46Th SEASON PROGRAM NOTES Week 4 August 5 – 11, 2018
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th SEASON PROGRAM NOTES 46 Week 4 August 5 – 11, 2018 Sunday, August 5, 6 pm K. 496, a lovely tempo di minuetto, and the its rhythm—heard almost continuously in Monday, August 6, 6 pm third is an extraordinary opening allegro the piano—unifies the entire movement; the in D Major from 1788 or 1789. K. 564 gentle second subject, announced by the Please note: Program on Monday, August 6 is expands the role of the cello a good deal, viola and marked espressivo, gracefully sets the same as Sunday, August 5. The program looking toward the unfinished D-Major trio off the energy of the opening episode. In the order is Walton, Mozart, and Fauré. movement. K. 564 is a sunny and affable development Fauré brings back the opening piece, perfect for after-dinner music- theme, now slowed down and played WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART making.” gently, and the wonder is that a theme (1756 – 1791) The opening movement of this last which moments before had moved forward Piano Trio No. 6 in G Major, K. 564 (1788) completed trio is virtually monothematic— martially can be so transformed and made to until the development, when an entirely sing lyrically. In the coda this opening theme We are easily spoiled by genius; no new theme provides the basis for the central recurs quietly in the viola as the movement sooner are we awed by some unexpected section. Mozart indulges in a technique that draws to its calm conclusion. magnificence than we find ourselves Beethoven would eventually use to powerful Fauré reverses the expected order of the rejecting the next offering. Beethoven gave effect, that of a “false” recapitulation: what interior movements and places the scherzo, the world his Symphony No. 7—and the feels like the start of the recap instead marked Allegro vivo, second. The piano’s critics carped that No. 8 was no worthy launches into further development. opening idea rocks along cheerfully above successor. Tchaikovsky is celebrated for The Andante is a theme with six variations, pizzicato accompaniment in the strings; his Piano Concerto No. 1, but how few the fifth of which is a haunting excursion alert listeners will recognize it as a variant champion No. 2. Puccini unveils Madama into a minor key. The finale is a perky rondo, of the espressivo second theme of the first Butterfly, and we want…well, not The Girl of with a first episode featuring a theme in movement. The scherzo reaches a cadence, the Golden West. G Minor (retaining the siciliano rhythm of and then, in another pleasing surprise, Fauré Thus we find, after the sublime K. 542 the main melody). After the return of the replaces the expected trio section with a and “Jupiter-esque” K. 548, that the last of rondo theme, a C-Major episode offers a graceful chorale for muted strings. Mozart’s piano trios, K. 564, is frequently different take on a dance-like propulsion in Because of their many similarities, the dismissed as “rather childlike,” with “less a quasi-folk style. The conclusion is all but a final two movements should be considered than inspirational themes,” and “conceived free-for-all, with all three players indulging together. The Adagio is built on the brief as a piano sonata,” with the strings playing in overlapping entrances of thematic motifs. dotted phrase first heard in the cello: a decidedly subservient role. But annotator —Greg Hettmansberger this rising figure will unify the final two Robert Philip argues for a different movements. The lyric second episode, perspective: “Mozart gives the impression of GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845 – 1924) introduced by the violin, contains the having put every note in precisely the right Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 15 (1879) same rhythm, and the opening theme of place…And if one imagines eavesdropping the finale—Allegro molto—rushes along on friends playing at home, rather than Fauré wrote the Piano Quartet in C Minor, on this same rising, dotted theme-shape. the formality of concert presentation, one of the masterpieces of his early period, The energetic finale seems to be in motion this elegant and charming piece seems between 1876 and 1879 when he was in throughout. Even when the viola sings the completely in its element.” his early 30s. Despite the work’s success, second theme, marked dolce ed espressivo, Robert Levin, with his usual fine-toothed- the composer was dissatisfied with the this graceful melody assumes the rising comb scholarship, not only points out that final movement and rewrote it in 1883, shape that characterizes the final two the cello is given more prominence in making it—as he said—“new from top to movements. It is a measure of Fauré’s K. 564, but there is evidence that Mozart toe.” In its completed form, the Quartet achievement in this music that so simple a had at least one more piano trio up his is an extraordinary achievement, both for figure can be made to yield such a range of sleeve. “In addition to the canonical trios, the range of its expression and for Fauré’s expression. Buoyed along by its inexhaustible there are significant drafts for three more imaginative craftsmanship. energy, the Quartet rushes to its close. movements, all fragments that Maximilian The Allegro molto moderato opens Given this music’s popularity today, it Stadler grouped into the so-called Piano with a sturdy theme in the strings with comes as a surprise to learn that Fauré had Trio in D Minor, K. 442. Its first movement is off-the-beat accompaniment from the a great deal of trouble getting it published. a D-Minor opening allegro from 1785, the piano. The vigor and drive of this opening No publisher wanted to take a chance on second movement is the original finale to continue throughout the movement, and a little-known composer. The Quartet was Program notes for Music at Noon Concerts are sponsored by Barbara & Ronald Balser with thanks to the gifted Festival musicians who inspire us all. rejected by two of France’s major publishing in a program note for a 1954 recording: “… time races into something very much akin firms and was accepted by a third only on they are abstract poems—that is, they are to a Gilbert and Sullivan “patter song.” In the condition that the composer surrender patterns in sound; they are, too, in many many numbers, Walton takes an obvious clue all his rights to it. Desperate to have his work cases, virtuoso exercises in poetry (of an from the verses for his musical backdrop, published, Fauré could do nothing but extreme difficulty)—in the same sense such as in Tango-Pasodoblé and Jodelling accept those terms. He never made a penny as certain studies of Liszt are studies in Song. There are spots where one can glean on this music. transcendental technique in music.” an influence of Stravinsky, but also clear —Eric Bromberger Her brothers quickly encouraged her references to English music hall, not to to collaborate with Walton, believing the mention the generally chaotic energy of the WILLIAM WALTON (1902 – 1983) poems perfect for a kind of whimsical soirée. Roaring Twenties as a whole. Façade: An Entertainment (1923;1942) Walton took a little convincing, but when Learning about premieres such as Façade, he began his pen flew: for most of his life one sometimes longs for that elusive time Few works have announced a young talent he had the reputation of an agonizingly machine to see what it felt like at that with as much lightning-bolt suddenness slow composer, but Façade was completed moment. But we should be thankful that as the first public performance ofFaçade — essentially within three weeks. we have at our disposal so many wonderful or proved as unreliable in foretelling the The first performance was a private one recordings where we can both savor and direction and reputation of the composer in for about 20 suitably bewildered guests. sift through every delicious syllable and later years. For that matter, Façade is one of The public premiere was June 12, 1923, instrumental gesture—and when we hear it the truest collaborations between poet and and flabbergasted audiences and critics live, the Sengerphone is dispensed with, and composer from any period of art; without to the hilt. In retrospect, one does wonder we can follow the kaleidoscopic texts as discounting Edith Sitwell’s overall reputation, how much was lost in the translation, so we listen! it is safe to say that the majority of the to speak. In an attempt to de-personalize —Greg Hettmansberger poems incorporated by Walton wouldn’t the verse, Edith Sitwell declaimed the amount to much on their own, and his music texts from behind a curtain and through a is often part and parcel of Sitwell’s visual megaphone—and not just any megaphone and rhythmic verse. (which would distort the subtleties of the Walton was only 19 years old when the words in any case), but a Sengerphone, brief but combustible collaboration began a device developed by a singer who had with Edith Sitwell, and there was scarcely portrayed the role of the dragon Fafner of a clue in his background as to what he Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen fame was about to achieve. The son of a singing at Bayreuth. teacher/organist father and a mother who Walton conducted the six players and had been a singer, his early talent for voice Sitwell. Her verse was carefully notated led him to a position as probationer chorister rhythmically but without definite (a chorister-in-training) at Christ Church pitch.