Takács Quartet Beethoven String Quartet 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: Ignaz Schuppanzigh, 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 / Violin Károly Schranz / Violin Geraldine Walther / Viola András Fejér / Cello 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/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 III String Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5 Allegro Menuetto Andante cantabile: Thema – Variations I – V – Coda: Poco Adagio Allegro String Quartet in c minor, Op. 18, No. 4 Allegro ma non tanto Scherzo: 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 Vienna UMS premiere: Flonzaley Quartette; January 1912 in University Hall. Snapshots of History…In 1800: · The US Library of Congress 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 music; by 1799–1800, he on his way with these words: “With was ready to write his first symphony. 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 violins 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 opera, 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.