Minguet Quartett
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THE GERTRUDE CLARKE WHITTALL FOUNDATION iN tHE lIBRARY oF cONGRESS MINGUET QUARTETT Friday, November 17, 2017 ~ 8:00 pm Coolidge Auditorium Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building In 1935 Gertrude Clarke Whittall gave the Library of Congress five Stradivari instruments and three years later built the Whittall Pavilion in which to house them. The GERTRUDE CLARKE WHITTALL FOUNDATION was established to provide for the maintenance of the instruments, to support concerts (especially those that feature her donated instruments), and to add to the collection of rare manuscripts that she had additionally given to the Library. Pre-concert Conversation with the Artists Whittall Pavilion, 6:30 pm (No tickets required) Please request ASL and ADA accommodations five days in advance of the concert at 202-707-6362 or [email protected]. Latecomers will be seated at a time determined by the artists for each concert. Children must be at least seven years old for admittance to the concerts. Other events are open to all ages. • Please take note: Unauthorized use of photographic and sound recording equipment is strictly prohibited. Patrons are requested to turn off their cellular phones, alarm watches, and any other noise-making devices that would disrupt the performance. Reserved tickets not claimed by five minutes before the beginning of the event will be distributed to stand-by patrons. Please recycle your programs at the conclusion of the concert. The Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium Friday, November 17, 2017 — 8:00 pm THE GERTRUDE CLARKE WHITTALL FOUNDATION iN tHE lIBRARY oF cONGRESS MINGUET QUARTETT ULRICH ISFORT & ANNETTE REISINGER, vIOLIN AROA SORIN, vIOLA MATTHIAS DIENER, CELLO • Program JOSEF MYSLIVEČEK (1737-1781) String Quartet in F major, op. 3/2 (1768/9) Allegro Andante Presto assai JOSEF SUK (1874-1935) Balada in D minor (1890) GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911) / ANNETTE REISINGER "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" (1901) from the Rückert Lieder 1 LEOŠ JANÁČEK (1854-1928) String Quartet no. 1 ("The Kreutzer Sonata") JW VII/8 (1923) I. Adagio–Con moto...–Vivo–Un poco più tranq.–Adagio–Con moto–Adagio– Un poco più mosso–Vivo–Adagio II. Con moto–Un poco meno mosso–Tempo I–Più mosso–Meno mosso–Tempo I– Più mosso–Un poco meno mosso–Tempo I–Energico e appassionato–Tempo I III. Con moto–Un poco più mosso–Vivace–Andante–Tempo I IV. Con moto–Un poco più mosso–Meno mosso–Tempo II–Adagio–Più mosso– Adagio–Maestoso–Più mosso–Più mosso, feroce–Meno mosso iNtermission ANTONIN dVOŘÁK (1841-1904) String Quartet in F major, op. 96, B.179 ("American") (1893) Allegro ma non troppo Lento Molto vivace–Poco meno mosso Finale: Vivace ma non troppo–Meno mosso–Più mosso, Tempo I–Meno mosso • About the Program JOSEF MYSLIVEčEK, String Quartet in F major, op. 3/2; JOSEF SUK, Balada in D minor; GUSTAV MAHLER, "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" This evening's program contains a Bohemian cocktail of well-known but potent potables mixed with less-familiar spirits. It illustrates some of the breadth of Czech music during a roughly 150-year period, ranging from the Classical roots of the string quartet to remarkable expressions of individuality at the beginning of the twentieth-century. Josef Mysliveček was mainly known for his stage works, but he also wrote a large number of symphonies and other instrumental pieces, including approximately eighteen string quartets. At the time when Mysliveček was composing his first batch of quartets, certain aspects of the ensemble were not yet entrenched in practice. For instance, "...it was still by no means clear whether or not the 'basso' part should be doubled."1 The early Castaud 1 Evans, Angela and Robert Dearling, Josef Mysliveček (1737-1781), A Thematic Catalogue of his Instrumental and Orchestral Works, Musikwissenschaftliche Schriften, Band 35 (Germany: Musikverlag Katzbichler, 1999), 75. 2 print of the op. 3 quartets from 1768/9 gives the lowest part as "basso," though this was changed to "violoncello" in later editions.2 The upshot is that some of these works were performable, and indeed performed, by string orchestras with the bass part doubling the cello. In fact, the F-major quartet programmed tonight is perhaps better known as a Divertimento for string orchestra;3 like Haydn until circa 1772, Mysliveček used the "divertimento" title for his early quartets.4 Until a breach that occured in the late 1770s, Mysliveček was one of the few composers who could call both Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "friends." In addition to personal charm, Mysliveček was also professionally admirable, and may well have served as a formative model during the younger Mozart's maturation as a composer.5 In assessing some of the influences of Mysliveček on Mozart, Daniel Freeman states that during "...the period when Mozart's acquaintance with Mysliveček's works was fresher, it seems appropriate to mention another group of compositions that reflects the spirit of Mysliveček's way of writing, namely the three-movement Divertimenti for Strings of 1772, K136-138, which exhibit very much the same kind of grace, energy, and wit that is so striking in Mysliveček's String Quartets op. 3."6 It is possible to make too much of influences in an age of common practice; the benefit of comparing Mysliveček and Mozart is not so much to establish evidence of Mysliveček's influence on Mozart, but rather to point out that the music of the now-obscure Mysliveček was a worthy model for the Mozart family. Listening with open ears, one may hear in the F-major string quartet some of the same qualities that are attractive in the later quartets of Mozart or contemporaneous quartets of Haydn. The Library of Congress holds beautiful copyist manuscripts of the parts for six Mysliveček quartets that include the F-major quartet heard today. The quartet is short but soulful, and one can see how the Mozarts would have been impressed by the fresh energy of this music. • Josef Suk was a composer, violinist and pianist who performed professionally for most of his adult life with the fine Czech Quartet,7 a group lauded by Brahms after its first performance in Vienna in 1893.8 Suk's primary mentor was Antonin Dvořák, who was not only of great professional help to Suk, but ultimately became Suk's father-in- law after Suk married Dvořák's daughter Otillie. The all-too-brief Balada for string 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., 82. 4 Ibid., 75. 5 Freeman, Daniel E., Josef Mysliveček, "Il Boemo" (Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 2009), 225-6. 6 Ibid., 253. 7 The Czech Quartet was also known as the Bohemian Quartet. 8 Tyrell, John, "Suk, Josef (i)," Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2017. 3 quartet was composed in 1890 as one of several instrumental ballads.9 The work, composed when Suk was a teenager and before his period of study with Dvořák, is reminiscent of early Wagner and foreshadows the lush soundscapes of Suk's Serenade for Strings and other orchestral works. As with the chamber music of Dvořák, there is an apparent ease to Suk's string writing that is evident even at this early stage in his career. It is a beautiful work that in a sense is the string quartet equivalent of the op. 7 character pieces for piano that helped to establish Suk's reputation. • "It is feeling that rises just up to the lips, but does not pass beyond them. It is my very self!"10 In the at-times complicated game of programming, the selection of "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" makes for a compelling Czech mate.11 Gustav Mahler is best known for his symphonic works and his songs, and the two areas often intermingle. "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen," a setting of a poem by Friedrich Rückert (modified by Mahler), is among the finest songs in all of Mahler's output, here arranged for string quartet by the Minguet's Annette Reisinger. The song belongs to the collection of Rückert settings Mahler begain composing in 1901; "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" is perhaps the best known, but other celebrated Rückert settings also took root during this period, including the Kindertotenlieder. The song was premiered at a gathering of the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkünstler (the Society of Creative Musicians, of which Arnold Schoenberg was a founder) on January 29, 1905. It was first performed transposed down a whole step to accommodate Mahler's baritone of choice, Friedrich Weidemann.12 Mahler's awareness of the song's tight construction comes down to us through Anton Webern: "...the music underlying the words 'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen' is indeed 'a single motive in which is contained the germ of everything that is yet to be,' as Webern records Mahler's words."13 Much of the content of that germinal line is first presented in the introduction; in the orchestral version Mahler sets the tone with the deep bass of the harp, followed by one of the great English horn solos in the literature. 9 TheBalada for cello and piano, also from 1890, would be elevated to a more official status as the first movement of Suk's op.Ballade 3 and Serenade. 10 Gustav Mahler on his song "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen," as quoted in Mahler, Gustav, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, Facsimile edition of the autograph manu- scripts, Gilbert Kaplan, ed. (China: Kaplan Foundation, 2015), 11. 11 Mahler's Moravian origins are sometimes overlooked, given the strong later associa- tion between him and Vienna; in fact Mahler's career took him from Prague to Budapest and all across German-speaking Europe 12 Stephen Hefling, Mahler Ich bin der Welt, 22.