PROGRAM: EMERSON STRING QUARTET FEBRUARY 5 / 7:30 PM BING CONCERT HALL ARTISTS PROGRAM Emerson String Quartet Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 127 (1825) Eugene Drucker, violin Maestoso – Allegro Philip Setzer, violin Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile Lawrence Dutton, viola Scherzando vivace Paul Watkins, cello Finale Eugene Drucker, first violin We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of Michael Jacobson and Trine Sorensen. INTERMISSION Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in A Minor, op. 132 (1825) Assai sostenuto – Allegro Allegro ma non tanto Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart – Molto adagio – Neue Kraft fühlend – Andante Alla marcia, assai vivace Allegro appassionato PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones, pagers, and watch alarms, and unwrap all lozenges prior to the performance. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you. 22 STANFORD LIVE MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN movement. The coda dwells quietly on the Suddenly, the cello and viola play a dark (1770–1827) main theme, the first violin reaching higher little tune, changing to the time of the trio STRING QUARTET IN E-FLAT and higher as if for something unattainable. after a repeat of the previous section. The MAJOR, OP. 127 (1825) trio, marked “Presto,” is a wild rave, the first The famous variation movement, Adagio, violin dashing off in minor with the other In 1822, Ludwig van Beethoven received ma non troppo e molto cantabile, is one of rollicking dance against an offbeat sforzando a request for quartets from Prince Nikolas Beethoven’s most miraculously beautiful accompaniment. Near the end of the Galitzin, a nobleman and amateur cellist from creations. It has everything: endless variety movement, after the return of the scherzo, St. Petersburg. The prince was a Beethoven of texture and dynamics, drama, pathos, and a fragment of the trio is heard, the first connoisseur and agreed to pay whatever humor. Yet it is a perfect whole, a unified violin attempting escape again. The scherzo the composer thought suitable for three emotional experience. Few works of music returns patiently after a pregnant silence quartets, on the condition that he receive penetrate the heart and mind to this degree. and finishes the movement emphatically. the dedication. Beethoven happily accepted the commission, but he responded slowly, Out of an unearthly introduction, the theme So far, we have experienced majesty and as he still had to finish the Missa solemnis is born, its strains spanning an octave and a poetry in the first movement, singing and the Ninth Symphony. It was not until half and sung alternately by first violin and sensuousness in the variations, humor and a 1825 that the first of these quartets, the cello. After three cadential chords, the first touch of insanity in the scherzo. Now, in the op. 127 in E-flat major, was completed. variation begins, resembling the theme only Finale, Beethoven offers something new and in harmonic direction. The second variation, equally rewarding: a joyous compendium The first movement, Allegro, begins with marked “Andante con moto,” is a lively dance of folk tunes sometimes brusque and even an assertive maestoso introduction that, played mostly in piano or pianissimo that crude but crafted with Mozartian elegance. ending questioningly, moves seamlessly sounds like a distant circus. Suddenly, two The result is refreshing after the depth and into the first theme. The theme is especially slow, sinister-sounding notes are played in complexity of the preceding movements, beautiful because of its elements: the tune, unison, and the prayer-like E-major variation and the spirit recalls that of the “Ode to which is simple, folk-like, and of the variety begins, marked “Adagio molto espressivo.” Joy” or the Shaker hymn “Tis the Gift to Be used so often in Beethoven’s late work (such After all has been said, the music slips back Simple.” The movement is in sonata form, as the “Ode to Joy”); the cantus firmus to the key of A flat; the new key is added to with a false recapitulation starting with the bass in parallel motion with the tune; and the closing chords, and the texture becomes first theme in the viola near the end of the the suspensions and resulting dissonances suddenly bare silence, the pulsations of the development. The real return to the home between the second violin, viola, and fourth variation return in pianissimo. A brief key is so subtle as to be easily missed—with cello. The second theme, usually written reminiscence of the movement follows with all the instruments playing pianissimo in the in the dominant key, is presented here in three distinct chords in E major representing upper register and the tune in the first violin the mediant minor. (Beethoven avoids the the Adagio variation. The expressive pizzicati softened by the third instead of the tonic dominant key altogether in the movement.) in the cello play an important role here, and in the bass. A great metamorphosis takes After a strong affirmation of G minor, the the movement closes in complete fulfillment. place at the end of the recapitulation. As second violin suggests G major, and the the violins trill, the cello and viola introduce maestoso returns triumphantly to begin the The Scherzando vivace is large and involved, a new triplet rhythm and new key. Swirling development. After many twists and turns, and it begins like its counterpart in the Ninth pianissimo scales create a hallucinatory effect. that maestoso is heard again for the last Symphony with a fugal idea. After a little After gliding through several keys, the work time and is followed by a hypnotic, macabre pizzicato fanfare, the cello takes the main moves toward a triumphant conclusion. waltz using fragments of the first theme. subject in pianissimo and is soon joined by —Notes by Archibaldus Holden Instead of preparing the recapitulation the viola playing the inversion. The tune with the dominant, Beethoven modulates is composed of contrasting elements: the to F minor, which is a passing harmony in staccato dotted figure is followed by a legato STRING QUARTET IN A MINOR, the theme. The return, therefore, begins measure with a trill at the end. These motifs OP. 132 (1825) naturally but as a gentle surprise, and the are constantly inverted and juxtaposed theme is now decorated with running eighth throughout the movement. At the double bar, While working on the String Quartet in notes. When the second theme returns, it a fortissimo unison passage leads to a soft, A Minor during the winter of 1824–1825, is in the expected tonic key but in major, dance-like section that gradually crescendos Beethoven fell gravely ill. The condition which softens the whole conclusion of the to fortissimo and another unison passage. left him seriously weakened, but he was encoremediagroup.com 23 PROGRAM: EMERSON STRING QUARTET still able to finish the work by July 1825. violin sustaining a bagpipe-like drone under The same players gave the public premiere Although it has the highest number of its high-pitched melody. The movement ends two months later on November 6, 1825. the three quartets (opp. 127, 130, and with a literal repeat of the opening section. —Notes by Melvin Berger from 132) that he composed at the behest of Guide to Chamber Music Russian nobleman and amateur cellist Over the third movement, Beethoven Prince Galitzin, it was actually second in inscribed the words, “Heiliger Dankgesang EMERSON STRING QUARTET order of composition. Study of Beethoven’s eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der The Emerson String Quartet has an sketchbook shows that he originally lydischen Tonart” (“Holy Song of Thanksgiving unparalleled list of achievements over three planned the quartet in the traditional four to the Divinity by a Convalescent, in decades: more than 30 acclaimed recordings, movements, but on recovering from his the Lydian Mode”). The sublime hymn nine Grammys (including two for Best sickness, he decided to replace the two expresses his gratitude for the return of good Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, middle sections with three movements, health; use of the Lydian mode, an ancient the Avery Fisher Prize, Musical America’s including the central Heiliger Dankgesang. ecclesiastical scale (corresponding to the Ensemble of the Year, and collaborations with modern F scale but without a B flat), gives many of the greatest artists of our time. The quartet starts with a short, slow the music a spiritual tone. The music consists introductory motif that bears a similarity to of five lines of a slow, solemn chordal hymn, The arrival of Paul Watkins in 2013 has the ones heard at the opening of the String with each line preceded by a faster-moving had a profound effect on the Emerson Quartet No. 14, op. 131, and the Grosse contrapuntal prelude. The vital and vigorous Quartet. Mr. Watkins, a distinguished soloist, Fuge, op. 133. Some think Beethoven used contrasting second section, Neue Kraft award-winning conductor, and devoted this motif—a slow, rising half step followed fühlend (“Feeling of New Strength”) evokes chamber musician, joined the ensemble by a large leap—as a way of unifying these a sense of strength through alternating loud in its 37th season, and his dedication and three works; others believe that the motifs and soft measures that surge with a powerful, enthusiasm have infused the quartet with in the three compositions resemble one propulsive force. After varied returns of a warm, rich tone and a palpable joy in the another because they were all composed both sections, the movement ends with a collaborative process. The reconfigured around the same time, and the inadvertent free restatement of the Heiliger Dankgesang, group has been greeted with impressive repetition of certain favorite melodic turns marked on the score by Beethoven to accolades.