Eli and Edythe Broad Stage Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center Jane Deknatel, Director, Performing Arts Center

2017/18 The Broad Stage Artists-in-Residence Calder Quartet

SUN / MAR 11 / 4:00 PM

Benjamin Jacobson, violin Andrew Bulbrook, violin Jonathan Moerschel, viola Eric Byers, cello

PROGRAM NOTES

Please reserve your applause until the end of each entire work. PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) No. 10, Op. 74 Poco Adagio. Allegro Adagio ma non troppo Presto Allegretto con variazioni

Anton Webern (1883-1945) 5 Movements, Op. 5 Heftig Bewegt Sehr Langsam Sehr Lebhaft Sehr Langsam In Zarter Bewegung

Intermission

Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 16, Op. 135 Allegretto Vivace Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo Grave, ma non troppo tratto – Allegro

The following notes are copyright Kai Christiansen and earsense.org, the exploratorium, 2018. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) String Quartet No. 10, Op. 74, “Harp” (1809)

i. Poco Adagio. Allegro ii. Adagio ma non troppo iii. Presto iv. Allegretto con variazioni

It feels that Beethoven’s “Harp” quartet is somehow overlooked. A definite “middle period” work, it is followed quickly by the more innovative “Serioso” and then the late quartets, and it is preceded by the more landmark “Razumovsky” quartets of just a few years earlier. Even the earliest Op. 18 quartets appear more frequently on concert stages. Yet Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major is a glorious work: full, rich and befitting the middle period character known as “Eroica.” Bountiful, beneficent, lavish and even sensuous, the “Harp” even features a dash of impressionistic pointillism with the first movement’s elegant pizzicato sections giving rise to the quartet’s historical nickname. Each of the four movements is a uniquely shaped touchstone of the multi-movement form types and there is an overarching vector of momentum that joins these movements into a miraculous unity of purpose, design and expression. With its prevailing vitality, heart, invention and accessibility, one is almost tempted to call this Beethoven’s most “perfect” quartet. And yet, it is devilish to play.

i. Poco Adagio. Allegro

The opening movement displays all of Beethoven’s artistic elaborations. For its long and dramatic introduction, it might be called Beethoven’s own “Dissonance” quartet. The main thematic materials are among his most mellifluous with long lines of counterpoint and dialog sharply contrasted with the harp-like pizzicato and Beethoven’s thunderous interruptions. The development section flows organically from the preceding materials and launches the music into a flight of heroic triumph that matches so much of Beethoven’s music from this period. And just as organically, a long rapturous coda evokes both and violin concerto as a stunning movement artfully plays out its tremendous potential energy. ii. Adagio ma non troppo

The slow movement showcases Beethoven’s unearthly sober sweetness as a humble tune somehow becomes a spiritual peak. The form is lovely with another direct pointer to Mozart: a hybrid of rondo, sonata and variations that would reappear in the late quartets with such magisterial mystery. A beautiful song verse repeats with ever elaborated counterpoint and dialog between contrasting episodes of poignant despair making a kind of single braid that holds both in perfect balance. iii. Presto

The Scherzo is brusque, sharp, muscular, stabbing. The tremendous momentum suggests a tarantella, a leaping gypsy dance, perhaps even something Russian. This is characteristic and crucial Beethoven that escalates with the trio as simple scale motives combine in staggering counterpoint to forge mountains of music thrusting upward with tectonic force. The sheer bounding inertia requires Beethoven (and the players) to apply the brakes quite skillfully to manage a nearly miraculous seamless segue into the finale. iv. Allegretto con variazioni

While we might lament the absence of a fugue in such an elegant and satisfying quartet thus far, Beethoven opts for high Viennese hijinks to conclude the work, giving us something even better: a fine set of variations, yet another form in which Beethoven bulldozed the erstwhile classical style with his unbridled creative volcanism. It was George Bernard Shaw who remarked that Beethoven could make interesting music from bare sticks of themes and this may be one of the best examples. The series of variations can aptly be compared with the finest of Jazz solo pianists in that each new “chorus” is a miracle of invention and a transformation of mood and character. The theme is a full two-part binary form, a detail that can greatly guide your listening: the “second half” of each variation is where development and ingenuity accelerate every time. But the finest detail lies in Beethoven’s management of the overall shape of the movement. A handful of nearly manic, compressed final variations organically create a coda of perfectly conclusive effect. What’s not to love about the elusive “Harp” quartet?

Anton Webern (1883-1945) 5 Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5 (1909)

i. Heftig Bewegt ii. Sehr Langsam iii. Sehr Lebhaft iv. Sehr Langsam v. In Zarter Bewegung

100 years after Beethoven’s “Harp” quartet, as the hallowed history of the string quartet reached its 150 year anniversary, the few years of 1908-1909 witnessed the beginnings of a tectonic shift in the genre and, indeed, classical music in general. , the founding father of the radical Second Viennese School, completed his infamous second string quartet in 1908 and self-published it the following year. The first bold innovation was adding a human soprano to sing song texts in the third and fourth movements. The second more radical departure was Schoenberg’s abandonment of tonality in the finale, the first important instance of atonal music for string quartet. Significantly, the text from a poem by Stefan George begins “I feel the air of a new planet.” The premiere caused a scandal.

1909 also witnessed Anton Webern, having finished his formal studies with Schoenberg, composing his first string quartet with an official opus number, Fünf Sätze (Five Movements), Op. 5. Comprising five very short movements, also completely atonal and bristling with strange sounds from extended playing techniques, Webern's string quartet is arguably even more radical though arising from a shared sensibility. Schoenberg had a number of students but Anton Webern and would become his most important. Over time, the three (with their intimately interrelated lives) would move from “free” atonality into a new systematic method of using all 12 tones eventually known as dodecaphony or “12 Tone Technique,” ultimately generalized by later composers into what is commonly called “serialism.” In the post-WWII avant-garde, atonal serialism would widely become the new musical lingua franca featuring Schoenberg as the inventor and the music of Webern as its most perfect realization. In a tragic irony, Webern was accidentally and fatally shot by an Allied soldier after the war had already ended. He didn't live long enough to appreciate the immeasurable impact he would leave during the second half of the 20th Century.

Though the total duration of Webern's complete music for string quartet lasts under one hour, it contains a musical evolution no less profound than the quartet cycles of Bartók or Beethoven. Webern's earliest piece is the Langsamer Satz (slow movement) of 1905, an exquisite paean to the late Romantic style. His final String Quartet, Op. 28 of 1938 is mature example of 12-tone technique widely regarded as an exemplar. Between these extremes lay the famous examples of Webern's concisely “aphoristic” style with the Five Movements of 1909 and the Six Bagatelles of 1913. Webern's complete string quartet oeuvre comprising a single CD's worth of music is among the most dense and storied throughout the literature.

While a live listening experience of the Five Movements is undoubtedly vivid and provocatively expressive, it is immensely difficult to summarize or describe the music in words. It is potentially helpful, nonetheless, to have some observations. Together, the five movements last approximately eleven minutes with the movements themselves ranging between four minutes and forty-five seconds. Webern makes effective contrast across the movements with a general scheme of: fast-slow-fast-slow-moderate. The first movement is, per Webern's directive, “violently animated” and it is the most dynamic and colorful. Here is a showcase of rapid change, contrast and musical density, all traits of Webern's music in general. The music employs an extreme range of dynamics (from very soft to very loud) and a wide array of techniques for a dazzling maximum diversity of timbre including , pizzicato, con legno (using the wood of the bow), harmonics and bowing near the bridge (sur ponticello) for a glassy or gruff sound. The second movement stands in great contrast to the first: with mutes on the strings, the music is slow and atmospheric using a relative minimum of techniques for a much more smooth, homogenous sound. The central third movement is the shortest and liveliest, tending towards a scherzo feel. Sharp and crisp it ends with a definitive gesture from the strings in unison and pointed punctuation. The fourth dons the mutes and the slow tempo again for more ineffable atmosphere especially featuring the bowing-near-the-bridge luminosity. Central to this “slow movement” are the soft dynamics and the expressive use of silence for music that is at times a delicate whisper. The final movement is the longest with Webern's directive “tender animation.” First the cello then later the violin stand out as lonely soloists supported by harmonic clouds from the remaining players. Perhaps suggesting a languid vocal duet, the music is nonetheless sparse, isolated and otherworldly.

Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 16, Op. 135 (1826)

i. Allegretto ii. Vivace iii. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo iv. Grave, ma non troppo tratto – Allegro

The String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135 is Beethoven’s last string quartet as well as his last complete opus in any genre. He finished it in October of 1826, not many months before taking his last breath in March of 1827. It is the final work of the greatest cycle of string quartets in history that began with six worthy successors to Haydn and Mozart (Op. 18), exploded with the three magnificent quartets for Count Razumovsky (Op. 59), effused into the dazzling richness of Op. 74 (“Harp”), smoldered with the cryptic severity of Op. 95 (“Serioso”), blossomed into transcendent expansion with the first four late quartets and broached the utterly modern with the Grosse Fugue. As he began writing the Op. 135 quartet, Beethoven knew it would be his last: he was very conscious of the moment in his life if not the moment in the history of the world. How did Beethoven conclude this epic series?

Particularly after the astonishing previous four late quartets, many find Op. 135 to be more conventional, classical, complacent and even accommodating. With only four movements in a rather standard manner and the total duration of his earliest Op. 18 quartets, some find the quartet to be a relaxation, a cooling down for Beethoven following his most recent monumental achievements. What generally arouses the most excitement is the finale with its famous inscription, “The difficult decision” along with the historical speculation about the scripted dialog that accompanies the finale’s two chief motives.

This kind but almost dismissive regard for Op. 135 misses the mark. Rather than a return to convention, Op. 135 is a distillation. It is not a cooling off but a stronger alloy from an even hotter crucible, a work of new refinement. As T.S. Eliot would write in his Four Quartets inspired by Beethoven’s late chamber music, it is “to return to the beginning and recognize the place for the first time…a condition of complete simplicity costing not less than everything.” Though evoking the form and style of the earlier Classical string quartet, Beethoven filled it with the blended contents of his entire career as if to say “Here is the first string quartet I would have written had I only known then everything that I know now.” Or perhaps he was saying this is how it had always been. It is indeed a return to the fresh, robust vigor of Beethoven the eternally young, but it is saturated with the music of Beethoven the wise, old master. Its scale is not small but epigrammatic, an epic within an essay. i. Allegretto

The opening Allegretto (already, an apparent move to gracious moderation) is the first clear case of new refinement. It is a classical sonata constructed from several motives that are extremely terse yet full of musical personality and assembled into a mosaic, a composite sequence of significant complexity. As the music develops, the motives start moving about from instrument to instrument and combining together as counterpoints. The development interjects the perpetual motion of a march and the motives begin to dance. The entire fabric of the movement varies between swatches of homophonous lyricism and a lattice of counterpoint. It almost seems as if Beethoven has turned a sonata into a triple fugue (or the other way around). The new refinement finds Beethoven fully consummating the hybrid texture of Haydn and Mozart’s Viennese Classicism— the gallant and the learned—with a synthesis that is distinctly neither yet completely both. ii. Vivace

The second movement Vivace is a muscular scherzo that recalls Beethoven’s great verve for orchestral string writing (especially the 7th Symphony) crowned by the brilliant voice of the solo violin recalling either the or the concerto. The majority of the music is forged by splitting the quartet into halves with the keening violins together on top and the bold foundation of the lower strings in tandem underneath. But the gestures and the motion are fleet and agile, leaping gazelles racing across the vast expanse. The husky fiddle rasps out a sprightly dance while the strings bubble then burst into a rolling boil. A moment of classic Beethoven deconstruction throttles all momentum through a decrescendo and a breakdown into elemental particles before the scherzo resumes and finishes with a vigorous javelin thrust into the unforeseen future. iii. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo

The Lento sings a simple, sacred song confirming (yet again) that, in the sentiments of musicologist Michael Steinberg, Beethoven was the greatest author of adagios in the entire Western tradition. The longest movement in the quartet, it immediately recalls both the Cavatina and the “Song of the Thanksgiving” of the previous late quartets. Stark, hymn-like, humble and deep, it will slowly and perfectly break your heart. At its center lies the enigmatically dark and primordial brooding with a sharp stab of tragedy that, through its craggy mystery, seems to suggest that we are eavesdropping on Beethoven’s most private ruminations. But then there is light, as the old wheezing hymn rises again, a supplication of aching beauty with cello as new lead, joined in canon by a violin who then sings a final, tender lullaby as one by one, the stars disappear. iv. Grave, ma non troppo tratto – Allegro

And now comes the finale. Melvin Berger relays that Beethoven sent this touching note to the publisher along with the final manuscript for Op. 135:

“Here, my dear friend, is my last quartet. It will be the last; and indeed it has given me much trouble. For I could not bring myself to compose the last movement. But as your letters were reminding me of it, in the end I decided to compose it. And that is the reason why I have written the motto: ‘The difficult decision — Must it be? — It must be, it must be!’”

There are alternate possible sources and numerous interpretations of that final motto ranging from prosaic to profound, from the mundane to the philosophical and spiritual. What is certain is that the words describe the essence of the music. It begins with a slow introduction, a grave, stormy three-note motive that musically raises a question (must it be?). The extended, fragmented and dire query also features a three-note “knock on the door” that looks inevitably backward to the 5th symphony and forward to Shostakovich’s 8th quartet. The Allegro answers the question by inverting the three-note motive into a musically affirmative statement (it must be!), a burst of joyful vigor that is joined by mellifluous sequences and a child-like song of direct, open-heartedness, both of which recall similar epiphanies in the earlier late quartets. Contrapuntal stretches froth the ambrosia into Elysium just before the dire question rears again in disruptive panic, an arrow stunning the heart. The strong, bright affirmation restores peace and energy once more, refines into dainty, courtly pizzicato then swells into a final flush of resolute vigor. It must be. And so it was.

Actually, it was not to be, ultimately. Beethoven wrote one more “last movement” (his truly final music) thereby sparing the Op. 135 finale from actually being the last movement he could not write. Again, classic Beethoven: he would always end a storm with a smile, a tragedy with a wink. The last, last movement (a replacement finale for the Op. 130 after the Grosse Fugue was extracted) truly completes this tale of Beethoven’s final refinement. After all, where is the final fugue? It’s there, mustn’t it be? It must be. And so it is.

UP NEXT

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Sunday, APR 15, 2018

3:00 p.m. Pre-Show Reception 4:00 p.m. Performance

Beethoven, Bubbly & Ball Gowns celebrates our popular Beethoven, Bagels & Banter series on a Sunday afternoon in The Broad Stage's East Wing Music Hall with curator Robert Davidovici and a stellar lineup of chamber musicians.

Barbara Herman, Honorary Chair

PROGRAM

Ilya Itin, piano

Katerina Englichova, harp

Robert Davidovici, violin

Antonio Lysy, cello

Debussy: Danse sacrée et danse profane Bruch: Kol Nidre for cello and harp Ravel: Dvořák: in F minor, Op. 65

Calder Quartet

Sunday, APR 29, 2018 at 4:00 p.m.

Our artists-in-residence conclude their multiyear Beethoven String Quartet cycle with the final of three programs offering a stellar blend of classical and modern pieces.

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The Calder Quartet residency at The Broad Stage has been made possible in part by a generous grant from the Colburn Foundation.