CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM NOTES

Sunday, March 17, 2013, 3pm Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Op. 74 when they were published in London Hertz Hall in F major, Op. 74, No. 2 in 1795, were dedicated to Apponyi. Salomon had played them to great acclaim at his Hanover Composed in 1793. Square Rooms concerts the preceding year. The Quartets, Opp. 71 and 74 occupy an Afiara String Quartet Haydn’s first triumph in London ended in July important niche in the history of chamber music 1792, and it took little effort for the venture’s as the first such works written expressly for pub- Valerie Lin violin impresario, Johann Peter Salomon, to exact lic performance. Haydn, who was always sensi- Yuri Cho violin a promise from the lionized composer to re- tive to accommodating his audiences, made the David Samuel viola turn for another series of performances several Quartets suitable for the concert hall by provid- months hence. The 60-year-old Haydn spent the ing them with ample dramatic contrasts, basing Adrian Fung intervening time at home in Vienna, recouping them on easily memorable thematic material, his strength after the rigors of the London trip, allowing a certain virtuosity to the first violin- composing, teaching a few pupils (including ist in the fast movements (to show off Salomon’s PROGRAM Beethoven), and attending to domestic matters, considerable skills), and giving them an almost most pressingly seeing to the demand for new symphonic breadth of expression. (In her study quarters of his shrewish wife (whom he referred of the composer, Rosemary Hughes noted, “It is to, privately, as the “House-Dragon”). Anna as if Haydn were pushing open a door through Josef Haydn (1732–1809) String Quartet in F major, Op. 74, No. 2 (1793) Maria had discovered a house in the Viennese which Beethoven was to pass.”) Allegro spirituoso suburb of Gumpendorf that she thought would The F major Quartet, Op. 74, No. 2, is a Andante grazioso be just perfect, she explained to her husband, superb example of the mastery of thematic de- Menuet: Allegro when she was a widow. Haydn was understand- velopment, control of instrumental sonority, Finale: Presto ably reluctant to see the place, but he found it and boldness of harmonic invention that a half- pleasing, and bought it the next year. It was the century of creative work had won for Haydn. A home in which, in 1809, a decade after Anna bright-faced theme cobbled from the notes of Brett Abigaña (b. 1980) String Quartet No. 2 (2010) Maria, he died. the tonic chord opens the Quartet, and provides One of the greatest successes of Haydn’s the material for much of what follows. Daring, Psalm London venture was the performance of several proto-Romantic harmonic progressions lead Berceuse of his string quartets by Salomon, whose abili- to the formal second subject that, as in many Vocalise ties as an impresario were matched by his vir- of Haydn’s sonata-form movements, proves March tuosity on the violin. Such public presentations to be a recasting of the main theme in a new of chamber works were still novel at the time, key. The thematic components are worked out and their enthusiastic reception made it easy for across wide-ranging harmonic territories and at INTERMISSION Salomon to convince Haydn to create a half- considerable length in the development section. dozen additional quartets for his projected visit The recapitulation returns the musical events in 1794–1795. Though composed for Salomon’s that opened the movement in heightened set- (1770–1827) String Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3, concerts, the new quartets were formally com- tings. The Andante is a set of three variations “Razumovsky” (1806) missioned by Count Anton Apponyi, who had (the second is in an expressive minor key) based come to know Haydn and his music when he on a long, elegant theme first given by the vio- Andante con moto — Allegro vivace married one of the scions of the Esterházy lins in sweet harmonies. The Menuetto has a Andante con moto quasi Allegretto clan, the composer’s employer for a half-cen- higher quotient of harmonic surprises than Menuetto: Grazioso — tury. Apponyi was an active patron of the arts most of its species, and even slips into a delight- Allegro molto in Vienna (he was a subscriber to Beethoven’s fully unexpected tonality for its central trio. Op. 1 Piano Trios), owner of a fine collection of The finale starts off with a jocular tune and a paintings, a good violinist, and a founder and light-hearted insouciance which suggest that it president of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, will be a rondo, but the movement unfolds as Cal Performances’ 2012–2013 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. the city’s principal concert-giving organization. a tightly worked sonata form which finds more The six Quartets, divided into two sets as Op. 71 ways to utilize the little two-note falling figure

22 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 23 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES announced immediately at the outset by the first in the viola. The harmony moves in such a way interest in music by taking lessons from Haydn, Quartet [No. 1], they laughed and were con- violin than seem possible. as to obscure as much as possible any semblance playing in chamber concerts, and sponsoring the vinced Beethoven was playing a joke on them of a hierarchical beat structure. The second performance of works in his residence. and that it was not the quartet he had prom- movement is a Berceuse, a lilting lullaby with a In the spring of 1806, Count Razumovsky ised.” “Surely you do not consider this music?” Brett Abigaña (b. 1980) playful side. The third movement,Vocalise , is a took over from Prince Lichnowsky the pa- asked the bemused violinist Felix Radicati. “Not String Quartet No. 2 strophic song over harmony that, while simple tronage of the string quartet headed by Ignaz for you,” replied the confident composer, “but on the surface, never actually arrives at a tonic Schuppanzigh, and he commissioned Beethoven for a later age.” When Beethoven was told that Composed in 2010. Premiered on February 8, 2011, resolution. The final movement, March, is a to write for the ensemble three new pieces that Schuppanzigh was complaining about the dif- at the Mary Irwin Theatre in Kelowna, British rather sarcastic circus march that slowly disinte- would be played in the grand palace the Count ficulty of the violin parts, he grumbled, “Does Columbia, by the Afiara String Quartet. grates into strands of the three preceding move- was building on the Danube Canal near the he really suppose that I think of his puling ments before restarting and spinning wildly out Prater. Beethoven, who had not composed a little fiddle when the spirit speaks to me and I Brett Abigaña was born in 1980 in Woodland, of control.” string quartet since the six numbers of Op. 18 compose something?” The powerful style of the California, 20 miles west of Sacramento, and in 1800, gladly accepted the proposal and im- “Eroica” of 1804 that also infused these scores, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the mediately set to work. (Beethoven, always look- with their intense emotional expression and for- , where he studied with Samuel Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) ing for new sources of patronage, did not take mal concentration, was still revolutionary and Adler and Robert Beaser, and his Doctorate of String Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3, lightly the fact that Razumovsky was an in- puzzling to Beethoven’s contemporaries in 1806. Musical Arts from Boston University as a stu- “Razumovsky” timate of such powerful figures as Metternich It would soon mark him as the most visionary dent of Samuel Headrick and Richard Cornell. and von Gentz.) In honor of (or, perhaps, at the musical artist of his time. His additional advanced studies include compo- Composed in 1806. Premiered in February 1807 request of) his Russian patron, Beethoven in- The Razumovsky Quartet No. 3, in C major, sition, harmony, and counterpoint with Narcis in Vienna. cluded in the first two quartets of the Op. 59 opens with an almost motionless introduction, Bonet, Michel Merlet, and Philip Lasser at the set traditional Russian themes. Such music was influenced, perhaps, in its harmonic acerbity by La Schola Cantorum in Paris, and conducting Count Andreas Kyrillovitch Razumovsky was much on the mind of the Viennese at the time the beginning of Mozart’s “Dissonant” Quartet. with Judith Clurman. Abigaña is currently on one of the most prominent figures in Viennese because many Russian soldiers had sought ref- The mood brightens with the presentation of the faculties of Boston University and Boston society, politics, and art at the turn of the 19th uge in the hospitals, convents, and schools of the the main theme by the unaccompanied first University Academy, and is Associate Director century. Born in 1752 to a singer at the Russian imperial city following their great battles with violin, and there ensues a powerful movement of the Boston Composers’ Coalition; he is also court, Razumovsky ingratiated himself with a the French at Austerlitz at the end of 1805. After in fully developed sonata form. Dark currents an Affiliated Artist at MIT. Abigaña’s music number of women of lofty station and entered receiving Razumovsky’s commission, Beethoven of feeling pulse beneath the rippling surface of has been heard throughout the United States the diplomatic corps at the age of 25. He was as- determined, as he said, “to devote myself wholly the Andante: “A lament [that] searches many and Europe, including performances on Dutch signed to several European capitals, in which he to this work,” and he wrote the three Op. 59 shadowy corners,” wrote Vincent d’Indy of this Public Radio. His wide variety of works includes made his reputation, according to one contem- Quartets between May and October 1806 (a music; J.W.N. Sullivan thought that it presents chamber music for strings and winds, several porary account, “less through his skill at diplo- few sketches from 1804 were incorporated into “some forgotten and alien despair;” a “mystery concertos, song cycles, and numerous pieces for macy than through his lavish expenditure and the finished works) with the intention of having of the primitive” concluded Joseph Kerman of orchestra and symphonic band, many written his love affairs with ladies of the highest stand- Schuppanzigh’s quartet perform them late in it. The third movement, nominally a Minuet, is on commissions from the United States Naval ing, not excluding the Queen of Naples.” In the year at Razumovsky’s new palace. However, of a Romantic sensibility that leaves far behind Academy Band, United States Army Field Band 1788 in Vienna, he married Elizabeth, Countess the Count’s wife took ill that fall and died on the elegance and simple grace of its model. The and Soldiers’ Chorus, Afiara String Quartet, of Thun and sister of Prince Lichnowsky, one of December 23rd, and no music was heard in finale is a whirlwind blend of rondo, sonata, and Webster Trio, Destino Winds, violinist Carla Beethoven’s most devoted patrons. Four years the house during the period of mourning. fugue that demonstrates Beethoven’s mastery Leurs, and other noted ensembles and artists. later, Razumovsky was assigned as Russian am- Schuppanzigh played the Quartets for the first of contrapuntal techniques and incomparable Abigaña wrote, “The String Quartet No. 2 bassador to Vienna, whose sybaritic life style time in February 1807 at some now unknown ability to drive a composition to its seemingly was composed in 2010 for the Afiara Quartet perfectly suited his personality. “Razumovsky site in Vienna, and several months later repeated inevitable end. and is dedicated to the memory of Betty Samuel, lived in Vienna on a princely scale,” wrote a con- them at the Razumovsky palace. the mother of Afiara violist David Samuel, who temporary named Schnitzler, “encouraging art The Op. 59 Quartets, though they later be- passed away in 2006. The work is in four move- and science, surrounded by a valuable library came some of Beethoven’s most popular cham- © 2013 Dr. Richard E. Rodda ments, each trying to capture a facet of Betty’s and other collections, and admired or envied by ber works, were greeted at first with some of the personality. The first movement, Psalm, has a all; of what advantage this was to Russian in- strongest antagonism that his music ever excit- very simple, almost un-moving harmonic back- terests is, however, another question.” He was ed. His student Carl Czerny reported, “When ground supporting a wandering vocal-like line also an accomplished violinist who indulged his Schuppanzigh’s quartet first played the F major

24 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 25 ABOUT THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS

with the Common Sense Composers’ Collective in residence at the University of Alberta, and Cecilia String Quartet, performing and re- Edmonton, at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory cording eight new quartet works at the Banff of Music, and as faculty at Chamber Music of Centre. Enjoying a friendly mentorship with the the Rockies, Indiana University Summer String , the Afiara offered affectionate Academy, and Canada’s Southern Ontario tribute at Kronos’s June 2011 Avery Fisher Prize Chamber Music Institute, among other institu- Presentation, playing Aleksandra Vrebalov’s tions. They also provide educational outreach Pannonia Boundless. The Afiara have also per- and make regular appearances at the Banff formed the world premieres of Brett Abigana’s Centre, which generously provides the 1737 String Quartet No. 2, Lockdown by Dan Becker, Guidantus violin played by second violinist and Jason Bush’s Visions in San Francisco—all Yuri Cho. written specifically for them. Among other Formed in 2006, the Afiara String Quartet new music highlights, the Afiara have col- takes its name from the Spanish fiar, meaning laborated with timpanist Louis Siu in a set of “to trust,” a basic element vital to the depth and commissions, and with singer-songwriter Kyrie joy of its music-making.

Rory Earnshaw Kristmanson and composer Patrick Carrabre To learn more, please visit afiara.com. for a world premiere song cycle at the Ottawa The all-Canadian Afiara String Quartet is As the School Fellowship International Chamber Music Festival. widely noted for its engaging, authentic pres- Quartet at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of The Afiara String Quartet has been heard ence and performances balancing “intensity and Music, the Quartet will offer master classes, on Bavarian Radio, CBC Radio 2, TROS in commitment” with “frequent moments of ten- educational outreach, and performances as part the Netherlands, San Francisco’s KALW, and derness” (Montreal Gazette). of their residency. New York’s WQXR, and are featured in the Winner of the 2008 Concert Artists In recent seasons, the Afiara have appeared at Road to Banff documentary. Their debut CD, Guild International Competition, the 2010 Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Chamber on the Foghorn Classics label, features quar- Young Canadian Musicians Award, top priz- Music Society of Lincoln Center with Bruce tets by Mendelssohn and Schubert, as well as es at the Munich ARD International Music Adolphe and Jörg Widmann, the Baryshnikov the Mendelssohn Octet with the Alexander Competition and the Banff International String Arts Center in New York City, ProMusica String Quartet. Quartet Competition, where they also took San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, Chamber In 2011, the Afiara String Quartet complet- the Szekely Prize for best Beethoven interpre- Music Cincinnati, the Washington Performing ed a two-year tenure as graduate resident string tation, the Afiara String Quartet has lively in- Arts Society, San Francisco Performances, quartet at the Juilliard School in New York, terest in new works and fresh insight into core and the Library of Congress. They opened the where they served as teaching assistants to the classical repertoire. Montreal Chamber Music Festival’s six-concert . Prior to that, they were In the 2012–2013 season, the Afiara String Beethoven string quartet cycle, sharing du- the Morrison Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence Quartet opens the season with a series of con- ties with the Tokyo and Chiara quartets. The at San Francisco State University’s International certs at the Indiana Summer Music Festival and Quartet appeared Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Center for the Arts (2007–2009), where the Bay Chamber Concerts in Maine. They travel to Concert Hall in New York City, and joined the members were teaching assistants to their men- Alberta to appear with the Calgary Pro Musica Juilliard String Quartet in a performance of the tor ensemble, the . The Society, as well as concerts in British Columbia Mendelssohn Octet at the Kennedy Center. Afiara players have also worked with musicians with pianist Jane Coop, and to Ontario to per- The Quartet also made its Ravinia de- and ensembles including the American, Cavani, form at the Festival of the Sound, Harbourfront but playing works by Haydn, Beethoven, Emerson, Kronos, St. Lawrence, Takács and Centre, Ottawa Chamber Music Society, and and Dvořák. They returned to residencies at Ying Quartets, Earl Carlyss, James Dunham, Music Niagara. The Quartet tours in Ohio, the Banff Centre and the Indiana University Henk Guittart, Bonnie Hampton, and at the Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, and California, where Summer Music Festival, and appeared in con- San Francisco Conservatory, where they were they appear at Cal Performances and Stanford certs at the Festival of the Sound in Ontario, formed, with Paul Hersh, Mark Sokol, and Lively Arts. In Europe, they will undertake an the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Domaine Ian Swensen. extensive tour of Denmark and Sweden, and Forget, and the Waterside Summer Series. Recognizing the vital importance of mu- make debuts at the Esterházy Foundation in Passionate advocates of new music, the sic education and advocacy, the Afiara String Austria and London’s Wigmore Hall. Afiara String Quartet has embarked on a project Quartet pursues its own teaching work,

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