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Friday, April 13, 2012, 8pm (1732–1809) with gentleness, or touched sober steadfastness First Congregational Church Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No.4, with vision.” “Sunrise” The six Op. 76 Quartets were written on commission from Count Joseph Erdödy, Composed in 1796–1797. Premiered September 28, scion of the Viennese family who had encour- Quatuor Mosaïques 1797, in Eisenstadt. aged Haydn’s work since at least 1776 and Erich Höbarth, violin whose members became important patrons Andrea Bischof, violin Haydn was universally acknowledged as the of Beethoven after his arrival in the capital in Anita Mitterer, viola greatest living composer upon his return to 1792. The Quartets were apparently ordered and in 1795 from his second London venture; begun by the end of 1796, because Haydn was Christophe Coin, he was 63. Though his international renown had able to play them at the piano for the Swedish been founded in large part upon the success of diplomat Frederik Samuel Silverstolpe the fol- his symphonies and keyboard sonatas, he repeat- lowing June. They were probably given their for- PROGRAM edly refused offers to compose further in those mal premiere on September 28, 1797, when they genres, and instead concentrated the creative were played for the visit of Archduke Joseph, energies of his later years upon the string quar- Viceroy of Hungary, to Eisenstadt, family seat of Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No. 4, tet and the vocal forms of Mass and oratorio. Haydn’s employer, Prince Nicholas Esterházy II. “Sunrise” (1796–1797) Except for the majestic Trumpet Concerto, his The Quartets were issued in Vienna by Artaria in only instrumental compositions after 1795 were 1799 (“Nothing which our house has ever pub- Allegro con spirito the six quartets of Op. 76, the two of Op. 77 lished equals this edition,” trumpeted the adver- Adagio and the unfinished torso of Op. 103, and they tisement in the Wiener Zeitung on July 17th), Menuetto: Allegro were the culmination of nearly four decades of and appeared shortly thereafter in London. Finale: Allegro, ma non troppo experience composing in the chamber medium. “[I have] never received more pleasure from in- “The eight quartets which he completed show strumental music,” wrote Charles Burney, the no signs of flagging powers,” wrote Rosemary preeminent English musical scholar of his day. (1809–1847) Quartet in A major, Op. 13, “Ist Es Wahr?” Hughes in her study of Haydn’s chamber mu- “They are full of invention, fire, good taste and (1827) sic. “In that last great wave of energy which car- new effects, and seem the production, not of a Adagio — Allegro vivace ried them to completion, he gathers up all the sublime genius who has written so much and so Adagio non lento — Poco più animato — Tempo I efforts and conquests, all the explorations, all well already, but of one of highly cultivated tal- Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto — the personal idiosyncrasies too, of nearly half ents, who had expended none of his fire before.” Allegro di molto — Tempo I a century of unbroken creative life. Nowhere Critical opinion has not wavered since. Presto — Adagio non lento — Adagio is his thematic and structural concentration so The Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No. 4, strong and closely woven, his ranging through derives its sobriquet—“Sunrise”—from the INTERMISSION the furthest reaches of key so searching and pro- arching opening theme, one of Haydn’s most found. If elsewhere some of his best instrumen- limpid and sensual melodic inventions. The tal finales are based upon folk songs and dances, music is more animated during the transition- Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Quartet in in A minor, Op. 29, No. 1 (D. 804), here he even surpasses them in exhilaration and al passage that leads to the second theme, but “Rosamunde” (1824) closeness of texture. The phrase structure is end- again becomes subdued, almost dreamy, when lessly varied and flexible, now square and sym- that theme proves to be a sweet variant of the Allegro ma non troppo metrical, now unfolding in long, continuous opening subject. These two principal moods Andante paragraphs, according to the character and in- are again opposed to close the exposition, and Menuetto: Allegretto ner life of the themes themselves. And behind their juxtaposition continues to form the basis Allegro moderato this and permeating it all is a quality hard to of the development section. A full recapitulation define, but one in which we can sense the weight achieves formal closure and expressive balance. of a lifetime’s experience, human and musical. The Adagio is an expression of thoughtful intro- No young mind and heart could have conceived spection such as could only have been composed Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. this music, could have so tempered exuberance by one whose long and rich experience of life is

4 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 5 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES matched by a transcendent mastery of technique. Sunday family concerts at the Mendelssohns’ before matriculating at Berlin University, initiates the principal theme, based on the motto The movement follows no traditional form, but Berlin mansion, for which Felix selected the pro- Mendelssohn had indulged in a short holi- rhythm. The cello posits a lyrical melody as the is rather a fantasia, perhaps even a musical ser- grams, led the rehearsals, appeared as piano and day at Sakrow, the Magnus family estate near complementary subject. The scurrying phrases mon, that refers repeatedly back to the hymnal violin soloist and chamber musician, and even Potsdam, and there he fell in love, at least a little. return to mark the onset of the development statement with which it began. The jolly peasant conducted, though as a young teenager he was The circumstances, even the maiden’s name, are section, which is remarkable for the intensity dance of the Menuetto stands in striking con- still too short to be seen by the players in the uncertain (one Betty Pistor, a family friend and of its counterpoint and its nearly febrile mood. trast to the contemplative mood of the Adagio, back rows unless he stood on a stool. By 1825, a member of a choir for which Mendelssohn was The recapitulation serves both to return and to but the curious, winding melody of the central he had written over 80 works for these concerts, then piano accompanist, has been advanced as a enhance the earlier themes before the movement trio, presented by the violins in barren octaves including operas and operettas, string quartets possibility), but he was sufficiently moved by the closes with an explosive coda that stops with- above a drone in the viola and cello, brings a and other chamber pieces, concertos, motets, experience to set to music a poem of his friend out resolving the music’s strong tensions. The deeper emotional tone to the movement. The and a series of 13 symphonies for strings. Johann Gustav Droyson that began, “Is it true deeply felt Adagio offers another paraphrase of exuberant finale, thought to have been based Mendelssohn possessed a boundless curi- [Ist es wahr?] that you are always waiting for me the motto theme at beginning and end as the on a folk song that Haydn brought back with osity and enthusiasm about all music, old and in the arbored walk?” The piece, published two frame for the somber, densely packed fugal epi- him from England, is in three-part form (B-flat new. By age 18, he was intimately familiar with years later under the title Frage (“Question”) as sode that occupies the middle of the movement. major–B-flat minor–B-flat major) with a dash- the Classical forms and idioms of Mozart and the first number of his Op. 9 set of songs, was The third movement, titled Intermezzo, uses a ing coda whose youthful effervescence belies the Haydn, and he erected upon them the creative woven as thematic material into the new A mi- charmingly folkish tune, daintily scored, in its fact that this was at least the 78th quartet that precocities of his youth (including the magi- nor Quartet. The score was published in 1829 as outer sections to surround an ethereal passage Haydn had composed. cal Octet of 1825, among the greatest pieces of Mendelssohn’s Op. 13. of musical featherstitching at the center. Both music ever composed by one so young), but he “In this work, the mature composer stands ideas are deftly combined in the coda. A dra- was also one of the leading Bach scholars of the revealed,” wrote Homer Ulrich of Mendelssohn’s matic cadenza-recitative for the violin over trem- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) time. Zelter had guided him fruitfully through A minor Quartet in his comprehensive survey of olo harmonies, reminiscent of the fourth move- Quartet in A minor, Op. 13, “Ist Es Wahr?” The Well-Tempered Clavier, and his musically the chamber repertory. “All the melodic charm, ment of Beethoven’s A minor Quartet, Op. 132, knowledgeable maternal grandmother, who all the perfection of detail, all the deftness of launches the finale. A clutch of highly charged Composed in 1827. had known Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel touch we associate with the later works are pres- motives is presented and worked out with great when she grew up in Berlin, obtained for him ent in this Quartet from his eighteenth year.” intensity as the music unfolds. The work closes Felix Mendelssohn, in 1827, must have been a copy of the rare, unpublished score of the This Quartet is also the most Beethovenian of not with a wail of tragedy or with a sunburst of the most musically sophisticated 18-year-old in St. Matthew Passion in 1823 or 1824. Before Mendelssohn’s works, embracing bold contrasts, redemption, but with a recall of the Quartet’s Europe. Upon the foundation of his fine general the end of 1827, Mendelssohn had enlisted the adventurous harmonies, complex counterpoint, most introspective moments—first the theme education had been placed disciplined training town’s best vocalists to rehearse the Passion and cyclical procedures, multi-compartmented of the Adagio, and then the introduction from in theory and composition from Carl Friedrich determined to perform it in public—the re- movements and a pervasive impassioned ex- the opening movement, bringing with it a fi- Zelter (a distinguished pedagogue who was then newal of interest in Bach’s music, and, indeed, pression that lend this music an urgency which nal reflection upon the music and thought, Ist the director of the Berlin Singakademie), tute- the entire baroque revival, date from that con- Mendelssohn seldom recaptured. At a perfor- Es Wahr?. lage in violin with Carl Wilhelm Henning (a cert, on March 11, 1829, at the Singakademie. mance of the Quartet at a salon, a music- respected member of the Berlin Opera orches- Complementing Mendelssohn’s antiquar- loving priest nudged Mendelssohn during the tra) and Eduard Rietz (a close friend who suc- ian strain was his interest in the most daring, finale, and whispered, “He does that in one of Franz Schubert (1797–1828) ceeded Mendelssohn as director of the Leipzig avant-garde music of the day—the last works his symphonies.” “Who?” asked the composer. Quartet in A minor, Op. 29, No. 1 (D. 804), Gewandhaus concerts upon the composer’s of Beethoven. In the years before his death, in “Why, Beethoven, the author of this Quartet,” “Rosamunde” death in 1847), and in piano with his mother (a March 1827, Beethoven explored uncharted came the reply. “That was bittersweet,” student of the noted German theorist Johann continents of style and expression in his sonatas, Mendelssohn allowed. Composed in 1824. Premiered on March 14, 1824, Philipp Kirnberger, himself a pupil of Johann quartets, Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony, The Quartet opens with a slow introduction in Vienna by the Schuppanzigh Quartet. Sebastian Bach) and Marie Bigot (an esteemed and Mendelssohn eagerly studied those amazing whose A major tonality serves as an emotional Alsatian virtuoso and friend of Haydn and and challenging creations. foil for the tempestuous main body of the move- When Wilhelmine von Chezy’s play Rosamunde, Beethoven). Mendelssohn’s first dated compo- The Quartet in A minor that Mendelssohn ment. Two arching phrases—the second soaring with extensive incidental music by Franz sition, a cantata, was completed on January 3, completed on October 26, 1827, was the product high in the first violin’s compass—preface the Schubert, was hooted off the stage at its pre- 1820, three weeks before his eleventh birthday, of this entire congeries of influences—Mozart, quotation of the searching motto phrase from miere in Vienna on December 20, 1823, the though this piece was almost certainly preced- Bach, Beethoven, plus, of course, his own ge- Ist Es Wahr?, recognizable by its long–short– 27-year-old composer decided to turn his ef- ed by others whose exact dates are not record- nius—which were further enflamed by apetite long rhythm. The music’s tempo and energy are forts away from the theater, where he had found ed. Two years later began the twice-monthly affaire de le cœur. The previous spring, shortly quickened by scurrying filigree before the viola only frustration, and devote more attention

6 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 7 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES to his purely instrumental music. The major inspire the third movement (“Frère Jacques”) of preparatory exercises for a “grand symphony,” Menuetto is one of Schubert’s most haunting cre- works of 1823—the operas Fierrabras and Der Mahler’s First Symphony 60 years later, reported there is nothing tentative or unpolished in the ations, the bittersweet memory of a happy dance häusliche Krieg (“The Household War”), the on Schubert’s absorption with his creative activ- structure, style or expression of any of these rather than the dance itself. Schubert borrowed song cycle Die schöne Müllerin (“The Beautiful ity at the time: “Schubert has now long been at splendid creations. Indeed, these compositions the theme from his 1819 song to Schiller’s poem Maid of the Mill”) and Rosamunde—gave way work with the greatest zeal. If you go to see him rank with the greatest instrumental works that Die Götter Griechenlands (“The Greek Gods”), to the String Quartets in D minor (“Death and during the day he says, ‘Hello, how are you?— Schubert ever wrote—the A minor Quartet was whose text expresses a yearning for days gone the Maiden”) and A minor, the A minor Cello Good!’ and simply goes on working, whereupon described by musicologist Joseph Wechsberg by: “Fair world, where art thou, Come again Sonata (“Arpeggione”), several sets of variations you depart.” as “the distilled essence of Schubert’s genius… glorious age of Nature.” The trio, in the warmer and German Dances, and the Octet. The A minor Quartet dates from February the true expression of his musicianship.” The clime of A major, provides a brief respite before At that time in Schubert’s life, composition and March 1824. It had been more than Quartet is music of sweet sadness, of the precise, the repeat of the sullen Menuetto rounds out the seems to have been almost an escape from the three years since Schubert had written in the touching melancholy sometimes rising to trag- movement. The finale, a hybrid of rondo and difficulties of his personal situation. He was suf- genre, and that earlier example, the so-called edy of which Schubert and Mozart are the un- sonata forms, is predominantly cheerful in de- fering from anemia and a nervous disorder as Quartetsatz (“Quartet Movement”) in C minor rivaled masters. The pensive opening, the emo- meanor, a determined turning-away from the the result of syphilis and its treatment (mercury (D. 703), was abandoned after a single move- tional platform upon which the entire work is dark feelings of the preceding movements. Sir in the early 19th century!), and was constantly ment had been completed. Schubert’s eleven built, recalls Schubert’s Gretchen am Spinnrade. J. A. Westrup said that it was “rather like one broke, living largely on the generosity of his previous specimens of the form had all been The complementary theme, graced with a de- of those peasant dances that one finds in the devoted friends, with only an occasional pit- written as Hausmusik for the family quartet (his mure trill upon its introduction by the second operas of Weber or Marschner—a townsman’s tance from some performance or publication. In two brothers on violin, his father playing cello violin, provides an episode of brighter outlook, view of the way in which country folks enjoy March 1824, he poured out his troubles in a let- and Franz as violist), so the A minor Quartet but it is the main theme and its troubled pros- themselves.” (Gustav Mahler, the greatest of all ter to Leopold Kupelweiser, a close friend recent- therefore stands as the gateway to the incompa- pect that serve as the principal material for the musical poets of Weltschmerz, created some of ly moved to Rome: “In a word, I feel myself to be rable chamber music of his maturity. The piece development section. As was Schubert’s wont, his most powerful and moving compositions the most unhappy and wretched creature in the was inspired by the enthusiastic and meticulous- the recapitulation returns the earlier themes in by juxtaposing the innocence of folk music world. Imagine a man whose health will never ly prepared performances of the violinist Ignaz full, with a recall of the main subject serving as with the jaded sophistication of high culture.) be right again, and whose sheer despair over this Schuppanzigh, the greatest early interpreter of the sorrowful coda. Moritz von Schwind captured something of makes things constantly worse instead of bet- the quartets of Beethoven (who often referred to The lovely melody of the Andante was taken the lyrical and emotional essence of the great A ter; imagine a man whose most brilliant hopes him as “Milord Falstaff” because of his well-fed from the Entr’acte No. 3 in B-flat for the music minor Quartet with his simple description sent have perished, to whom the felicity of love and condition). After returning to Vienna from sev- to Rosamunde, Schubert’s stage flop of the pre- to a friend following the premiere: “It is very friendship have nothing to offer but pain; whom en years of performing in Russia, Schuppanzigh ceding December. The composer must have been smooth and gentle, but has the kind of melody enthusiasm (at least of the stimulating kind) for had established a highly regarded subscription particularly fond of this ingratiating theme, one associates with songs—full of feeling and all things beautiful threatens to forsake, and series of chamber programs with his distin- since he used it once again as the subject for the quite distinctive.” I ask you, is he not a miserable, unhappy be- guished quartet (violinist Karl Holz, violist set of variations that makes up the Impromptu ing?” Schubert then quoted some forlorn lines Franz Weiss and cellist Josef Linke) in the hall No. 3 in B-flat (D. 935), composed in 1827. The © 2012 Dr. Richard E. Rodda from Goethe’s poem Gretchen am Spinnrade that the Philharmonic Society reserved in “The (“Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel”), which he Red Hedgehog,” a popular local inn of the day had set in 1814: “‘My peace is gone, my heart is that was later also a favorite haunt of Brahms. sore, I shall find it never, nevermore’ [are words The A minor Quartet was premiered at the which] I may well sing every day now, for each concert of March 14th with gratifying success; night on retiring to bed, I hope I may not wake Schwind reported that Schuppanzigh played it again, and each morning but recalls yesterday’s “rather slowly, but with great purity and tender- grief.” Such anguish, however, did not seem to ness.” The work was issued as Op. 29, No. 1, by thwart Schubert’s creative muse, and the year the firm of Sauer and Leidesdorf in September, 1824, when his physician was able to somewhat the only one of Schubert’s quartets published restore his health through regular mineral baths, during his lifetime. (The D minor Quartet, a strict diet and confinement to his room, was originally intended as the second number of the one of the most productive periods of his life. set, was not published until 1831 as Op. 161; the Moritz von Schwind, the artist who captured so projected third piece was never written.) well the decorous atmosphere of the Biedermeier Though Schubert spoke of the D minor period and whose woodcuts for children were to and A minor Quartets and the Octet of 1824 as

8 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 9 ABOUT THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Schubert’s Der Tod und das Mädchen, The Times Andrea Bischof (violin) was born in Vorarlberg of London writes that “their performance of and studied in Vienna with Grete Biedermann Death and the Maiden is music-making of a high and Thomas Christian. Since 1980 she has order, felt and carried out by players animated as held the position of Konzertmeisterin and though by a single mind and impulse, yet each soloist of the Austrian Bach Soloists, and is of them seeming to respond afresh at every mo- also a permanent member of the Concentus ment.” Recordings of the Wiener Klassik reper- Musicus and Professor of Chamber Music at the toire (Haydn string quartets: Opp. 20, 33, 77 Musikhochschule in Vienna. Ms. Bischof plays and the quartets of Mozart dedicated to Haydn) a violin made in France in the 18th century, have been awarded numerous prizes, such as maker unknown. the Diapason d’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique and a Gramophone Award. Anita Mitterer (viola) was born in Lienz in The four members of Quatuor Mosaïques met the Ostirrol, and studied with Jürgen Geise while performing with ’s in Salzburg, Antonin Moravec in Prague and Concentus Musicus in the 1980s, and decided Thomas Christian in Vienna. She is a mem- to perform on original instruments as a classi- ber of the Concentus Musicus, Director of the cal “caper quartet.” Although the Quartet per- Baroque Ensemble of Salzburg and teaches forms on period instruments, it embraces the violin and viola at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. European quartet tradition, constantly allowing Ms. Mitterer plays a Carolus le Pot viola made for the evolution of its repertoire as it strives to in Lille in 1725. reveal the music’s psychological underpinnings. Quatuor Mosaïques is represented exclusive- Christophe Coin (cello) was born in Caen and ly by Kirshbaum Demler & Associates, Inc., 711 studied with André Navarra in Paris, Nikolaus West End Avenue, Suite 5KN, New York, New Harnoncourt in Vienna and in

Wolfgang Krautzer Wolfgang York 10025. Bâle. He has performed with l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Concentus Musicus de Vienne uatuor mosaïques is the most promi- including pianists András Schiff and Patrick Erich Höbarth (violin) was born in Vienna, where and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Qnent period-instrument quartet perform- Cohen, clarinetists Wolfgang Meyer and Sabine he studied with Grete Biedermann and Franz among many others. Mr. Coin teaches baroque ing today. The ensemble has garnered praise Meyer, and cellists Miklós Perényi and Raphael Samohyl, and later at the Musikhochschules of violin and viola de gamba at the National for its atypical decision to use gut-stringed in- Pidoux. In 2006, Quatuor Mosaïques was invit- Vienna and Salzburg. He was a member of the Conservatory of Music in Paris and at the Schola struments, which, in combination with its cel- ed to Spain to perform for King Juan Carlos I, Végh Quartet from 1978 to 1980, and subse- Cantorum in Bâle. He also teaches annually at ebrated musicianship, has cultivated the group’s using the Monarch’s personal collection of quently held the position of Konzertmeister of the International Academies of Granada and unique sound. The Quartet has toured exten- Stradivari instruments. the Wiener Symphoniker for seven years. Since Innsbruck and gives master classes throughout sively, won numerous prizes, and established a In 2011–2012, Quatuor Mosaïques makes 1981, Mr. Höbarth has been Konzertmeister France. Mr. Coin plays an Alessandro Gagliano substantial discography. Formed in 1985, the its second tour of North America in ten years, and soloist for the ; he cello made in Naples. group comprises Austrians Erich Höbarth (vio- visiting Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, also teaches at the Musikhochschule in Vienna. lin), Andrea Bischof (violin), Anita Mitterer Washington, D.C., Vancouver, and Berkeley, He has also served as Konzertmeister of András (viola) and the French cellist Christophe Coin. San Diego and Stanford, California. They will Schiff’s chamber ensemble Cappella Andrea The Quartet has appeared in Europe, the be featured in a two-concert series at New York Barca. Mr. Höbarth plays a Joseph Guarnerius United States, Australia and Japan, and regu- Citys’s 92nd Street Y, performing Haydn’s Opp. violin made in Cremona in 1705. larly performs in Vienna, London’s Wigmore and 76 (“Sunrise”), Mendelssohn’s Op. 13, Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Berlin’s Mozart’s K. 458 (“Hunt”), Beethoven’s Op. 135 Philharmonic Hall. Quatuor Mosaïques often and Schubert’s “Rosamunde.” appears at such prestigious European festivals as Quatuor Mosaïques has an extraordinarily Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lucerne, Bremen, Bath, extensive discography, which includes works Styriarte Graz, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg of Haydn, Mozart, Arriaga, Boccherini, Jadin, and Oslo, among others. The Quartet has col- Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn, as well as laborated with many international artists, modern composers. Of the group’s latest release,

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