PREVIEW NOTES

Belcea Quartet Friday, October 17– 8:00 PM Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Program Quartet in F Major, K. 590 Quartet in A Minor, D. 804, Rosamunde Born: January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria Born: January 31, 1797 in Vienna, Austria Died: December 5, 1791 in Vienna, Austria Died: November 19, 1828 in Vienna, Austria Composed: 1790 Composed: 1824 Last PCMS performance: Emerson Quartet in 2011 Last PCMS performance: Dryden Quartet in 2014 Duration: 27 minutes Duration: 35 minutes

Mozart's final was to have been the third Sometimes referred to as the Rosamunde Quartet of six the composer intended to dedicate to the cello‐ because of the second movement theme from the playing monarch King Frederick William II of Prussia. An composer's failed stage work of the same name, this A advertisement for these "Prussian" quartets describes Minor work was the only one of Schubert’s string them as "concertante quartets," thus paying due quartets to be published in his lifetime. Ill and miserable recognition to the prominence of their cello parts, which with syphilis, Schubert in 1824 made the acquaintance were obviously designed in deference to the king. of the renowned violinist and quartet leader Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who had just returned from a seven year Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3 visit to Russia. During their times together, Schubert resolved to return to the medium of the string quartet, Born: December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany which he had abjured for several years. The result was Died: March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria this lyrical and introspective work, almost solemn, Composed: 1798‐1800 dedicated to Schuppanzigh and premiered by him on Last PCMS performance: Ysaÿe Quartet in 2012 March 14 of that year. The work opens darkly, with low Duration: 23 minutes quavering in the and a mournful theme by the violin. Although the movement modulates to major keys Dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz, the six and becomes more lively at points, it retreats to the quartets of Op. 18 constitute Beethoven's most pensive and downcast darkness of the opening The ambitious project of his early Vienna years. The quartet “Rosamunde” theme begins the second movement, but in D Major (No. 3) was the first composed. Its opening, here it has been made smaller and more mournful. with nearly all of the motion in the first violin supported Simply spun out, the theme persists until an animated by sustained harmonies, resembles the beginning of outburst in the middle section infuses life into it Haydn's Quartet, Op. 50, No. 6, also in D Major. The first temporarily. It then returns to close out the movement. movement begins with an emphasis on the dominant‐ Even the third movement minuet is not immune to seventh chord, while the second theme group flirts with Schubert's despondency, as here he recalls his own the minor dominant, allowing an unusual excursion into setting of Schiller's The Gods of Greece. Only in the C Major. The rest of the quartet comprises a Allegro Moderato finale does Schubert lift the veil of conventional movement pattern, but the Presto finale is depression. The closing features the composer's a sonata, not a rondo. Although it is not labeled as such, characteristic play of major against minor and arrives at the third movement is a minuet, albeit with some a satisfying conclusion. In its totality, the work unusual, forward‐looking touches. accurately and grimly depicts Schubert's frame of mind as he suffered through the years of his final illness.