Beethoven may be more conventional, but and no one else. the third is a breathtaking essay in The general feeling of the opening musical color, the fourth a stunning movement is rather cheerful and chromatic chorale, and the fifth lighthearted, but that feeling seems a grandiose statement of almost to be constantly contradicted by symphonic breadth. One would the frequent incursions into the expect a sixth variation, but instead minor mode and the sudden rests — after a sudden leap into a remote interrupting the musical flow. As a key — Beethoven appends a coda result, we are kept on the edge of our (conclusion) which is really a free seats, never knowing what is going to meditation on the opening portion of happen in the next minute. the theme. Experts have called the second- The finale is brilliant and virtuosic, movement minuet “simple,” mainly with a swiftly running first theme because it is an old-fashioned minuet and a second one that moves quite rather than the more novel scherzo. a bit more slowly. Both themes are Yet it is a sophisticated simplicity; manipulated with great ingenuity and even when the texture is down to the are finally combined in the witty coda. two as it is at the beginning, the phrases don’t always go where they are expected to, nor are they

7 Beethoven’s Impact by Shulamit Ran

Something about the notion that there a new experiment. Listen with fresh is a clear divide between two types ears, and you will be startled anew, of music — “pure,” “abstract” music surprised time and again. on the one hand, and music with a By definition, a composer takes “theme” or “storyline” that exists command of a listener’s most precious outside of the music on the other and irreplaceable commodity — their — has always left me ambivalent. I time — a profound responsibility. am convinced that all great music Inspired by Beethoven, I, too, aim to including, for example, a Mozart make every note matter. I, too, want , a Schubert or Mahler song my music to feel urgent, necessary, cycle, or a Stravinsky ballet, may be organic at the smallest and largest experienced and appreciated as levels. The magnificent balance where “pure music.” Regardless of genre the music is never predictable yet feels and category it is, first and above “right” at all times is a Beethovenian all, a construct of sound and time marvel that inspires me every day. in musical space — parallel to, yet It has been a special privilege to separate from, addressing a “topic.” hear some of today’s great quartets Of course, penetrating the “extra performing some of my string quartet musical” in those cases will enhance, music. Inevitably, on such occasions illuminate, and add richness to our total my music often finds itself alongside experience. But the music comes first. Beethoven, Haydn, and Mendelssohn. Equally, I believe that in much of My heart sometimes flutters excitedly the music we consider to be at the in the awareness that this truly is zenith of art at its purest and loftiest, “playing with the big boys.” And the “human” is ever-present too, in from an early age Beethoven was its most wondrous nuance. Nowhere Mount Olympus for me. At the very is this truer than in the massive least it is my hope that to the listener achievement that are the string transitioning from a string quartet by quartets by Beethoven. When I listen Beethoven to one by Shulamit Ran it to every one of them, I am acutely will be apparent that, as I compose aware that BEETHOVEN equals not my music, I am always looking to the only one of the greatest giants in all of mountain-top, in awe and in hope. art, but also a breathing person whose every phrase “spoke” — in a manner Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American intermittently vivid and exuberant, composer. She is the Andrew MacLeish pained and transcendent, heroic and Distinguished Service Professor of fragile — of what it means to be alive. Music at the University of Chicago. No is like She has written three string quartets, another. This holds true for all and many other chamber works with a of Beethoven, of course. One is string quartet at its core. aware that with each and every composition Beethoven engages in STRING QUARTET IN C MINOR, OP. 18, NO. 4 (1798–1800)

Beethoven

UMS premiere: ; January 1948 in Rackham Auditorium.

The key of c minor had a special atmosphere is only temporarily significance for classical composers. relieved by a more light-hearted trio in Mozart endowed this key with deeply A-flat Major. The way the conclusion of tragic connotations in works such the trio is left open to prepare for the as the c-minor Fantasy, Sonata, and return of the minuet is a thoroughly Concerto (all for piano). Beethoven modern touch. built upon this legacy in such works The last movement is a spirited as the Pathétique Sonata, the Fifth rondo, but the dark c-minor tonality is Symphony, and the last Piano Sonata preserved all the way through (except (Op. 111). In the String Quartet for one brief episode). The Mozartian (as so often in Beethoven’s other models from the c-minor Piano c-minor works), dramatic excitement Concerto (K. 491) and the c-minor is expressed by frequent offbeat Serenade (K. 388) are very much in accents, harsh chordal sonorities, and evidence, yet only Beethoven could other surprising gestures. Yet there have written the “Prestissimo” coda are also playful moments, as in the with its entirely unexpected ending. second theme of the first movement which, as it has often been pointed out, shares its melodic outline with one of Beethoven’s most cheerful works, the “Duet for Two Obligato Eyeglasses” for viola and cello. In many of his works, Beethoven replaced the Mozartian minuet with a scherzo. In the c-minor Quartet (as in a handful of his other works) he included both scherzo and minuet, eliminating the slow movement instead. It is true, though, that the scherzo has the form, if not the tempo, of a slow movement; with its fugal beginning, it would appear to be a close cousin of the “Andante” from the First Symphony. Scored in a bright and sunny C Major, it also has the wit and ingenuity of many a Beethovenian scherzo. With the “Menuetto,” we are back in c minor and, accordingly, it is a serious and brooding piece, whose

9 STRING QUARTET IN A MINOR, OP. 132 (1825)

Beethoven

UMS premiere: Paganini Quartet; January 1948 in Rackham Auditorium.

Snapshots of History…In 1825: · Greece is in the middle of its eight-year War of Independence against Turkey · The world’s first modern railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, opens in England · The Erie Canal opens, connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean

With its “Holy Song of Thanksgiving wine, no coffee; no spices of any kind. of a Convalescent to the Deity in the I’ll arrange matters with the cook.” Lydian Mode,” the a-minor Quartet Beethoven’s condition improved; is in a category all by itself, not only soon he was able to return to work among Beethoven’s quartets but in and finished the quartet in July 1825. the entire music literature as well. But with a slow movement that had Nowhere else did Beethoven take obviously not been planned from the such a bold step outside the style start, this was no longer the same that Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven work that Beethoven had begun himself, had done so much to develop. before his illness. The same claim may of course be If there is one word that occurs made of the Great Fugue (originally more often than any other in the finale of the string quartet in B-flat, discussions of this quartet, it is Op. 130, later published separately), contrast — contrast both within but while in that work Beethoven movements and between movements. expanded an existing framework The contrasts begin immediately at almost beyond recognition, in the “Holy the beginning, where a mysterious Song” he did the opposite: he reduced slow introduction is suddenly his means and retreated into a newly- interrupted by an “Allegro” flourish invented archaic world that no one in first violin. “The conflict revealed knew existed. here casts a shadow not only over the The patient who gives thanks for first movement but over the quartet his recovery is, of course, Beethoven as a whole,” William Kinderman himself. In April 1825 — when he was writes in his insightful monograph in the middle of writing the a-minor on Beethoven. In fact, the anguished Quartet — the composer became half-steps of the introduction and gravely ill with an inflammation of the agitated rhythms of the “Allegro” the bowels. His physician, Dr. Anton determine much of what follows, along Braunhofer, prescribed a strict with the lyrical second idea played diet, and wrote in one of the deaf by the second violin. The first two composer’s conversation books: “No elements are contrapuntally combined

10 in the development section and The name itself is even older, going further elaborated in the subsequent back to ancient Greece. We know that sections of the movement. In Beethoven studied some examples a significant departure from of Renaissance music and also conventional sonata form, Beethoven theoretical writings from the period, wrote not just one recapitulation but and thus he was well aware that two. The first of these resembles the Lydian was associated with healing in exposition more closely but is set in a some ancient writings. According to key other than a minor, the home key, theory books, the Lydian scale consists while the second treats the material of the white keys of the piano starting with much more freedom but re- with the note ‘F’; in other words, it is establishes a minor in the movement’s an F-Major scale with a ‘B-natural’ vibrantly dramatic coda. instead of a ‘B-flat.’ This poses a To say that the second movement grave problem, however, in that the is a minuet with trio is both true interval ‘F’–‘B’ is an augmented and untrue. The 3/4 time and ABA fourth or “tritone” that was called form are certainly present, and the the “devil’s interval” in medieval drone effects of the trio have a long times and studiously avoided. All ancestry in movements of this type. chant melodies notated in Lydian Yet the movement doesn’t sound were actually sung with a ‘B-flat,’ an like a minuet. Commentator Michael alteration that was routinely applied Steinberg described it as “an always to the music. In Op. 132, however, surprising mixture of the gentle and Beethoven used ‘B-natural,’ and the acid,” with harmonies that are “a it is very likely that his use of the bit tart.” The frequent half-steps are “Lydian mode” is the first in history audibly related to those from the slow not to correct the offending interval. introduction of the first movement. Thus, while seemingly reviving an old Of the trio section, Steinberg wrote: musical element, Beethoven actually “A country dance tune, with bagpipe created something quite new. (The drone and all, becomes transfigured Lydian mode with ‘B-natural’ does at a great height into something exist in eastern European folk music.) distant, mysterious, free of the pull The entire song of thanksgiving is of gravity.” This ethereal dance is, harmonized with only “white keys,” however, suddenly interrupted by a which — in conjunction with the unison passage where even the meter extremely slow tempo — makes the changes briefly from triple to duple. sound eerily transparent. In addition to Thus, even this lyrical intermezzo ancient sources, Beethoven also drew is not spared from the dramatic on the Protestant chorale tradition in contrasts that fill the entire work. this movement — a tradition he was Beethoven took pains to specify familiar with in spite of his Catholic that the “Holy Song of Thanksgiving” background. The uniform rhythms and was in the Lydian mode, which is clear-cut cadences (line endings) one of the old church modes upon turn the Holy Song into a chorale of which Gregorian chant and much sorts, though this chorale has five early polyphonic music was based. lines instead of the usual four.

11 At the end of the fifth line, the “Holy Song,” and according to his second violin plays the first altered sketches, he first intended a Ländler- note (a ‘C-sharp’) in the movement, type dance at this point. He later giving the signal for the next section, decided otherwise, and the Ländler marked Neue Kraft fühlend (feeling found its home as the “Alla danza new strength). As a total contrast tedesca” movement of Op. 130. to the preceding Lydian music, this We might think that when we hear section is in a bright and confident the march in Op. 132, the trials and D Major. In Steinberg’s words: “The tribulations are finally over. Not so. staccatos, the wide leaps, the A dramatic interrupts the exuberant upbeats in scurrying 32nd happy music, leading into the “Allegro notes, the jubilant violin trill that appassionato” finale. Despite the rides across the top of the music, waltz-like lilt of the main theme, the breathless excitement in the there is significant tension under the accompaniment, all contribute to the surface. The rondo theme is quite joyful atmosphere.” close to the agitated melody of the The hymn returns with some first movement. The first episode fascinating changes in the texture. provides momentary relief; the The static, almost frozen chords of second even intensifies the “storm the first appearance are softened by and stress.” But eventually, the a more complex rhythmic interplay tonality shifts from a minor to A Major; among the voices, giving the music the tempo increases to presto and a a more flowing character. Then the new lyrical melody helps to give this second section returns, lavishly monumental work a happy ending. ornamented. With the third and final return of the Lydian chorale, we Program notes by Peter Laki. understand the form as A–B–A–B–A (as in the slow movement of the Ninth Symphony), but this final ‘A’ is more intimate and transcendent than any of its previous incarnations. It is also much longer. At first, only one instrument at a time adds ornaments to the melody, the others the long notes from the beginning. As a result, each player comes forward an individual singing his own personal hymn of thanksgiving. Then, the four instruments join forces again to play the otherworldly harmonies of the movement’s final measures. The brief march that follows confirms the convalescent’s return to life. Beethoven wanted a more simple and lighthearted movement after the

12 Beethoven’s Impact by Sebastian Currier

The Beethoven quartets have always loomed large in my life. When I was a teenager I remember lying on the couch listening to LPs of the quartets for hours on end. Now, some 40 years later, I have them on my iPhone! They never seem to grow old. For all those years, as I’ve changed, as the world has changed, they’ve managed to always feel fresh, full of vitality, thoughtfulness, and intensity. Though written almost two centuries ago, I feel I react to them as if they were written yesterday. While some music from as recently as a few decades ago can seem dated and passé, the Beethoven quartets seem to me endlessly new. Being new is one thing. Remaining new is quite another!

Sebastian Currier is an American composer. He was a professor of music at Columbia University from 1999 to 2007, and was the composer-in- residence at the Institute for Advanced Study between 2013 and 2015. He has composed two full-length string quartets. Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Beethoven, and the Inception of Listening to String Quartets by John M. Gingerich

The violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh were, the cock of the walk in the (1776–1830) was Beethoven’s closest princely establishment; everything collaborator in the composition that he composed was rehearsed hot of all of his string quartets, from from the griddle and performed to Op. 18 right through Op. 135. They the nicety of a hair, according to his first became acquainted shortly ideas, just as he wanted it and not after Beethoven’s arrival in Vienna, otherwise, with affectionate interest, when both assisted at the Friday obedience, and devotion such as morning quartet concerts of one of could spring only from such ardent Beethoven’s principal patrons, Prince admirers of his lofty genius, and with Karl . These concerts a penetration into the most secret introduced Beethoven to Vienna’s intentions of the composer and the leading string players, and included most perfect comprehension of his performances of Haydn quartets intellectual tendencies.” For the under the old master’s personal late Beethoven quartets we have a supervision. (At Schuppanzigh’s detailed record of the aid provided suggestion, Lichnowsky made a gift by members of the quartet, since to Beethoven of a complete set of Beethoven’s nearly total deafness old Italian string instruments, long required his interlocutors to write attributed to Guarneri, Ruggieri, down their side of the conversation: and Amati.) Five or six years later, proofing, editing, the clarification of when Beethoven himself started phrasing, dynamics, articulation, and composing quartets, Schuppanzigh other performance indications, the and the young virtuosi he led stood writing out of parts and scores in at Beethoven’s disposal. When in order to enable the task of proofing, 1808 Count Andrey as well as in preparation for the work asked Schuppanzigh to form a quartet of professional copyists who penned and installed them with salaries clean copies for Prince Galitzin and and pensions as his “Kapelle,” they several different publishers—the also became Beethoven’s personal participation of Schuppanzigh and quartet, available not only should other members of the quartet proved the composer feel the need to hear vital to all of these tasks. a draft of a passage, but once he Schuppanzigh introduced several had finished, as his personally- innovations that fundamentally rehearsed representatives before changed the string quartet, his patrons and their guests. A innovations upon which Beethoven contemporary observer has left us capitalized in his late quartets, a vivid description of the quartet’s and which continue to shape how relationship with Beethoven during we experience and think about the years with Razumovsky (1808 string quartets. During the winter of until 1816): “Beethoven was, as it 1804–05, Schuppanzigh pioneered

14 public string quartet concerts; he Spohr (especially his double quartets), continued with public subscription Georges Onslow (especially his cello concerts during his tenure with Count quintets), and even more occasionally Razumovsky, and again from the with works by Franz Weiss, the violist time of his return from in 1823 of the quartet, and . until his death. Another innovation, Schuppanzigh’s programming was for which Schuppanzigh shares designed to let Beethoven shine the credit with Count Razumovsky, against the backdrop of his forebears was a stable membership of the Haydn and Mozart, while everyone ensemble. Together these two else auditioned for inclusion in the innovations initiated a profound canon of great masters. transformation of the string quartet By the time Schuppanzigh began from the leading Viennese genre of his last run of subscription concerts home entertainment, functioning in 1823 his programming represented primarily for the edification of its a much greater departure from participant performers, to what it Viennese norms than had his earlier became after 1823, the leading genre concerts. In the home, the male string of public instrumental music for quartet (since string instruments were connoisseurs, a new listener-centered not considered suitable for women) role. At home players tended to read was beginning to be crowded out by through as many quartets as possible, music for the pianoforte, the specialty and included everyone present by of young ladies. The decade of Rossini rotating roles. The fixed membership (starting in Vienna in 1816), of the of Schuppanzigh’s ensembles after waltz of Johann Strauss 1808 enabled them to perform with a Sr. and Joseph Lanner (starting in precision and finesse that revealed 1823), and of the first full flowering unsuspected nuances, depths, of virtuosity, rendered all the old and powers of works that listeners four-movement instrumental genres thought they already knew from born of aristocratic patronage deeply playing through them at home. unfashionable; the sonata became Yet a third innovation, a rare visitor in the parlor, as did Schuppanzigh’s programming, the symphony on the public stage. augmented the effects of the first Public concerts in the 1820s mixed two in creating an audience of instrumental with vocal numbers, connoisseurs. From the start in the and the vast majority of instrumental winter of 1804–05 his core repertory offerings comprised virtuoso vehicles had consisted of works by “the (, potpourris, and greatest masters,” as he put it in one variations); even new quartets were of his advertisements — of quartets predominantly quatuors brillants. By by Haydn, and quartets and quintets default Schuppanzigh’s concerts by Mozart and Beethoven. This core became the preeminent venue for canon was augmented occasionally hearing instrumental music in a with quartets by Anton Eberl and pedigreed genre, and thus by default Andreas Romberg in the early years, his concerts were also the preeminent and in later years with works by Louis venue for hearing instrumental music

15 by Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven. At too dissimilar from the experience a time when the old instrumental Lichnowsky and Razumovsky had genres Beethoven had inherited and once been able to offer their guests, made his own were fading away as Schuppanzigh’s concerts forced old music had always faded away, listeners to concentrate on purely when Beethoven himself had become musical processes through the a living legend but had also begun uninterrupted course of three string to appear irrelevant to the future quartets, without the aid or distraction course of music, Schuppanzigh did of text, and without granting the more than anyone else to keep one performer a greater claim on their of those genres audible and fresh attentions than the music. Over and in mind and in memory, and only the course of several seasons his Schuppanzigh provided polished subscribers encountered the historic performances to make the case that panorama of the string quartet from the richness of this music had not its beginnings with Haydn right been exhausted or even plumbed by through the first public hearing of a decades of exposure, that here was Schubert quartet. Schuppanzigh was music that transcended fashion. training his audience, preparing them The first reviews of Schuppanzigh’s as well as possible for the promised 1823 series repeatedly stressed its encounter with the new quartets function as a “school of artistic taste,” Beethoven was working on. and praised it as an “institution for the After finishing the Op. 95 Quartet in conservation of the higher sense for 1810, Beethoven had stopped writing music,” that is, music that transcends string quartets, and some of his mere “ear-tickling.” The reviewers reasons can be surmised from a letter took pains to convince readers that he wrote to his agent in England: the public string quartet represented “N.B. The Quartett [Op. 95] is written the peak experience and most refined for a small circle of connoisseurs challenge available to connoisseurs and is never to be performed in of music, and as such was drawing public. Should you wish for some Vienna’s most select music public. Quartetts for public performance I And they celebrated Schuppanzigh’s would compose them to this purpose concerts by describing them with the occasionally.” Schuppanzigh’s return term “classical” — as one reviewer to Vienna from Russia hard on the put it, “[Schuppanzigh is] a mighty heels of Prince Galitzin’s commission dam against the flood of modern for three new string quartets, along tinsel music, dedicating his virtuosity with the new series of public quartet solely to the acknowledgment and concerts Schuppanzigh started rise of truly classical creations.” evidently persuaded Beethoven that But this “classical” also had class he could now successfully market connotations; the venerable quartets for connoisseurs. Publishers “classical” works had aristocratic embraced the implications of the cachet while the modern tinsel music new classicizing tendencies. As one was bourgeois. Unlike any other put it, “I won’t collect the interest public venue in 1823, but perhaps not for 20 years; but with Beethoven I

16 have capital in my hands. —But not the disastrous premiere of Op. 127, everyone can play it yet.” Publishers Schuppanzigh’s subscription concerts also issued Beethoven’s late quartets never quite recovered. in score simultaneously with their Unlike Schubert, Beethoven never initial publication in parts — a first dedicated a quartet to Schuppanzigh, for . A quartet score and seems to have regarded their assisted study, but had previously enduring friendship and collaboration been issued primarily in posthumous as sufficient tribute. But we should complete works editions, as recognize that it was not Beethoven “monuments.” Issuing Beethoven’s alone, but Beethoven in concert with late quartets as “monuments” right Schuppanzigh who transformed away was a logical concomitant to the string quartet from music best treating their purchase as a long-term experienced by the adept performer capital investment. to the most rewarding music for the Schuppanzigh probably premiered diligent listener, and thereby made all of Beethoven’s string quartets, but of it a cornerstone of the building we while accounts of the early public know as classical music. concerts do not mention precise programs, we know when and where Musicologist John M. Gingerich the five late quartets were first is currently working on a book on performed in public. The long-awaited Schuppanzigh. Before beginning his premiere of Op. 127, the first of the musicological work he was a cellist, late quartets, was a fiasco. Beethoven and played for several years with the did not have the parts ready until less Baltimore Symphony . than a month before the performance, the ensemble was ragged, and at a crucial juncture Schuppanzigh broke a string and had no back-up violin available. Unsympathetic observers blamed Schuppanzigh’s corpulence (Beethoven usually called him “Falstafferl”) for the poor performance and “incomprehensibility” of the new quartet. Schuppanzigh’s humiliation was compounded when Beethoven gave the quartet in turn to two rival violinists who did much better, having much more time to prepare. The fiasco of the premiere and the ensuing violin competition heightened public interest in the new quartets, and publishers vied to buy them from Beethoven for unprecedentedly high prices. But while Beethoven realized serendipitous rewards from

17

Takács Quartet

Concert IV

Edward Dusinberre / Violin Károly Schranz / Violin Geraldine Walther / Viola András Fejér / Cello

Sunday Afternoon, January 22, 2017 at 4:00 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor

33rd Performance of the 138th Annual Season 54th Annual Chamber Arts Series This afternoon’s supporting sponsors are Robert and Darragh Weisman.

Media partnership provided by WRCJ 90.9 FM.

Special thanks to Steven Whiting for his participation in events surrounding this weekend’s performances.

The Takács Quartet records for Hyperion and Decca/London Records.

The Takács Quartet is Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Colorado in Boulder and are Associate Artists at Wigmore Hall, London.

The Takács Quartet appears by arrangement with Seldy Cramer Artists.

In consideration of the artists and the audience, please refrain from the use of electronic devices during the performance.

The photography, sound recording, or videotaping of this performance is prohibited. PROGRAM

Beethoven String Quartets Concert IV

String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3

Allegro Andante con moto Allegro Presto

String Quartet in e minor, Op. 59, No. 2

Allegro Molto adagio: Si tratta questo pezzo con molto di sentimento Allegretto Finale: Presto

Intermission

String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127

Maestoso — Allegro Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile — Andante con moto — Adagio molto espressivo — tempo primo Scherzo: Vivace — Presto Finale

21 Beethoven’s Impact by William Bolcom

About age 11, I became enamored of would steer me in the compositional quartet music (and began what turned direction I have followed ever since. out to be a group of 12 of them). My first big influences were the Bartók William Bolcom is an American quartets, Berg’s Lyric Suite, and the composer and Professor Emeritus Roy Harris quartet, which influences of Composition at the University of show up in my first two quartets. I Michigan School of Music, Theatre & was cognizant of Beethoven mostly Dance. He received the Pulitzer Prize through the piano literature before for Music in 1988 and has composed 12 that age. string quartets. Later, about the age of 14, I landed on the late Beethoven quartets, which absolutely blew me away, and their influence would permeate my third and fourth quartets particularly. On the bus to junior high school I sat with a Beethovenian grimace — I’d read Robert Haven Schauffler’s Beethoven, the Man Who Freed Music — which I’m sure amused other passengers. (In these last few years I’ve been going over all 12 of my quartets for publication, and I’m embarrassed to relate that the Beethoven-ish ones seem to me more like age-appropriate juvenilia than the earlier two. It does seem odd that I would go backward, not forward, in musical history in my influences.) In the following years I expanded my knowledge of quartet literature, concurrently both the classical canon and much newer work, and the divide between the modern and the old began to blur in my mind. I saw the revolutionary in Beethoven, the classicist in Bartók and Schoenberg, and increasingly felt no obligation to eschew any music in my search for vocabulary. That epiphany I owe largely to the Beethoven quartets, particularly the later ones, which

22 STRING QUARTET IN D MAJOR, OP. 18, NO. 3 (1798)

Ludwig van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna

UMS premiere: Detroit Philharmonic Club; March 1888 in a University Law Lecture Room.

Snapshots of History…In 1798: · French forces invade the Papal States and establish the Roman Republic · Eli Whitney contracts with the US federal government for 10,000 rifles, which he produces with interchangeable parts · Edward Jenner publishes his work on smallpox vaccination

In spite of the obvious Haydn and from D Major) foretells more harmonic Mozart influences, this quartet, adventures, which do not fail to occur. the very first that Beethoven ever The third movement is marked neither composed, is a work of surprising “Minuet” nor “Scherzo,” but simply originality. Its opening, with its “Allegro.” It is closer to a scherzo unaccompanied leap of a minor character since it is not particularly seventh, is like nothing we could find dance-like and abounds in offbeat in the older composers’ work, and accents that appear in so many of everything that follows is equally Beethoven’s . Its first phrase unprecedented. Beethoven’s ability to oscillates between major and minor in develop entire movements from tiny a most unusual fashion. The tonality motivic ideas is already in evidence eventually settles in D Major, only to be here, as that minor seventh (or its displaced by an agitated trio (middle rhythm of even, long-drawn-out whole section) in d minor. In an unusual move, notes) pervades almost the whole Beethoven wrote out the return of “Allegro.” The number of keys visited the scherzo in full, with large portions is also greater than usual: tonalities placed an octave higher than the first not closely related to the central D time. The vivacious finale again unfolds Major are used freely, resulting in an from a single rhythmic idea (that of a exciting and utterly unpredictable swift eighth-note motion in 6/8 time) harmonic plan. with occasional interruptions and other Similar observations can be made surprises. The ending is probably the of the other movements as well. The only point where Beethoven clearly second movement is based on a follows Haydn’s lead. The way he turns gentle theme proceeding in equal the first three notes of the theme into a eighth notes; yet it can become pianissimo ending is an obvious bow to quite dramatic in the course of its the older master. development. The choice of key (B-flat Major, a significant distance

23 STRING QUARTET IN E MINOR, OP. 59, NO. 2 (“RASUMOVSKY”) (1806)

Beethoven

UMS premiere: String Quartet; January 1947 in Rackham Auditorium.

Snapshots of History…In 1806: · The British occupy the Cape of Good Hope · The Lewis and Clark expedition reaches St. Louis, Missouri, ending a successful exploration of the Louisiana Territory and Pacific Northwest · Noah Webster publishes his first American English dictionary

Prince , the expansion of the techniques that Russian Ambassador in Vienna, and the serve to develop those motifs. The Princes Lichnowsky and Lobkowitz, most extreme example is probably the two Viennese aristocrats to whom first movement of the Fifth Symphony, he was related by marriage, together with its famous four-note theme, but received the dedications of more than the opening of the e-minor Quartet a dozen major works by Beethoven. is equally striking. Beethoven begins One might almost say that their “clan” suspensefully with a pair of chords, underwrote a great part of what followed by a short phrase, which is later became known as Beethoven’s punctuated by rests and repeated a “heroic” or middle period. half-step higher, immediately calling The three quartets of Op. 59, known the e-minor tonality into question. as the “Razumovsky” quartets, Eventually, continuity is restored, but were written shortly after the Third the form remains rather fragmented, Symphony (“Eroica”) and the f-minor reflecting an agitated state of mind. Piano Sonata (“Appassionata”). We hear many insistent syncopated In those works, Beethoven made rhythms and rapid passages in a bold leap into the future: music unison or parallel motion, in dramatic had never expressed such intense contrast with the occasional gentler emotions before, nor had the formal moments. In associating minor mode conventions of music been changed with emotional turbulence, Beethoven so radically in such a short time. followed the tradition of Haydn and With Op. 59, Beethoven extended Mozart, though his radically new way his musical revolution to the quartet of writing gave this “Allegro” a very medium, producing three masterworks special edge. after which the genre was never the It was not for nothing that same again. Beethoven inscribed the second- One of the most striking features movement “Molto adagio” with the of Beethoven’s “heroic” style is a words “Si tratta questo pezzo con reduction of the thematic material molto sentimento” (This piece must to a small number of motifs and an be treated with much feeling). Here

24 is one of his great hymn-like slow The finale is a galloping sonata movements, with the quiet majesty rondo where Beethoven constantly of the later “Emperor” Concerto and plays games with our (possibly Ninth Symphony — yet entirely within subconscious) tonal expectations. the intimate world of chamber music. Seemingly reluctant to establish the The melody is enriched by chromatic home key of e minor, he keeps the harmonies and surrounded by complex first few measures in C Major before figurations. Then, at the end of the making a sudden shift just before the movement, all embellishments are end of the phrase. (The last movement stripped away and the melody is of the Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58, stated by the four instruments in written around the same time, uses bold fortissimo chords, with harsh a similar strategy.) The rhythmic harmonies and strong accents — momentum never flags, though before the gentle closing measures the galloping pulse is temporarily end the movement in an idyllic mood. replaced by quieter motion in the Beethoven refrained from calling lyrical second theme. Yet the main the third movement a “scherzo,” theme never stays away for very long; and surely the first section of the and as if the initial presto tempo movement is too serious to qualify as weren’t fast enough, Beethoven a “joke.” Yet its syncopated motion demands più presto (faster) for the and sudden dynamic and harmonic final measures. changes are definitely scherzo- like features. The high point of the movement, however, is the second section (which elsewhere would be called “Trio”). In honor of his dedicatee, Beethoven inserted a Russian theme here (marked thème russe in the score). The source of the theme was the important folk song collection published by Nikolai Lvov and Ivan Prach in 1790. (This melody, “To the Red Sun, Glory!” was famously used again by Mussorgsky in the coronation scene of Boris Godunov.) Beethoven had the four instruments take turns repeating this melody identically over and over again, against a fast-moving counterpoint that also makes its rounds among the four players. As in several other Beethoven works, the usual A–B–A scheme of the scherzo is expanded to A–B–A–B–A, with the thème russe section appearing twice and the opening section three times.

25 STRING QUARTET IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 127 (1825)

Beethoven

UMS premiere: Paganini Quartet; January 1949 in Rackham Auditorium.

Snapshots of History…In 1825: · After no presidential candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the US House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams President of the · Uruguay secedes from Brazil · The first horse-drawn omnibuses are established in London

In the fall of 1822, Beethoven received startlingly distant key. It is brushed a letter from a Russian aristocrat and aside once more by the “Allegro” amateur cello player, Prince Nikolai music, now taking on the distinct Galitzin. The Prince commissioned features of a development section Beethoven to write three string (frequent modulations, fragmentation quartets and urged him to name his of motives). Another set of slow own price. Beethoven accepted the measures — shorter than the previous proposal and promised to deliver the ones — again propels the music in first quartet within a month. However, unexpected harmonic directions, more than two years passed before with the home key in E-flat Major the Quartet in E-flat, the first one in the eventually returning and bringing set, reached the Prince, even though the music to a soft and somewhat it seems that Beethoven had begun to inconclusive conclusion. make sketches for a new string quartet After this enigmatic opening, the even before receiving Galitzin’s letter. players encounter a slow theme-and- (He had not written a quartet since the variation movement of unprecedented f-minor work, Op. 95, of 1810.) complexity (they must have been Let us for a moment imagine the exceptional players indeed if they Prince and his three companions in could make it to the end!). A lyrical St. Petersburg as they put the parts melody of otherworldly beauty is of Op. 127 on their music stands. They followed by five variations: the first start playing the opening “Maestoso,” largely ornamental; the second thinking it is a slow introduction; yet playful; the third, suddenly moving after only six measures, they see with to a distant new key, extremely slow surprise that the introduction is cut and intense; the fourth seemingly short and an “Allegro” theme begins returning to the style of the first in a new meter. After a few minutes yet introducing many fascinating (during which time two distinct surprises; and the last one developing musical ideas appear, more or less a “free fantasia” on the theme. like in a classical sonata exposition), At one point, the harmony seemed the opening “Maestoso” returns in a so confusing that the Prince had to

26 ask Beethoven in a letter whether he Haydn. He added a mysterious coda in meant a certain note in the viola part a new meter (6/8 replacing cut time) to be a ‘C’ or a ‘D- flat.’ Beethoven in which the harmonic adventures of explained at great length why it had earlier movements suddenly reappear. to be a ‘D-flat,’ and added: “If I had The tempo designation is allegro written ‘C,’ the melody would have comodo (a comfortably fast motion), been destroyed.” There is no record, not con moto (with motion) as some however, to tell us whether Galitzin editions suggest. Kerman found the and his partners felt, as many modern harmonic progressions to be “sheer commentators have, that Beethoven dream” — a dream that is followed by contemplated the starry heavens in an awakening, a consolidation of the the central E-Major variation. home key, and a sudden yet resolute The remaining two movements are ending. no less extraordinary than the first two. The “Scherzando vivace” uses Program notes by Peter Laki. an extremely simple rhythmic pattern to generate uncommon dramatic energy. That pattern is developed and transformed in ways that recall the scherzo of the Ninth Symphony. The trio, or middle section, is a breathless “Presto” in the minor mode, later switching to the major and suddenly interrupted by a general rest and the return of the “Scherzando.” At the end of the movement, the trio section is briefly recalled; another general rest separates this reminiscence from the abrupt ending, again similarly to what happens in the Ninth. In the “Finale,” Beethoven let go of all the dramatic tensions that had weighed so heavily on the first three movements. Musicologist Joseph Kerman described this finale (which bears no tempo marking) as a “medley of folk-like phrases…square and ingenuous, jogging along in all- but-continuous quarter-notes.” The contrast with the rest of the quartet could not be greater. Yet Beethoven reserved a final surprise to those players and listeners who thought he was simply writing a folk-dance finale in homage to his one-time teacher

27 UMS ARCHIVES

This weekend’s concerts, the third and fourth installments in this season’s Beethoven String Quartet Cycle, mark the Takács Quartet’s 21st and 22nd performances under UMS auspices. The ensemble made its UMS debut in February 1984 at Rackham Auditorium, and most recently appeared under UMS auspices in October 2016 at Rackham Auditorium with the first two concerts of this season’s Beethoven cycle. The Quartet completes its Beethoven cycle at UMS in March at Rackham Auditorium.

28 ARTISTS

The Takács Quartet, now entering its 42nd During the 2016–17 season, the season, is renowned for the vitality of its ensemble will perform complete six- interpretations. The Times recently concert Beethoven quartet cycles in lauded the ensemble for “revealing the London’s Wigmore Hall, at Princeton, the familiar as unfamiliar, making the most University of Michigan, and at UC Berkeley. traditional of works feel radical once more,” In preparation for these cycles Takács and the Financial Times described a recent first violinist Edward Dusinberre’s book, concert at the Wigmore Hall: “Even in the called Beethoven for a Later Age: The most fiendish repertoire these players show Journey of a String Quartet, was published no fear, injecting the music with a heady in the UK by Faber and Faber and in North sense of freedom. At the same time, though, America by the University of Chicago Press. there is an uncompromising attention to The book takes the reader inside the life of detail: neither a note nor a bow-hair is out a string quartet, melding music history and of place.” memoir as it explores the circumstances The Takács became the first string surrounding the composition of quartet to win the Wigmore Hall Medal in Beethoven’s quartets. May 2014. The Medal, inaugurated in 2007, The Takács Quartet performed Philip recognizes major international artists who Roth’s “Everyman” program with Meryl have a strong association with the Hall. Streep at Princeton in 2014, and again Recipients so far include András Schiff, with her at the Royal Conservatory of Thomas Quasthoff, Menachem Pressler, Music in Toronto in 2015. The program and Dame Felicity Lott. Appointed in was conceived in close collaboration 2012 as the first-ever Associate Artists at with Philip Roth. The Quartet is known Wigmore, the Takács present six concerts for such innovative programming. They every season there. Other European first performed “Everyman” at Carnegie engagements in 2016–17 include concerts Hall in 2007 with Philip Seymour Hoffman. in Florence, Milan, Geneva, Amsterdam, They have toured 14 cities with the poet and . They will present concerts in Robert Pinsky, collaborate regularly with Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong and the Hungarian Folk group Muzsikas, and in will also tour and . 2010 they collaborated with the Colorado A recent tour to South America included Shakespeare Festival and David Lawrence concerts in Chile and Brazil. Morse on a drama project that explored the In 2012, Gramophone announced that composition of Beethoven’s last quartets. the Takács was the only string quartet The Quartet’s award-winning recordings to be inducted into its first Hall of Fame, include the complete Beethoven cycle along with such legendary artists as on the Decca label. In 2005 the Late , Leonard Bernstein, and Beethoven Quartets won “Disc of the Dame Janet Baker. The ensemble also won Year” and Chamber Award from BBC the 2011 Award for Chamber Music and Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award, Song presented by the Royal Philharmonic “Album of the Year” at the Brit Awards, Society in London. Based in Boulder at the and a Japanese Record Academy Award. University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet Their recordings of the early and middle performs 90 concerts a year worldwide. Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy

29 Award, another Gramophone Award, a The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 Chamber Music of America Award, and at the Academy in Budapest two further awards from the Japanese by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Recording Academy. Of their performances Gabor Ormai, and András Fejér, while and recordings of the Late Quartets, all four were students. It first received the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote “The international attention in 1977, winning Takács might play this repertoire better First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the than any quartet of the past or present.” International String Quartet Competition The members of the Takács Quartet in Evian, . The Quartet also won the are Christoffersen Faculty Fellows at the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and University of Colorado Boulder and play Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at on instruments generously loaned to the Budapest International String Quartet them by the Shwayder Foundation. The Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Quartet has helped to develop a string Competition in 1981. The Quartet made program with a special emphasis on its North American debut tour in 1982. chamber music, where students work in Violinist Edward Dusinberre joined the a nurturing environment designed to help Quartet in 1993 and violist Roger Tapping them develop their artistry. The Quartet’s in 1995. Violist Geraldine Walther replaced commitment to teaching is enhanced by Mr. Tapping in 2005. In 2001 the Takács summer residencies at the Aspen Festival Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit and at the Music Academy of the West, of the Knight’s Cross of the Republic Santa Barbara. The Takács is a Visiting of , and in March of 2011 each Quartet at the Guildhall School of Music member of the Quartet was awarded the and Drama, London. Order of Merit Commander’s Cross by the President of the Republic of Hungary.

30 MAY WE ALSO RECOMMEND...

2/5 Calidore String Quartet 3/24 Mitsuko Uchida, piano 3/25–26 Takács Quartet: Beethoven Quartet Cycle Concerts 5 & 6

Tickets available at www.ums.org.

ON THE EDUCATION HORIZON...

1/21 Sensory-Friendly Open Rehearsal: Takács Quartet (Rackham Auditorium, 915 E. Washington Street, 12:00 noon)

1/21 Pre-Concert Lecture Series: Exploring Beethoven’s String Quartets (Rackham Amphitheatre, Fourth Floor, 915 E. Washington St., 7:00 pm)

2/16 Penny Stamps Speaker Series: Ping Chong (Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty Street, 5:10 pm)

3/18 You Can Dance: Kidd Pivot (Ann Arbor Y, 400 W. Washington Street, 2–3:30 pm)

3/25 Pre-Concert Lecture Series: Exploring Beethoven’s String Quartets (Michigan League Koessler Room, Third Floor, 911 N. University Ave., 7:00 pm)

Educational events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

31 SATURDAY’S VICTORS FOR UMS: Helmut F. and Candis J. Stern Chamber Arts Endowment Fund

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SUNDAY’S VICTORS FOR UMS: Robert and Darragh Weisman

Supporters of this weekend’s performances by the Takács Quartet.