tapestries of music SSundaysundays withwith ColemanColeman 116th Season 2019-2020

Presented in cooperation with the Caltech Committee on Institute Programs

ELLIASIAS STTRINGRING QUUARTETARTET FFebruaryebruary 116,6, 22020020 Sunday, February 16, 2020 3:30 pm Beckman Auditorium, Caltech

Coleman Association presents EEliaslias StringString QuartetQuartet

Sara Bitlloch,* Simone van der Giessen, Donald Grant, violin Marie Bitlloch,

*Benjamin Nabarro has graciously agreed to perform with the Elias Quartet during Sara Bitlloch’s maternity leave.

Ludwig van in G Major, Op 18, No. 2 (1770-1827) Allegro con brio Adagio cantabile (Allegro) Scherzo (Allegro) Allegro molto quasi Presto

Sally Beamish RReedeed SStanzastanzas (b. 1956)

I N T E R M I S S I O N

Felix Mendelssohn Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 (1809-1847) Adagio - Allegro vivace Adagio non lento Intermezzo. Allegretto con moto - Allegro di molto Presto

The Elias appears by arrangement with David Rowe Artists  www.davidroweartists.com    www.eliasstringquartet.com PProgramrogram NotesNotes The Quartet’s Allegro opening theme, in eight quick By Susan Halpern, copyright © 2019 and short measures, has three distinct melodic elements that Beethoven works over thoroughly and develops richly. In fact, this bright and happy work overfl ows with musical ideas: the fi rst movement alone has more material, some of it heard just in LLudwigudwig vanvan BeethovenBeethoven (1770-1827) passing, than many other composers used for an Quartet No. 2 in G Major; Op. 18, No. 2 entire four-movement work. Some of the movement, Beethoven wrote his fi rst six string quartets between such as the mysterious and meditative passage in 1798 and 1800, and when they were published, the development and the way the cello exuberantly in 1801, the title page bore the legend “composed introduces the recapitulation, is already very [for] and dedicated to His Highness, My Lord the accomplished. Reigning Prince de Lobkowitz etc., etc.” Franz The lengthy second movement begins with a warm Joseph Lobkowitz, who was born two years after the and serene yet serious theme, Adagio cantabile, and composer, had ascended the throne of his Czech has an unusual, contrasting central Allegro that principality in 1784 at the age of twelve. His father interrupts the Adagio to rush along quickly and had been an accomplished musician, the employer almost always quietly. Some critics have faulted of Gluck and a good friend of the composer Carl this movement as well as other slow movements Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Sebastian’s son. in Opus 18 as being the weak links in Beethoven’s Prince Lobkowitz’s seat was a country castle at quartets; they see in this movement only a bland Radnice, but he also had grand palaces in Prague and solemn theme that inhibits the listener’s and Vienna. He played the violin and the cello, and satisfaction regardless of how Beethoven manipulates was a talented singer who maintained a complete his material. One such critic, William Youngren, has musical establishment that included a full orchestra said of the fi nal recapitulation of the theme: “When and a chorus. it returns after the Allegro, laboriously ornamented, Soon after Beethoven’s arrival in Vienna from we feel we are back in school after being caught Bonn in 1792, the two young men, Archduke playing truant.” Others, more charitable, such as Rudolph, the Emperor’s son, and Prince Ferdinand Arthur Cohn, see it as a sign of the Beethoven to Kinsky, joined to guarantee Beethoven a generous come in the later works. income for life so that he would remain in Vienna and could give up other work that distracted him The third movement is a Scherzo, Allegro, after from composition. Beethoven, in turn, dedicated the classical model of the minuets in the quartets to Lobkowitz the six Quartets of Op. 18, the Op. of Haydn and Mozart, but with a forceful and 74 Quartet, Symphonies Nos. 3, 5, and 6 (the dramatic quality that is entirely characteristic of last two jointly dedicated also to Count André Beethoven in its change of mood as well as key. In Razumovsky, who commissioned the three Op. 59 this light movement, a little fi gure is thrown back and Quartets), and some shorter works. forth between the and then picks up power before it leads the instruments in a transitional The G Major Quartet may have been the fi rst of passage to the recapitulation. the six that Beethoven started and the third that he fi nished, but when he assembled a fi rst The fi nale, Allegro molto quasi presto, rushes group of three for publication, he made this No. through the classical sonata form in a jolly fashion. 2. In German-speaking countries it is often called Beginning with a neat and self-contained melody that the Komplimentierungsquartett (Compliment explores new keys, the craft of this movement is Quartet), a nickname that English-speakers have in some ways much like that of Haydn. Contrasting resisted. It sprang from some imagined likeness themes are developed and then recalled with between the graceful opening phrases used as a diff erent key relationships. Yet the later Beethoven musical gesture and the physical motion which is again hinted at in the various ways he treats the a gentleman of the time might have made in descending three-note arpeggios, at times with removing his hat and bowing in greeting, paying his energy, at times broodingly, and at times formally. compliments to a lady. continued from previous page The reed has many different associations. SSallyally BeamishBeamish (b. 1956) ‘The Reed of God’: a Christian metaphor for Quartet No. 3, “Reed Stanzas” Mary: the channel through which the spirit is breathed. The ‘accursed’ reed of Celtic Sally Beamish composed Reed Stanzas for the belief: the reed through which Jesus was Elias String Quartet as a commission by BBC Radio given vinegar to drink, on the cross. And the 3 in early 2011; the Elias String Quartet premiered it reeds used in the making of wind instruments, on July 25, 2011 at the Cadogan Hall as part of the including the bagpipe and accordion. The Sufi BBC Proms Chamber Music Series. poet Rumi describes the reed fl ute as a symbol Beamish wrote Reed Stanzas while she was on the Isle of longing and separation: the reed, separated of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, a landscape with from its home, utters a heart-breaking lament. great topographical contrasts from sandy beaches to Reed Stanzas takes the form of variations angular grey mountains and areas of desolate scrub. on a Celtic-inspired theme announced by the She was thinking especially of the scrub, as well as a second violin, which opens and closes the work similar landscape in the area of England where she in the manner of Pibroch (the classical music lived previously. “Reed” in the work’s title connotes of the Highland bagpipe). I have explored the areas of marsh and fen. intricate ornamentation used in Pibroch, Beamish has lived in Scotland since 1990; in this highlighting its similarities to birdsong, work, she turns to one the country’s indigenous and to Arabic reed flute (ney) playing. The musical traditions, expressly using the second piece also refers to the multiple reeds of violinist’s talent as a Scottish fiddle player as well the accordion (these days made of metal) – as violinist. Inspired by bird songs as well as the an instrument used in traditional music of music of her countryman, Benjamin Britten, the many cultures. The idea of the loneliness and work’s title comes from the composer’s memories of vastness of landscape underpins the quartet, wind blowing in the reed beds at Snape Maltings in while each variation, or ‘stanza’, has its own Suffolk, England. The second violin, sounding like a metre and mood. highland bagpipe, begins and ends the work with variations on a Celtic-inspired theme. The word “Stanzas” in the title is significant structurally; Beamish has composed the work as Beamish wrote a program note for the piece, quoted a series of short episodes, many of which are only here in full: a minute in length. Beamish’s background as a Donald Grant, the second violinist in the Elias, string player gives the work an idiomatic rigor. is well known as a traditional Scottish fi ddle The modal solo melody for Donald Grant begins player. I have incorporated this skill into a quartet in the distance, as he walks onstage, playing an work, drawing on Donald’s Gaelic roots. The evocative folk-like melody; shaped by characteristic ‘second violin range’ of a quartet is similar to slides from the Highland bagpipe tradition, it that used by traditional fi ddle, inhabiting the conveys loneliness. Notably, almost the whole piece throaty, rich soundworld of the lower strings, is pitched in the higher registers of the instruments. and the distinctive clarity of the upper strings in Each episode or “stanza” reveals a new approach to their lower positions. This leaves the fi rst violin to the work’s melodic drive, yet it is not always clear explore the heights of the E string, so that the two whether Beamish is developing material or creating violins are almost like diff erent instruments. variations. I wrote part of the quartet in a cottage The music is fluid but with few melodies, and overlooking the machar of the Isle of Harris, one senses those that are discernible are fragments, in the Outer Hebrides, listening to Britten’s adding to the feeling Beamish projects of loneliness. quartets in between working. These works The work conjures not only the signifi cance of always remind me of my former life as a landscape, but also our relationship to nature. viola player, and the wind blowing through the reed beds at Snape; a very diff erent, but equally windswept, salt-scented wilderness. continued from previous page bower, asking the moon and the stars about me? Is FFelixelix MendelssohnMendelssohn (1809-1847) it true? Tell me! My feelings can be understood only by someone who shares them and is faithful Quartet No. 2, in A minor, Op. 13, “Ist Es Wahr?” to me forever.” The song, said to reflect the young was a musical prodigy. As a composer’s beloved of the moment, provides youth, he exhibited prodigious musical imagination thematic material for the quartet in both musical and craftsmanship. Before his sixteenth birthday, and literary senses. The song was printed as a kind he had composed sonatas, songs, cantatas, organ of preface to the first edition of the music; Eduard works, and even a symphony. A year later, when he Devrient sang it before the fi rst public performance was seventeen, he wrote his famous A Midsummer of the quartet, in , on February 12, 1832. Night’s Dream Overture. One assumes Mendelssohn knew Beethoven’s The young composer’s grandfather was Moses last work, Op. 135, which was published in Berlin in Mendelssohn, the Jewish philosopher of the September 1827, in which the composer set what he Enlightenment who was immortalized as Lessing’s called “a diffi cult question,” asking, in the music, Nathan the Wise; his own father was a wealthy “Must it be?” Regardless, Mendelssohn certainly banker. His family spared nothing to nurture did learn from Beethoven the technique of how to his artistic maturity. Musicales were held on use a motive, here the opening three notes, which go alternate Sunday mornings in the Mendelssohn on to inform the whole quartet and integrate the house in Berlin; important touring performers who various movements. The critic Paul Griffi ths calls were passing through the Prussian capital often the Adagio section with which this movement begins attended. At these musicales, chamber music was not so much an introduction as a “preparation for always performed; there was sometimes orchestral the work,” functioning much as a “cover” does for a music too, occasionally even an opera. The guests book. He carries that analogy through to the similar frequently performed, and for almost each occasion, section at the end of the quartet, which he calls a the young Mendelssohn composed a work to be “back cover,” because the two enclose the music as if included. the “real quartet” were what happens between these By the time he was eighteen, in 1827, the year Mendels- two framing sections. The movement proper, sohn wrote this quartet, Beethoven had just died, an impassioned central section, moves at a faster and his music had fallen into relative disfavor, pace, Allegro vivace. generally thought to be a poor second to the work Beethoven’s infl uence is apparent again in the of Rossini; nevertheless, Mendelssohn admired second movement, Adagio non lento, most obviously Beethoven’s quartets as spiritual, intellectual, and in the way Mendelssohn used the textures of the technical treasures. Writing this quartet, fugue. Next is an intermezzo, Allegretto con Mendelssohn was definitely aware of Beethoven’s moto, in which a charming and relaxed march-like Op. 132, also in the key of A minor. Although melody with pizzicato accompaniment is set off by Mendelssohn’s quartet is often listed as being in a brilliant trio, Allegro di molto, in Mendelssohn’s A Major, there is consensus that its key is actually best elfi n style, recalling A Midsummer Night’s A minor, even though the fi rst movement is in A Major. Dream. In the course of the dramatic and The music moves back and forth between the major impassioned finale, Presto, Mendelssohn and minor tonalities so freely that it is not easy to introduces new rhetorical devices while also decide which to consider the music’s designated key. recalling those used earlier: fugal textures for This richly textured music in which all four importance, rushing octaves for powerful motion instruments are constantly in play seems to be driving into new situations, and recitative for a young Classicist’s excursion into profoundly pseudo-speech. The movement begins with a Romantic territory. It begins and ends with dramatic fi rst violin solo (which returns after the references to a song entitled “Frage” (Question), development section) that makes one think of the which Mendelssohn had written in the spring of that last movement of Beethoven’s Op. 132. At the end, year and labeled Op. 9, No. 1. “Ist est Wahr?” asks the listener can detect principal materials of the the poem by Johann Heinrich Voss (1751-1826), “Is preceding three movements and then the repeated it true that you are still waiting there in the vineyard question of the opening Adagio, “Is it true?” CColeman’soleman’s HistoryHistory

Previous Coleman performances of today’s repertoire: Beethoven Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2 April 1925 Philharmonic String Quartet February 1930 String Quartet April 1938 String Quartet March 1947 Los Angeles String Quartet June 1956 Trojan Quartet April 1964 May 1977 Mendelssohn Quartet in A minor, Op. 13 October 1978 String Quartet May 1998 Premiere performance at Coleman Chamber Music Association Concerts: Beamish Quartet No. 3, “Reed Stanzas”

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The Quartet is steadily building a recording EEliaslias SStringtring QQuartetuartet catalogue that has been met with widespread critical acclaim. They have recorded the Schumann and The Elias String Quartet take their name from Dvoř ák piano quintets with Jonathan Biss, a Britten Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Elijah, of which Elias is Quartets disc for Sonimage, a Mendelssohn disc its German form, and have quickly established for ASV Gold and most recently Schumann string themselves as one of the most intense and vibrant quartets for Outhere. Their two mixed programme quartets of their generation. The Quartet was recordings for Wigmore Hall Live were praised formed in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of unanimously, the fi rst winning a BBC Music Music in Manchester where they worked closely with Magazine Newcomers award. The fi nal volume the late Dr. Christopher Rowland. They also spent a of their complete Beethoven Quartet Cycle was year studying at the Hochschule in with the released in 2018. Alban Berg quartet. Between 2005 and 2009 they Violinist Benjamin Nabarro is performing fi rst were resident String Quartet at Sheffi eld’s “Music violin for the Elias Quartet during Sara Bitlloch’s in the Round” as part of Ensemble 360, taking over maternity leave. Mr. Nabarro is fi rst violinist from the Lindsay Quartet. They are now ensemble of the internationally renowned Ensemble 360, in residence at the RNCM and regularly go back and he is also a regular guest first violin of there to teach and perform. the Nash Ensemble, where he has appeared in In 2009 the Elias was chosen to participate in concerts worldwide. He has made numerous BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists’ scheme and recordings for Hyperion and Dutton. Recent was also a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. concerto engagements include performances With the support of the Trust, the Elias Quartet of works by Glazounov, Mendelssohn, Mozart, mounted “The Beethoven Project”: studying and Brahms, Watkins, Piazzola, Vivaldi, and Bach, performing all of Beethoven’s string quartets as and he has regularly been invited to the festivals cycles whilst sharing their experience through a of Cheltenham, BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Bath, special website (www.thebeethovenproject.com) and Schleswig Holstein, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern and social media. The project culminated with a cycle Nuremberg, where he also made his conducting at Wigmore Hall, all six concerts recorded live debut in 2012. for the Wigmore Hall Live label.