Callisto Quartet
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Callisto Quartet Paul Aguilar, violin Rachel Stenzel, violin Eva Kennedy, viola Hannah Moses, cello Sunday, January 31, 2021, 3:00 p.m. Art Center of Corpus Christi 101 N. Shoreline Blvd., Corpus Christi Program: Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 76, No. 4, “Sunrise” Allegro con spirito Adagio Menuetto: Allegro Finale: Allegro, ma non troppo Caroline Shaw (b. 1982) Entr'acte Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 Introduzione: Andante con moto – Allegro vivace Andante con moto quasi Allegretto Menuetto: Grazioso Allegro molto Callisto Quartet appears by arrangement with Kanzen Artists Biography: Praised for their “intensity and bravado” and the “cohesion and intonation one might expect from an ensemble twice their age” (Third Coast Review), the Callisto Quartet brings together four dedicated and passionate musicians who share a love for chamber music and a true desire for excellence. Since their formation in 2016 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the quartet has quickly garnered top prizes in nearly every major international chamber music competition and has been hailed by audiences across North America and Europe. Grand prize winners of the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Second Prize Winners of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Callisto Quartet has also taken home prizes from the Bordeaux (2019), Melbourne (2018), and Wigmore Hall (2018) competitions. Currently serving as the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, they also study with Günter Pichler of the Alban Berg Quartet at the prestigious Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain. Highlights of their recent performances include debuts in New York City and Chicago on the Schneider Concert Series and at Ravinia Festival, respectively, as well as at the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival. They were also featured in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in July 2019 as Grand Prize winners of the 4th Manhattan International Music Competition Chamber Music Division. https://www.callistoquartet.com Program Notes: Joseph Haydn String Quartet in B Flat Major, Op. 76, No. 4, “Sunrise” In the view of many, Op. 76, No. 4 is the finest among Haydn’s eighty-three quartets. Rarely, if ever, did he equal its luminous spirituality and depth of feeling. Perhaps Haydn intended this quartet with its prominent viola part, for his own use, since he was also an avid quartet violist. The nickname, “Sunrise,” widely accepted in America and England but seldom used elsewhere, comes from the very opening of the quartet where the first violin traces a loving curve of ascent above a soft, sustained chord, much as the sun gloriously rises to bathe the earth in its radiance. There are two more motifs in the first group, one started by the viola, amidst long held notes in the violins and cello; the other, a repeated rhythmic figure combined with running sixteenth-note passages. The second subject starts with the cello playing what is essentially a mirror image – descending instead of ascending – of the first subject opening. It continues with an outgrowth of the first subject’s last motif. The concluding theme of the exposition is a witty interplay of notes on and off the beat. Although the remainder of the movement can be divided into the customary development, recapitulation, and coda, Haydn creates such a strong feeling of inner cohesion that the overall musical effect is one of sustained, unified flow. The second movement is one of the slowest and most morose of all Haydn adagios. Not conforming to any standard structural organization, it is best described as a free fantasia on the opening five note motif. Uniformly soft, with only occasional accents, the movement provides little solace and ends in bleak despair. After two such strong movements, the unsophisticated peasant charm of the Menuetto offers a welcome respite. With great rhythmic verve, Haydn builds this entire section on the opening motif. The trio that comes in the middle apparently also has its origin in folk music, but the outlook is not nearly so sunny and cheerful. Over a sustained drone in the viola and cello, the violins play the rather oppressive melody with its heavy accents. The Menuetto returns at the end of the trio. The Finale is written in the carefree style of Haydn’s earlier quartets. The melody is believed to be an adaptation of an English folk song, perhaps one he heard on his trip to London. Organized in three-part form, the middle section is in minor, but with no lessening of the Finale’s overriding vivacity. To heighten the movement’s exhiliration and good humor, Haydn marks the coda (which is a technical minefield for the players) Più allegro, or “faster,” and then Più presto, “faster yet”, for a thrilling conclusion. Program Notes: Melvin Berger Caroline Shaw Entr’acte Born in 1982, New York based composer Caroline Shaw is quickly becoming one of the most prominent American composers of her time. She rose to fame after becoming the youngest ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for her piece Partita for 8 Voices, and is still very active as a composer, violinist, and vocalist. Shaw has written several works for string quartet, including the work on today’s program: Entr’acte. In her own description of Entr’acte, Shaw writes: “Entr’acte was written in 2011 after hearing the Brentano Quartet play Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 — with their spare and soulful shift to the D- flat major trio in the minuet. It is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.” Lasting about 11 minutes in length, the sound world of Entr’acte is haunting and beautiful. The outer minuet sections are lilting in character, and the trio section begins with a striking pizzicato chorale, which eventually erupts into wild fiddling before winding back down to the gentle reprise of the minuet. Program Notes: Hannah Moses Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 The eerie introduction that opens the quartet, without any forward motion and seemingly suspended in time, seems to contradict Beethoven’s tempo direction, Andante con moto (“Moderate speed with motion”). The jaunty first theme is, in effect, “kicked off” by a short upbeat and long arrival note – a rhythmic figure that remains important throughout the movement. Several other first group themes gradually lead to the start of the exuberant second subject – the first violin playing an ascending passage that ends with a long sustained note, which is imitated in order by the viola, cello, and second violin. The development section provides flashy virtuosic passage work for all the instruments with frequent reappearances of the short-upbeat/long-resolution motto. The exposition skips the first theme and deals entirely with the triumphant second melody before the arrival of a brief sparkling coda. The second movement has variously been described as a “lament” by Vincent D’Indy, the “mystery of the primitive” by Joseph Kerman, and “some forgotten and alien despair,” in the words of J.W.N. Sullivan. These reactions are mostly evoked by the first theme, a heavy despondent violin line over repeated cello pizzicato notes. The melodic interval of the augmented second, with its Middle Eastern overtones, adds to the poignance of the effect. The dispirited opening serves as the perfect foil to the warm, frothy second theme that follows. Both themes are developed and returned according to traditional sonata form, but in a surprise move, the composer brings them back in reverse order. Beethoven probably returned to the traditional eighteenth-century minuet style for the third movement because a brilliant scherzo would have been inappropriate before the monumental finale he had in mind. The first part is gentle and languorous, despite a great deal of inner rhythmic drive. The sharper and more penetrating trio precedes a repeat of the Menuetto and the brief coda that leads, without pause, to the finale. The last movement starts softly, but at a very fast tempo, with the viola playing the theme alone. The second violin enters with the same melody while the viola continues with a countermelody – a fugal treatment in which one theme is successively imitated by the individual players. The cello and then the first violin join in with the original melody to bring the section to a powerful climax. As the movement proceeds, Beethoven audaciously juxtaposes homophony (accompanied melody), on the richly textured polyphony (independent voices) of the opening fugal section, with absolutely thrilling results. Beethoven endows every note, from first to last, with a force and energy that propels the musical line irresistibly forward. He also calls on the players to stretch their tonal resources to the very limit, to produce the maximum sound possible. The result is a movement of stunning impact – a triumphant conclusion to this most impressive work. Program Notes: Melvin Berger We thank our 39th Concert Season Donors Partners City of Corpus Christi, Arts and Cultural Commission Coastal Bend Community Foundation Morris L. Lichtenstein, Jr. Medical Research Foundation Sponsors $1,000 and up John & Myriam Bell EAGLE Foundation and Repair Artist Circle $500 and up Joan Allison John & Jessica Latimer Steven J. Tillinger Benefactors $250 and up Dr. Fred & Becky Brackett Dr. Cynthia & John Bridges Dr. Susan de Ghizé Dr. Jose & Peggy Duran Marcia Marks Charles & Judy Mellenbruch Supporters $100 and up Alene Burch Mary K.