Monday 26 July, St Mary’s Church 7.30pm – 9.40pm

Emma Johnson and Friends Simon Blendis (violin), Raphael Wallfisch (cello) and Martin Roscoe (piano)

Variations on ‘La Ci Darem La Mano’ from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, WoO 28 (1770-1827)

Rearranging popular melodies for different instrumental groupings was every composer’s bread and butter during the late 18th century. Operatic tunes were a particular favourite amongst arrangers and would have been written to fulfil the demands of an expanding amateur market and cultivated nobility wishing to satisfy social obligations with musical entertainment for honoured guests. It is within this social fabric that Beethoven’s standalone variations belong, and include operatic excavations from Handel, Paisiello, Salieri and this set of variations on the seductive duet ‘La ci darem la mano’ from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Originally scored for two oboes and cor anglais, the eight variations were first heard in December 1797. Evident throughout is the wealth of Beethoven’s resourcefulness, whether richly imitative, athletic or chromatic, and above all keeping to the spirit of Mozart’s original conception.

Sonatensatz Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Belonging to September 1853, this brief Sonata movement began life as a singular contribution by the twenty-year-old Brahms to a collaborative violin sonata in four movements. It was intended as a gift for the violinist Joseph Joachim and written at the Düsseldorf home of . His pupil Albert Dietrich would later recall ‘we were expecting a visit from Joachim, and Schumann suggested we should compose a sonata together. The first was allocated to myself, the Intermezzo and finale to Schumann and the Scherzo to Brahms’.

The thematic outlines of the entire work are based on Joachim’s personal motto Frei aber einsam (free but alone) from which Schumann and Dietrich both make prominent use of the notes F A E. Brahms, ever the individual, modified the idea and reshaped the melodic contours to suit his own insignia F A F Frei aber froh (free but happy). Although his Scherzo represents a first foray into writing for violin and piano, its maturity is self-evident, as is its impetuous and poetic character.

Clarinet Trio in B flat major, Op.11 Ludwig van Beethoven

1 Allegro con brio, 2 Adagio, 3 Theme and Variations on 'Pria ch'io l'impegno'

Beethoven’s Op. 11 Trio was written in 1797 for the rare combination of clarinet, cello and piano, and believed to have been intended for the noted clarinettist Joseph Beer. If Beethoven didn’t quite divine the spirit of the clarinet with the instinct of Mozart, the Trio reveals Beethoven’s distinctive voice, now confident and on the threshold of maturity.

The work begins with an assertive unison statement prior to a more genteel character where the initial semitonal intervals are exploited and playfully tossed around. A surprising harmonic turn introduces a graceful new idea that together forms the chief material for this vivacious movement. A deeply felt ‘Adagio’ in E flat is followed by one of Beethoven’s most inventive sets of

variations based on the operatic aria 'Pria ch'io l'impegno' (‘Before I go to work’), a popular tune from Joseph Weigl’s recent comedy L’amor marinaro (‘Love at sea’). In nine variations, the composer reveals a striking resourcefulness and innate understanding of each instrument’s potential.

Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) (1908-1992)

1) Liturgie de cristal (Crystal liturgy) 2) Vocalise, pour l’ange qui announce la fin du temps (Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of Time) 3) Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the Birds) 4) Intermède (Interlude) 5) Louange à l’éternitié de Jésus (Praise to the eternity of Jesus) 6) Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes (Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets) 7) Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’ange qui announce la fin du temps (Cluster of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time) 8) Louange à l’immortalité de Jésus (Praise to the immortality of Jesus)

The Quatuor pour la fin du temps is a remarkable example of a work inspired by exceptional circumstances that combines an exceptional technical rigour with a highly personal religious commitment. Scored for clarinet, violin, cello and piano and written during his war-time imprisonment at Stalag VIIIA in Silesia, the work was premièred in January 1941 to a bewildered collection of allied prisoners and German guards. Of that occasion Messiaen is supposed to have said, ‘Never have I been heard with as much attention and understanding’.

It is a sequence of spiritual meditations based on a passage from the Revelation of St John, where the angel of the apocalypse proclaims ‘there shall be time no longer’. Time is conceived to represent both eternity and musical time, the latter transformed by Messiaen’s idiosyncratic harmonic language and its rhythmic irregularities that both confound and compel. He comments ‘Certain modes … draw the listener into a sense of the eternity of space or time. Particular rhythms existing outside the measure contribute toward the banishment of temporalities’.

His keen ear for birdsong is evident in ‘Crystal liturgy’ where chirruping clarinet and violin ideas are held in balance by a discreet cello motif and floating chord progressions. A more forceful manner, evoking the power of the mighty angel, occupies the next meditation where a slow central panel provides an angelic song in sustained unison phrases from violin and cello. Metre is suspended in the hypnotic clarinet solo that is ‘Abyss of the Birds’, while cello, clarinet and violin indulge in a playful dialogue in ‘Interlude’. A rapt aria for cello and piano provides an extended paean to the majesty of the Almighty in ‘Praise to the eternity of Jesus’, its contemplation swept aside for the muscular rhythms of the ‘Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets’, in which Messiaen wished to create ‘music of stone…irresistible as steel’. Abrupt contrasts shape the eight-section ‘Cluster of rainbows’ movement, supposedly derived from his prison dreams. In reshaping the fifth movement, Messiaen closes with an ecstatic meditation, violin and piano now glorifying Jesus in an expansive paradise-seeking journey – its celestial ‘escape’ surely music of infinite consolation to earthbound prisoners of war.

Generously sponsored by John & Belinda Horley, Sue Marsh, Anthea Martin-Jenkins, Bryan Scholey and two anonymous donors