Quatuor Ébène Pierre Colombet Violin • Gabriel Le Magadure Violin Marie Chilemme Viola • Raphaël Merlin Cello

Wednesday 12 December 2018 7.30pm Quatuor Ébène Pierre Colombet violin • Gabriel Le Magadure violin Marie Chilemme viola • Raphaël Merlin cello Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in F Op. 18 No. 1 Johannes Brahms String Quartet in C minor Op. 51 No. 1 I n t e r v a l (20 minutes) Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in F Op. 135 This evening’s concert will be streamed live, and will be available to watch afterwards on the Wigmore Hall website. PROGRAMME: £3 CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust has donated free tickets for 8-25 year-olds for the concert on 12 December 2018. For details of future concerts please call the Box Office on 020 7935 2141. 2018 cover-autumn test print.indd 1 29/08/2018 10:28 Ludwig van Beethoven Beethoven arrived in Vienna in 1792, a year after Mozart’s tragic death. The young, (1770–1827) Bonn-born composer was effectively travelling to the Habsburg capital to take up where the late, lamented composer had String Quartet in F Op. 18 No. 1 left off. He even carried a letter to that end, (1798–1800) written by his friend Count von Waldstein: Allegro con brio ‘You are going to Vienna in fulfilment Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato of your long-frustrated wishes. The Scherzo. Allegro molto Genius of Mozart is still mourning and Allegro weeping the death of her pupil. She found a refuge but no occupation with the inexhaustible Haydn; through him Johannes Brahms she wishes once more to form a union (1833–1897) with another. With the help of assiduous labour, you shall receive Mozart’s spirit Ludwig van Beethoven from Haydn’s hands.’ Romeo and Juliet, when the teenage String Quartet in C minor Op. 51 No. 1 It was a daunting task, but Beethoven lovers are found lifeless in the Capulet (?1865–73) did as he was told, becoming Haydn’s family crypt. Allegro student shortly after his arrival. Their The harmonic verve of the first movement Romanze. Poco adagio working relationship was often fraught, returns in the Scherzo and its rustic trio Allegretto molto moderato e comodo – yet Haydn’s advice was invaluable, as – here, Haydn is most present – while the Un poco più animato were his introductions to Viennese finale is much fleeter, breaking down into Allegro society. Of particular benefit was the wispy but thrilling counterpoint, before a Lobkowitz family, for whose soirées fortissimo coda caps this engaging work. Haydn often provided music. In response, And it was to begin an extraordinary Interval the Bohemian prince had commissioned string quartet project, covering the Haydn’s Op. 77 string quartets, though whole of Beethoven’s life and concluding only two of the envisioned six had been shortly before his death in 1827, with the Refreshments are available from the finished by 1799, around the time that composition of the Op. 135 Quartet, also Restaurant and Bechstein Room. Lobkowitz turned to Beethoven and written in F major. Ice creams are on sale in the foyer. asked him to write another set of six. The importance of chamber music to Please check that your phone is turned off, The resulting Op. 18 quartets, Beethoven’s especially if you used it during the interval. Beethoven’s existence is summed up by earliest surviving works in the genre, the composer’s own superscriptions in may, at times, bear the hand of Haydn the final movement of this last quartet. – as well as the spirit of Mozart – but Subtitled ‘Der schwer gefasste Entschluss’ he was already seizing the genre for (‘the difficult decision’), he asks, ‘Muss es his own, as demonstrated by the String sein?’ (‘must it be?’) in the introduction. Ludwig van Beethoven Quartet in F major that was placed in Under the main theme, he then provides pole position when the set was published the answer: ‘Es muss sein!’ (‘it must in 1801. Its opening, furtive gestures and be!’). There is perhaps an element of String Quartet in F Op. 135 (1826) the surprising modulation to A flat major self-parody here, though the question still Allegretto that follows are audacious choices. remains, indicating how personal this work Vivace No less dramatic is the soulful second was, as well as something of Beethoven’s Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo movement, the Adagio affettuoso ed constant quest for insight, musical and Der schwer gefasste Entschluss. Grave ma appassionato, which was supposedly philosophical, over the course of a long, non troppo tratto – Allegro inspired by the tragic dénouement of gruelling career. www.wigmore-hall.org.uk The opening bars of this F major quartet marked the end of a long battle, quartet, penned in October 1826 in during which Brahms was often affected the hamlet of Gneixendorf in Lower by feelings of inadequacy, particularly Austria, are no less inquisitive, with when compared to his forebears, including initial uncertainty answered by diatonic Beethoven. He may well have destroyed confidence. Yet the unison that follows, sketches of up to 20 quartets before this picking out the awkward intervals of a C minor work saw the light of day. second and a seventh, contradicts such Brahms had not, however, been totally easy solutions. The tonic having been averse to publishing other chamber denied, its arrival is then understated works. The luscious Piano Trio in B major and rather brief. Although Beethoven Op. 18 had already been released, as had nods towards Classical style, nothing two piano quartets, two string sextets, that follows adheres to expectations the Horn Trio and the first of his two of tonic-dominant interplay and equal cello sonatas. Yet this C minor quartet phrase-lengths. Similarly, the opening was different. Unlike those heady, lyrical movement, although tracking sonata Johannes Brahms form, refuses to be broken down into works, this offers a concise, tragic and easily digestible sections. The variety initial theme. Finally, the third section, intensely logical argument, responding and development of the motifs creates back in the tonic proper, offers an even to both the motivic concentration of late an ongoing feeling of discovery and more heartfelt version of the original. Beethoven and the emotional tenor of Schubert’s final chamber works. change. But the movement is likewise The finale returns to the cat and mouse keen not to overstate its case and games of the first two movements, but The first movement, with hints of concludes in a surprisingly pert manner. the seriousness of the Lento has left its Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’ Sonata, is a The second movement, pushing through mark. A dark introduction in F minor remarkable musical argument, employing the established scherzo vein to a much poses the famous question. Lower a rich harmonic palette, in which more daring Vivace, again tries to evade strings ask and upper strings respond, the primacy of C minor – that most the listener’s grasp. Syncopation and but the silence between the two proves Beethovenian of keys – is constantly a drastic harmonic shift in the second just as eloquent. Having found no lasting undermined. And yet Brahms claims section certainly prove surprising. And response, Beethoven returns to F major its daemon for his own. Throughout, no sooner has Beethoven moved into with bullish glee. The harmonic language there is a sense of developing variation, E flat major than the music is chirruping is, however, far from clear and a series with each thematic utterance being back in the original F major. The violins of cadences, featuring more breathless a consequence of its predecessor. play a ditty in clear triple time, though the pauses, fails to confirm a tonal goal. Continual transformation also serves slurred and staggered accompaniment Again, the music shifts to A major, though to delay the return of the tonic until the provides insecure foundations, as do the this is also not the final destination. The very last bars, where it appears in a ensuing series of modulations to evade development is entirely thorough in its somewhat peremptory major guise. search for the right answer and finally, the tonic, before the music makes its way The Romanze quells the battle of the during the recapitulation, Beethoven home via A major. Allegro with one of Brahms’s typically forges a new relationship with the tonic. The opening notes of the Lento portend generous melodies, but it also reveals the tonic minor – an F in the viola, Between these two Beethovenian pillars uncertainties. The chromatic inflections followed by an A flat in the second violin comes the music of Brahms. Often self- that turn the theme’s beneficent smile into – but Beethoven then lands in a balmy critical, the composer did not allow his a frown come to dominate the penultimate D flat major. Slow harmonic pace and Op. 51 No. 1, begun in the mid 1860s, to section, in which the minor mood and intense homophony prove sincere, before be published until 1873. Just like the First various rhythmic inconsistencies show the music transfers to the tonic minor Symphony, written in the same C minor, the quartet’s true nature. Only in the trio for a stuttering, winded variation on the the première and publication of this of the third movement do we get a melody Box Office: 020 7935 2141 unimpeded by chromaticism, albeit framed by a pensive Allegretto, whose final Forthcoming concerts F minor provides the springboard to the quartet’s off-kilter finale. Sunday 6 January 7.30pm Tuesday 15 January 7.30pm A recollection of the Romanze introduces Pavel Kolesnikov piano Juilliard String Quartet this last, restive movement, where the Elīna Buksha violin harmonic disparities and emotional Beethoven String Quartet in D K575 Hermès Quartet unpredictability of the opening Allegro Bartók String Quartet No.

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