Dmitri Shostakovich Joaquín Turina Felix Mendelssohn
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CONCERT #1 - Released JULY 17, 2021 DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11 Prelude Scherzo Arnaud Sussmann violin / Amy Schwartz Moretti violin / Tessa Lark violin / Augustin Hadelich violin James Ehnes viola / Jonathan Vinocour viola / Edward Arron cello / Ani Aznavoorian cello JOAQUÍN TURINA La oracíon del torero, Op. 34 Tessa Lark violin / Augustin Hadelich violin / Jonathan Vinocour viola / Ani Aznavoorian cello FELIX MENDELSSOHN String Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 Allegro moderato ma con fuoco Andante Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo Finale: Presto Augustin Hadelich violin / Tessa Lark violin / Arnaud Sussmann violin / Amy Schwartz Moretti violin / Jonathan Vinocour viola / James Ehnes viola / Ani Aznavoorian cello / Edward Arron cello COncert SPONSORED BY BEIN AND CO. RARE VIOLINS DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH When the composer introduced the Prelude and (1906–1975) Scherzo to the Circle of New Music in Leningrad, the Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11 (1925–27) new works were scathingly assailed by the influential Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2016 music historian and composer, Boris Asayev. So daunted was Shostakovich by this unexpected Though enjoying enthusiastic early support from attack that he withheld the Two Pieces until after he early post-Revolution 1917 authorities, Shostakovich achieved stunning success with his first symphony henceforth grappled almost continuously with issues in 1926 (written while registered as a student at the of life and death. Whether despite of or because of Leningrad Conservatory and still rightfully regarded sensitivity to such matters, he developed a public as an astonishingly inventive work). When the Two persona to protect himself emotionally; in his music, Pieces were finally performed in 1927, the public however, he bared his soul. In 1924, the composer’s response was enthusiastic, leading to frequent friend and virtually exact contemporary, Volodya performances in the years ahead, even in the West. Kurchavov, died from typhoid fever. In response to In 1948, when Shostakovich felt the full weight of this great personal loss, Shostakovich wrote the Stalinist opprobrium (well, not the full weight: he Prelude in G minor and dedicated it to his departed lived to tell about it), the Prelude and Scherzo were friend. condemned with particular zeal as “unworthy of the Russian people.” The Prelude evolves from very simple but potent material, a rising fourth and a falling, sighing minor JOAQUÍN TURINA second. With an urgency strengthened by dotted (1882-1949) rhythm, the brief work opens intensely and with La oracíon del torero, Op. 34 (1925) gravity—almost suggesting the rhythmic pattern of SCMS premiere a Baroque French overture—before yielding to eerie, Impressionistic arabesques in the high strings. The In common with many of his forebears Joaquín Turina music flows from one section to another, its moods pursued a career in music against parental wishes and dynamics constantly shifting, yet unified by a for a more certain vocation in medicine (law for palpable sense of grieving. Only at the very end does Robert Schumann among other notable). Softening Shostakovich achieve emotional relief and resolution the challenge to the young man, however, his in the comfort of a softly uttered final D-major chord. father allowed him to follow his bliss—music. This “concession” probably reflected the father’s artistic In 1925, he composed what would become the sensibilities and profession: the elder Turina was a companion piece to the Prelude, the Scherzo in painter! G minor. As with the Prelude, the music seems to confront mortality. Here, however, there is really In 1905, Joaquín made the virtually obligatory no resolution, and, for that matter, not as much move to Paris where he studied piano with Moritz warmth of expression. The Scherzo is grim irony Moszkowski and composition at the Schola incarnate, and heard in the light of Shostakovich’s Cantorum under Vincent D’Indy. Exposure to the later problems with Stalinist repression, chillingly music of Debussy added a French patina to Turina’s anticipated future Soviet history. The music begins ingrained Spanish accent, as it did with many Spanish furiously without a moment’s preparation, and then composers in the first two decades of the 20th shifts to an equally dark but less frenetic section century. On the advice of Albéniz and Falla, who were where a serpentine cello line negotiates its path appalled by D’Indy’s stylistic influence on Turina’s through taunting pizzicatos in the other strings. A Piano Quintet, the young composer returned to Spain devilishly quick and eerie theme emerges, darkening in 1913 to rediscover and draw upon his country’s the irony. great heritage of regional folk music. SUMMER FestIval // The String Quartet of 1925, La oración del torero which launched the Bach renaissance that happily (“The Bullfighter’s Prayer”) clearly reflects Turina’s continues unabated to this day. renewed devotion to his Spanish roots. Originally— and unusually—scored for four lutes, the plucked That a 16-year-old could produce so fine a chamber strings of those wonderful early music instruments work as the Octet was astonishing. Max Bruch simply impart a sound suggestive of Spanish music often called it a “miracle.” Mendelssohn noted in the associated with the guitar. For practical reasons, manuscript that “this octet must be played by all the the composer wisely produced alternate versions instruments in symphonic orchestra style.” Toward for traditional string quartet and string orchestra, the end of his brief life Mendelssohn reflected that thereby ensuring wider currency among musicians the Octet was “my favorite of all my compositions,” and audiences. adding “I had a most wonderful time in the writing of it.” The Quartet begins with an Impressionistic haze— quiet, dreamy, and very Spanish. Much of the music Mendelssohn cast the Octet in four movements. The is pensive, introspective, and quietly rhapsodic. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco opens with a rich Occasional sharp pizzicatos disturb the prevailing and distinctly orchestral texture above which soars serenity and remind us of the work’s plucked strings the first violin’s regal yet energetic theme. Mirroring origin. It is dangerous to maintain so unruffled a the composer’s above-noted “suggestion,” the demeanor for too long lest the listener’s attention prevailing sonority remains orchestral in both color drifts into an alpha-wave hypnotic state, so Turina and variation of density. Counter themes balance wisely posited a contrasting rhythmic section about the principal theme, especially a legato tune played half-way through. The temperature builds to a short initially by the first viola. During the development, dramatic and emphatic episode before receding into Mendelssohn raises the emotional temperature calm. Not surprising given his formative experience in through increasing syncopation and heightened Paris, occasional fragrances of the Debussy and Ravel dynamics before an unexpectedly quiet introduction quartets tickle the senses. to the recapitulation. He ends the movement with a fiery coda. FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) A beguiling and lovely Andante provides a serene String Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 (1825) respite before an airy and buoyant Scherzo—one of Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2016 his “signature” forms. His extravagantly gifted and astute sister Fanny wrote of it: “All is new, strange, Mendelssohn’s adolescence yielded a number of and yet so familiar and pleasing—one feels close great and near-great works, his dozen-plus string to the world of spirits, lightly carried up into the air. symphonies, Octet for Strings, and Overture to A Indeed, one might take a broomstick so as to follow Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hebrides Overture. the airy procession.” Each of these works testifies to his early maturation and astounding gift for both form and musical In a vein similar to the Scherzo, the Finale: Presto characterization. begins at full speed with unstoppable humor and an opening tune from the second cello. Here Mendelssohn dedicated the Octet—in reality a Mendelssohn casts a theme in that instrument’s “double quartet”—to friend and violin teacher Eduard lowest register, one designed to be virtually Rietz, who had propitiously gifted the composer impossible to perform with poise or grace. The theme a copy of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, the very dominates throughout, offset by brief episodes in work Mendelssohn re-introduced (in a somewhat which the entire ensemble pounds out a quasi-rustic shortened version) to the world in 1829 and motif of emphatically repeated unison notes. Program Notes by Steven Lowe JULY 17, 2021 // ProGram notes.