Calder Quartet PROGRAM NOTES

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) String Quartet 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 chamber music 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 sonata 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 sonata form 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 symphony 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. Arnold Schoenberg, 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 Alban Berg would become his most important. Over time, the three composers (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 tempo 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 tremolo, 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.

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