VIRTUAL FESTIVAL CONCERT #2 - Released July 15, 2020

LudwiG Van Beethoven String Quartet in F Major [Beethoven’s transcription from Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 14 No. 1] Allegro moderato Allegretto Allegro

LudwiG Van Beethoven String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 Allegro Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando Adagio molto e mesto Thème Russe: Allegro

LudwiG Van Beethoven String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge Op. 133 Adagio ma non troppo—Allegro Presto Andante con moto, ma non troppo—Poco scherzoso Alla danza tedesca. Allegro assai Cavatina. Adagio molto espressivo Grosse Fuge: Overture. Allegro—Meno mosso e moderato—Allegretto—Fuga. [Allegro]—Meno mosso e moderato—Allegro molto e con brio—Allegro Ehnes Quartet: James Ehnes violin / Amy Schwartz Moretti violin / Richard O’Neill viola / Edward Arron cello

Concert was originally scheduled for July 8, 2020 LudwiG Van Beethoven mid-movement Trio in the major is propelled by (1770–1827) several fragments before launching rapid-fire and String Quartet in F Major [Beethoven’s energetic passagework. transcription from Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 14 No. 1] (1801) The closing Allegro opens in a more felicitous mood SCMS premiere with energetic descending thematic fragments, eventually birthing a contrasting series of rising Transcriptions by Beethoven of his own music are not scales. The violin leads the ensemble with exuberant unknown. One occasionally hears his Violin Concerto passion throughout the movement, including a brief cast as a Piano Concerto in the original key of D excursion into the minor before ending abruptly on a Major. Other than providing a new first movement single chord. cadenza, the composer did not fill out implied harmonies or add freshly minted music. It was, dare we say so, simply a means of adding to his coffers LudwiG Van Beethoven with minimal effort. String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 (1805) Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2014 Beethoven put significantly more effort into his transcription of the Op. 14, No. 1 in E Major as a Six years after completing his set of Op. 18 string String Quartet. He used the same opus number quartets, Beethoven’s life became increasingly but recast the piece in F Major, a more cordial key fraught. He had become painfully aware of his for string players, and especially for cellists. He increasing deafness, had considered and rejected had composed the original Piano Sonata in 1798; suicide, and decided to express his struggle to three years later he put the finished touches on the overcome adversity through his music. The “Eroica” chamber music version. No less than the eminent Symphony, his sole opera Fidelio, and Fourth Piano British musicologist Sir Donald Francis Tovey noted Concerto were birthed during that period and that the transcription is “one of the most interesting spoke to increasing conceptual boldness and poetic documents of Beethoven’s art…There is hardly a bar response to challenge. of the quartet version that does not shed some light on the nature of the pianoforte, of quartet-writing, In 1805, the Russian ambassador to the Imperial and of the general structure of music…he takes one Court in Vienna, Count Andreas Rasumovsky, of his smallest sonatas and shows that hardly a bar commissioned the Op. 59 quartets for performance of pianoforte music can be turned into good quartet- in a lavish palace being built for him in Vienna. He writing without quantities of new material besides wanted Beethoven to incorporate Russian themes in drastic transformation of the old.” all three works but the composer obliged only in the finale of No. 1 and in the scherzo of No. 2. The Allegro moderato opens with an airy violin tune accompanied by the others. In less than half- Compared to the positive response accorded the a-minute Beethoven detours into the minor mode, Op. 18 set, the Op. 59 pieces received especially positing a rising chromatic theme before taking us harsh criticism. Beethoven’s friend and colleague back into the major, both of which are repeated. A bit Carl Czerny reported that “When [first violinist] of inner musing appears in the development section. Schuppanzigh first played the quartet in F, they The movement closes calmly. laughed and were convinced Beethoven was playing a joke and that it was not the quartet that had been With a bit of minor-key implied anxiety, the following promised.” And when violinist Felix Radicati said to Allegretto seems to move into darker climes until a the composer “Surely you do not consider this music,” sweeter countertheme lightens the mood, though Beethoven famously replied, “Not for you but for a hints of the initial section come to the surface. The later age.”

summer festival // The first Op. 59 Quartet conveys a symphonic For the Thème Russe: Allegro finale Beethoven used breadth quite startling by 18th-century norms. A a slow minor-key theme from a collection of Russian noble, even serene theme opens the Allegro first folksongs, greatly altering it by putting it in the major movement. The cello starts the expansive melody and essentially doubling the pace. The dancelike in its low register before passing it to the first violin rhythm of this tune is soon followed by a subsidiary while the remaining two strings urge the music theme courtesy of the second violin. Perhaps to forward with quick repeated chords. A second theme, accommodate the Count’s request, the theme is lyrical and less animated, complements the initial heard late in the movement in its original Adagio ma motive. More themes tumble into the rich structure non troppo tempo, over sweetly flowing harmonies. before the beginning of the extensive development Being a last movement, however, a brilliant flourish that houses a brilliant fugal middle section. It is a brings the quartet to a bold close. mark of Beethoven’s genius that the many variants on the opening theme maintain their individuality. Episodes that lie on the cusp of Romantic-era LudwiG Van Beethoven lyricism are played off against other sections that String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with anticipate the spare and experimental nature of the Grosse Fuge Op. 133 (1825) late quartets. Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2000

Moving to the subdominant key of B-flat, the cello Many of Beethoven’s early works confounded his by itself initiates the Allegretto vivace e sempre contemporaries, be they musicians or concertgoers. scherzando with a long, quirky theme consisted of a single tone played staccato 15 times before Beethoven’s late quartets challenged and addled being answered by an equally odd arpeggiated tune performers and sophisticated music-lovers far into from the second violin. A goodly dose of humor the future. Tchaikovsky was not alone in thinking and parody informs this scherzo-like movement these far-reaching works were the product of an that boasts two trios. Dance-like themes alternate unhinged mind. A graduate student in musicology at with lyrical asides, all the while making room for UC Berkeley in the 1960s misidentified the Grosse unexpected stops and starts. No doubt Beethoven’s fuge as “probably by Bartók.” A prominent quartet contemporaries would have been puzzled by such member told this writer that he was a student at the “tomfoolery.” Berkeley campus and said the anecdote was factual.

All vestiges of off-kilter humor are swept aside in Late in life, Beethoven was increasingly interested in the Adagio molto e mesto in F minor. In Beethoven’s polyphony; the string quartet was the ideal medium sketches for the piece he noted “A weeping willow in which to expound on musical ideas contrapuntally. or acacia tree upon my brother’s grave,” a reference As a child Beethoven had been tutored by Christian- to the memory of his first brother Ludwig who Gottlob Neefe, musical director of the national died in infancy, or as some have opined, a veiled theater in Bonn and a pedagogue with strong ties disapproving comment on his brother Casper Carl’s to the Baroque style of J.S. Bach. Before reaching marriage to Johanna Reiss, whom Beethoven adolescence, Beethoven had already memorized horribly maltreated following her husband’s death. the two sets of preludes and fugues known as the The prevailing mood is especially despairing, even Well-tempered Claiver, which helped shape his hopeless. Haunting melodies encounter harsh contrapuntal thinking. In 1783, when Beethoven was dissonances, adding anger to pathos. Two themes 12 years of age, Neefe wrote of his student, “This fashioned by widely separated intervals provide the young genius deserves to be supported in his artistic material for the movement, which ends with a series endeavors. If he continues in the same manner he of brilliant runs by the first violin. started, he is sure to become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” Prophetic words, to be sure.

july 15, 2020 // program notes Beethoven completed the Op. 130 Quartet in 1825, music that has preceded it. It is also another veritable a year after the premiere of the Ninth Symphony and scherzo, this time with two contrasting Trios. Higher two years before his death. The Quartet received its energy and linear independence offers contrast; the premiere on March 21, 1826 by the Schuppanzigh second Trio varies the movement’s primary theme, Quartet. The date—March 21—was J.S. Bach’s creating a sense of near ecstasy. birthday, an apt coincidence given the new piece’s contrapuntal complexities. The slow and rapturously beautiful Cavatina that follows is known to have meant a great deal to A slow introduction marked Adagio, unmistakably the composer. Here is music that is heartfelt yet serious in its descending theme in the lower strings, utterly free of mere sentimentality. The music soon yields to a rapid Allegro whose impulsively herein suggests a journey from anguish to forward motion is enhanced by a rising figure profound resignation, all of which may well reflect played in contrapuntal mode. Hairpin turns in the the emotional difficulties attending Beethoven’s musical flow heighten the drama. A second and troublesome (self-induced, sadly) venture dealing comparatively reserved theme enters courtesy of the with his nephew Karl. A spare and forlorn theme cello. The central development continues a process heard well into the movement evokes grief. of re-fashioning already underway in the exposition of the Allegro. Fragments from the Adagio re-appear Because of the sheer titanic size of the original finale, in a coda appended to the busy recapitulation. the Grosse fuge, Beethoven eventually replaced the concluding movement with a less demanding Beginning in duple meter, the brief Presto serves as paragraph that seems to hearken back to his the Scherzo, cast in B-flat minor. A change of meter erstwhile mentor Joseph Haydn. In recent times to 6/4 and a move to the major takes place in the string quartets have tended to restore the Grosse energetic mid-movement Trio. The Presto section is fuge to its original place. The movement opens twice interrupted by a demonic descending scale. with a striking, rhythmically dotted passage marked Overture in which the main theme is stridently The third movement, Andante con moto, ma non announced in octaves. Three variants of this futuristic troppo—Poco scherzoso—is introduced by a theme theme follow and serve as the basis for the fugal from the viola. Textural changes abound, often sections upon which they are eventually based. highlighted by quietly articulated pizzicato passages. Brilliant counterpoint is frequently offset by startling Episodes of beguiling lyricism alternate with forceful unison passages that create extraordinary musical counter-statements. and emotional tension, both of which add to the Grosse fuge’s seeming modernity. At the end of this Marked Alla danza tedesca, the fourth movement epic movement Beethoven reprises material from the is, as its title states, a German dance of delectable Overture. charm that provides a breather from the often hectic

Program Notes by Steven Lowe

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