th S e a s o n P r o g r a m N o t e s 45 Week 2 July 23–July 29, 2017

Sunday, July 23, 6 pm it was just a week after his dedication of in the autumn of 1853, apparently with Monday, July 24, 6 pm Opus 132 that he attempted suicide. Fol- Clara at the piano and Joachim playing lowing his rescue, Schumann requested to . Schumann sent it to his publisher (1810 – 1856) be placed in an asylum where he died two Breitkopf & Härtel, along with his Cello Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales), Op. 132 years later. and Kinderball (Children’s Party) (1853) It was in the later years of his too-short for piano four-hands. Märchenerzählungen life that Schumann lost interest first in was published in February 1854. Schumann was in so many ways the em- solo piano works, then traditional chamber —Greg Hettmansberger bodiment of the Romantic sensibility that ensembles in favor of small duo and trio there was a constant battle with the Classi- combinations, including wind instruments. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN cal era that had closed the 18th century. To It seems probable that he was aware of (1770 – 1827) write , symphonies, and Mozart’s estimable “Kegelstatt” Trio and in , Op. 1, No. 3 (1794-95) after the forms had been codified by Haydn modeled the instrumentation of his Märch- and Mozart and expanded by Beethoven enerzählungen after it. Part of the inspira- Beethoven was particularly anxious that was one thing, but for Schumann and his tion was his recent meeting with the young the first work he published in Vienna—and contemporaries such as Liszt, Berlioz, and Johannes Brahms and the virtuoso violinist the first work he assigned an opus number Chopin, those now-dominant formal struc- Joseph Joachim (who also played viola). to—should be successful. He chose for this tures were too constraining. Schumann Schumann began the Märchenerzählungen first official publication a set of three piano once said, “I am affected by everything that on October 9, 1853, and completed these trios which he had worked on for several goes on in the world—politics, literature, delicacies just two days later. Clara supplied years. They were published in July 1795, but people—I think it over in my own way, the evidence for us in her diary: “Today all three had been performed before that. and then I long to express my feelings in Robert completed four pieces for piano, Beethoven was so anxious for the trios to music.” clarinet, and viola and was very happy succeed that he had them performed while His own life mirrored the turbulence of about this. He feels that this combination still in manuscript so he could refine the his inner aesthetic. He reluctantly followed will have a very Romantic effect—I feel work that would mark the beginning of his parents’ wishes to pursue legal studies the same myself. What an inexhaustible his career. He dedicated the set to Prince but could not resist the call to compose. genius!” Lichnowsky, his patron in Vienna. There is Early in his piano studies he invented a For all the fanciful and evocative titles evidence that Lichnowsky—anxious himself mechanism intended to strengthen his of many of his earlier works and the fact for the young composer to succeed—secret- technique. Even though the contraption that this set is collectively titled Fairy Tales, ly helped underwrite the publication costs damaged a finger to the point of ending Schumann was meager in giving us any so that Beethoven’s financial success in his any hopes of a playing career, he threw detailed illustrations. But he did leave us first effort would be assured. Another major himself into composing with renewed fer- this structural guide: “In the sequence of figure on the Viennese musical scene had vor. While studying under Friedrich Wieck, expressive characters and partly, too, in the a different reaction to the publication of he eventually fell in love with his daughter, formal design of the pieces, the structure these trios: Franz Joseph Haydn, with whom the young Clara…leading to years of emo- of the Märchenerzählungen discloses a Beethoven had studied briefly, requested tional and legal battles before they could vague resemblance to the succession of that Beethoven include the words “Pupil of finally marry. movements in a -form cycle: the first Haydn” beneath his name on the trios’ title Clara still managed to become one of piece contains a ‘development-like’ middle page. Typically, Beethoven refused, exclaim- the leading piano virtuosos of the century section, the second piece takes the place ing stormily to a friend that he had “never but encouraged Robert and championed his of a Scherzo with its clearly articulated learned anything from [Haydn].” music during and after his life. Schumann three-section da capo form. No. 3, perhaps There was another reason for also started the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, formally the most unusual, functions as Beethoven’s animosity toward Haydn. The the journal becoming a focal point for both a slow movement. The last piece, like the older composer had advised him to publish criticism and the launching of new careers, second, belongs to the category of the da the first two trios but to hold back the Trio including Chopin and Brahms. Eventu- capo piece, but bears traits reminiscent of a in C Minor. Beethoven, who believed that ally his family’s history of depression and in its outer sections.” one to be the best of the set, suspected mental illness caught up with him, and Several private performances took place jealousy on Haydn’s part. Haydn later ex-

Program notes for Music at Noon Concerts are sponsored by Barbara & Ronald Balser with thanks to the gifted Festival musicians who inspire us all. plained to Ferdinand Ries—apparently in all ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV (1865 – 1936) conflicted, and a full-throated coda propels innocence and sincerity—that he believed String Quintet in A Major, Op. 39 (1891-92) it to a close on a unison A. the Trio in C Minor too advanced for audi- The Scherzo is an exceptionally attrac- ences, but Beethoven bore the grudge for Glazunov was one of the most prodigiously tive movement. Glazunov combines the some time. gifted of composers, and his long career sound of bowed and pizzicato strings in the While Beethoven’s first published com- spanned an important era in Russian music. outer sections, and, while the trio moves positions were by no means revolutionary, His First Symphony was premiered when he to D Minor, it retains the relaxed character certain new features strike the listener. The was 16; he studied with Rimsky-Korsakov of the entire Quintet: the marking again first of these is the scope of these trios: and became friends with Liszt, Borodin, and is dolce and cantabile. The cello restates they are consciously large-scale works, with Scriabin; and late in life, he was an ardent the Quintet’s general theme-shape in the the Trio in C Minor lasting more than half supporter of the young Shostakovich, introduction to the Andante sostenuto, and an hour. And while the piano trio of the whose tuition he helped pay. He composed the first violin extends this into a flowing classical period usually had three move- a vast amount of music, including eight main melody marked dolce ed espressivo. ments, all three of these trios have four. symphonies (a ninth remains in piano A more active middle section leads to a Beethoven adds a movement to what had score), five concertos, seven quartets, two return of the opening material and a coda been the established fast-slow-fast pattern ballets, and much more. It might be said that makes imaginative use of harmonics. of a generation earlier. of Glazunov, however, that he fulfilled the Glazunov was sometimes accused of The present Trio is remarkable if for no promise of his youth but not of his matu- cosmopolitanism by his countrymen, who other reason than it is Beethoven’s first rity. Virtually all his music was composed felt that his music was not sufficiently Rus- work in C Minor, the key that would call before he was 40. There is almost nothing sian, but the last movement of the Quintet forth some of his most impassioned music: from the final 30 years of his life, when has a distinctly Russian feel. It opens with the “Pathétique” Sonata, the Fourth String he was overwhelmed by his administrative a sturdy eight-bar tune that sounds as Quartet, the Third Piano Concerto, the duties as director of the St. Petersburg Con- if it must have had its origin in Russian Funeral March of the “Eroica” Symphony, servatory by a lack of sympathy with the folk music, and Glazunov then treats this and the Fifth Symphony, to name only the new directions music was taking, a difficult in many ways, including some vigorous best-known examples. This Trio shares some relationship with the new Soviet govern- fugal writing. The episodes in this rondo- of that same C-Minor spirit. The Allegro ment, and problems with alcohol. like movement are quite varied, and the con brio opens with an ominous theme for The String Quintet in A Major, though, coda drives the Quintet to a quick close on all three instruments in unison. Remarkably, dates from the heady days of Glazunov’s another unison A. Beethoven introduces the second theme youth: he composed it in St. Petersburg in —Eric Bromberger immediately: it is heard in the 10th measure 1891-92 when he was 26. The cello quintet in the piano. The dramatic development has proven a rare form. Though Boccherini treats both themes, often accompanied by wrote more than 100 during the 18th cen- showers of 16th notes from the piano. The tury, the form almost vanished thereafter. Andante cantabile con variazioni is a set of Schubert’s magnificent Cello Quintet, com- five graceful variations on the piano’s noble posed in the last months of his life, is the opening theme; Beethoven appends a brief one great example written after Boccherini, coda. The full title of the Menuetto: Quasi and Glazunov may well have had Schubert’s allegro is important, for it suggests that—in Quintet in mind when he wrote his own, its rapid —this minuet form is edging for both works are marked by an unusual toward becoming a scherzo. The trio sec- melodiousness and richness of expression. tion belongs largely to the cello. The Finale. Glazunov played both violin and cello, Prestissimo rushes along with the opening and the writing throughout his Quintet is theme passed from violin to piano to cello. graceful and idiomatic—and sometimes Rather than moving into a major key for very imaginative. the close, Beethoven keeps the movement Glazunov’s Quintet takes much of its firmly in C Minor and provides an effective character from the very opening, where the surprise by closing the work—which had viola’s long melody rocks along smoothly on been so full of turmoil—very quietly. its 9/8 meter. Glazunov marks this rising- —Eric Bromberger and-falling figure dolce, and its general shape will reappear throughout the Quin- tet. The second subject, announced by the first cello, is also marked dolce and can- tabile: this will be a movement based not on drama or conflict but on an agreeable lyricism. Though Glazunov changes meters frequently the music never grows tense or

2 2017 Program Notes Week Two Tuesday, July 25, noon JAMES MATHESON (b. 1970) opening motif, in unison, fff, and the true Quartet for Oboe & Strings (2008) last note held at length again. FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828) —Greg Hettmansberger String Trio Movement in B-Flat Major, James Matheson has risen from unassum- D. 471 (1816) ing beginnings in Des Moines, Iowa, to become a widely performed composer and (1756 – 1791) Schubert wrote this fragment of a string an influential force. The latter was particu- String Quartet No. 22 in B-flat Major, trio in September 1816 when he was 19. He larly highlighted when he was appointed K. 589, “Prussian No. 2” (1790) had—quite reluctantly—agreed to become a in 2009 as the director of the Los Ange- schoolteacher like the other members of his les Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship In the spring of 1789, Prince Karl Lich­ family and was living at home during this Program. He held that position until 2015 nowsky, a generous patron of music, invited period—teaching school, correcting papers, and in 2011 was also granted the Charles Mozart to visit Berlin with him. Legend has and desperately using what little free time Ives Living award. His major compositions it that the cello-playing King Friedrich Wil- he had to compose. Schubert, his father, have been commissioned, premiered, and helm II was anxious to receive Mozart, who and his brothers were all string players, and recorded by groups such as the Los Angeles played before the king and queen and was one of the family recreations was playing and New York philharmonics, the Chicago rewarded with a golden snuffbox full of a . The young composer wrote Symphony Orchestra, and the Borromeo hundred louis d’or, a commission to com- a great deal of Hausmusik (“house music” String Quartet. Now based principally in pose six string quartets for the king, and intended for domestic use only) for the New York, Matheson continues to be in de- six easy keyboard sonatas for his daughter family, and the String Trio Movement is one mand by soloists and large ensembles alike. Princess Friederike. Mozart returned to of these works. The Quartet for Oboe & Strings came Vienna but was able to complete only three Schubert composed this music at exactly about as a commission by Winsor Music for of these quartets and then had to sell them the same time he was writing his Fifth the oboist Peggy Pearson and made possible for quick cash during the poverty of his Symphony, and the two works share the by a grant from the Jebediah Foundation: final years. same genial and sunny character. Schubert New Music Commissions. Aside from Mo- But the problem is that this tale appears apparently found the string trio a dif- zart’s delightful K. 370, few composers have to have been a complete fabrication on ficult form, however, and he left the work tackled the unique challenges of combin- Mozart’s part. While Mozart did visit Berlin unfinished: all that remains is an opening ing the distinctive double reed woodwind in May 1789, all the evidence suggests Allegro movement and a 34-measure frag- with a traditional string trio. Matheson that the king did not receive him; instead, ment of what would have been an Andante. addressed this in a brief program note: “The he sent Mozart off to Jean Pierre Duport, Because it was never intended for public musical ideas of my Oboe Quartet are gen- his director of chamber music. The king did use and was never finished, the manu- erated largely from a question that arose not meet Mozart, gave him no gift, and script was simply set aside and forgotten; as I began working with this fundamentally commissioned nothing. Faced with having it was not published until 70 years after odd instrumentation: how do I write for to return to Vienna in defeat, Mozart bor- Schubert’s death. three string instruments that are roughly rowed money to pass off as from the king The surviving Allegro is exceptionally homogeneous and the oboe, which has a and created the story of the commission. attractive music. In sonata form, it is built totally different character? So the piece Certainly he did not seem to take the com- on two contrasting theme groups: a firm begins with the instruments in unison with mission—if it ever existed—very seriously. opening melody based on three rising notes different instruments gradually splinter- He wrote one quartet immediately, two a and a more lyric second group. The music ing off. The rest of the piece explores a year later, and then forgot about the whole flows gently throughout, with the melodic variety of ideas, textures, and expressive thing. When these quartets were published line passing smoothly among the three modes that highlight the uniqueness of there was no hint of a royal dedication. The instruments—Schubert reminds the players this strange but also strangely beautiful notion that these quartets had been written at several points to play dolce. The devel- combination.” on commission from a king had been aban- opment, full of key shifts and chromatic A unison motif opens and dominates doned. Yet the nickname “King of Prussia” harmonies, is extended, and the movement the single-movement work, and, indeed, or “Prussian” will be forever a part of how comes to a conclusion made all the more for a stretch the oboe behaves as though we think of these quartets. It is an irony effective by its understatement. it should be fully accepted into the timbre that Mozart would have felt keenly. —Eric Bromberger of the three string players. A little later Uncomfortable as this episode may be, Matheson gives the oboe full opportunity it should not cause us to undervalue these to display its upper range without be- quartets, which are composed with all the ing fettered by the strings, which provide mastery of Mozart’s final years. Taking an a more stable underpinning. The final 40 obvious cue, he made sure that all three bars or so return to a generally unison/ feature an important role for the cellist, but octave approach but with extreme dynamic such prominence created special problems contrasts along the way. What seems to be for Mozart, who was essentially a “top-line” the last note, held very long, is followed composer. He preferred to have the melody by a long “grand pause”; at last we get the in the highest register, the accompaniment

3 2017 Program Notes Week Two beneath it. As soon as the bottom voice is Wednesday, July 26, 6 pm movement, and, despite a contrast in speed given prominence, the other three voices Thursday, July 27, 7:30 pm and key (a completely surprising shift from must have their roles re-defined. As a D Minor to E Major), the opening material result, all four instruments have very active MARC NEIKRUG (b. 1946) returns in all its irrepressible strength. The roles giving these quartets an unusually String Trio (2016-17) finale is the unexpected heart of the work: rich sonority. (World premiere) an extended song of slumber and peace The Quartet in B-flat Major, completed that the timbre of the viola is suited for in May 1790, is relaxed and agreeable Please see “Commissions and Premieres” in perhaps above all other instruments. music. There is a sense of smoothness the program book for notes by the com- —Greg Hettmansberger throughout the first movement. Its opening poser about his work. theme flows easily in the first violin, and LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN there are two secondary subjects both as- ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810 – 1856) (1770 – 1827) signed to the cello. The brief but energetic Märchenbilder (Fairytale Pictures), Op. 113 String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, development concentrates on the opening (1851) Op. 131 (1826) idea, and the two themes that had been announced by the cello do not reappear From the beginning of his compositional Beethoven had been commissioned in 1822 until the closing moments. The cello has career, Schumann seemed better suited to by Prince Nikolas Galitzin of St. Petersburg the main theme of the Larghetto. Textures the miniature. In movements that required to write three string quartets, though he grow complex here, with ornate rhythms little or no development, he could indulge had to delay them until after he finished and unusual pairings of instruments: the in the gesture, the harmonic turn, and a the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Sym- first violin and cello, though some distance freedom of expression made more bound- phony. He completed the three quartets for apart in range, share the material at times. less by stringing sequences of such move- Galitzin in 1825, but those quartets had not The cello fades from prominence over ments together. Thus, in early masterpieces exhausted his ideas about the form, and the final two movements. The Menuetto is such as Papillons and Carnaval, we get the he pressed on to work on another. Begun in many ways the most striking movement full range of Schumann’s moods—and gifts. at the end of 1825, the Quartet in C-sharp of this Quartet. The opening section sends But despite his later successes in Minor was complete in July 1826. This is the first violin quite high in its register, symphony, and, to a lesser degree concerto, an astonishing work in every respect. Its perhaps as an effort to balance the deep larger forms could be a struggle. In the form alone is remarkable: seven continuous sonority of the cello. The trio section is late 1840s he wrestled mightily with the movements lasting a total of 40 minutes. huge. Over a busy, chirping accompaniment, opera Genoveva and incidental music to But its content is just as remarkable, for the first violin assumes a role of concerto- Byron’s Manfred; his antidote was to find this Quartet is an unbroken arc of music like prominence, and Mozart stays with this solace in the world of miniatures. At this that sustains a level of heartfelt intensity until the third movement becomes, surpris- time he elected to write a series of works and intellectual power through every in- ingly, almost the longest in the Quartet. The for various solo instruments with piano. stant of its journey. It is no surprise to learn finale, much more conventional, unfolds As he produced new music for horn, oboe, that this was Beethoven’s favorite among smoothly on its 6/8 meter; its main theme cello, and clarinet his beloved Clara wrote his quartets. bears a close relationship to the finale of in her diary, “All the instruments are having On the manuscript he sent the pub- Haydn’s “Joke” Quartet (perhaps an act a turn.” In 1850 a move to Düsseldorf and lisher, the composer scrawled: “zusam- of homage). The movement drives to an new responsibilities put a temporary stop mengestohlen aus Verschiedenem diesem almost operatic climax with the first violin to the creative outburst, but the arrival of und jenem” (“Stolen and patched together soaring high above the other instruments a new orchestral violinist, Wilhelm Joseph from various bits and pieces”). The alarmed before the music subsides to its nicely von Wasielewski, proved to be cata- publishers were worried that he might understated close. lytic. With characteristic incandescence, be trying to palm off some old pieces he —Eric Bromberger Schumann turned out the four-movement had lying around, and Beethoven had to suite in just five days in March 1851. explain that his remark was a joke. But Though titled Fairytale Pictures, the it is at once a joke and a profound truth. suite is almost a throwback to the Euse- A joke because this Quartet is one of the bius/Florestan dichotomy of Schumann’s most carefully unified pieces ever written youthful compositions. The former charac- and a truth because it is made up of “bits ter represents the introspective dreamer, and pieces”: fugue, theme and variations, the latter the man of action. The opening scherzo, and sonata form among them. The movement is an expression of ambiguous opening movement is a long, slow fugue, yearning, perhaps regret; the subtlety of its haunting main subject laid out immedi- byplay between the players is remarkable. ately by the first violin. There is something “Florestan’s” answer, as it were, is in the rapt about the movement (and perhaps rhythmic aggression and inexorable energy the entire Quartet), as if the music almost of the second movement. The sense of comes from a different world. In a sense, it drama and urgency continues in the third did. Beethoven had been completely deaf

4 2017 Program Notes Week Two for a decade when he wrote this Quartet, Thursday, July 27, noon element that helps to propel the music is and now, less than a year from his death, the persistent use of a “grupetto,” a group he was writing from the lonely power of his WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART of ornamental notes that rises then dips musical imagination. Molto espressivo, he (1756 – 1791) below the principal melodic pitch. It could demands in the score, and if ever there has Trio in E-flat Major for Clarinet, Viola & easily become an annoying cliché, but been expressive music, this is it. The fugue Piano, K. 498, “Kegelstatt” (1786) leave it to Mozart to find ways to freshen reaches a point of repose, then modulates its appearance. The second theme grows up half a step to D Major for the Allegro Given the fact that he left the world well directly out of the last several notes of the molto vivace. Rocking along easily on a over 600 completed works (and shall we first theme. The development is short, but 6/8 meter, this flowing movement brings say that at a minimum 25 percent of them the material undergoes further expansion relaxation—and emotional relief—after the are certifiable masterpieces?) in a life of in the recapitulation and coda—a lesson intense fugue. just 36 years, it hardly seems a stretch to the young Beethoven would soon learn and The Allegro moderato opens with two believe that a number of these composi- take further. sharp chords and seems on the verge tions began as scribbles on a napkin…or The Menuetto’s charm disguises open- of developing entirely new ideas when conceived while relaxing over a game of ing material that certainly travels further Beethoven suddenly cuts it off with a soar- skittles. than any simple dance form. Odder still is ing cadenza for first violin and proceeds But that’s what centuries-old tradi- the central trio section, where a short but to the next movement. The Allegro mod- tion would have us believe—that Mozart flowing motif in the clarinet is answered erato seems to pass as the briefest flash of conceived this charming and unique work by nervous triplet figures in the viola. No contrast—the entire movement lasts only 11 while engaged in an early form of bowl- sooner does it seem that the viola will measures. ing with his dear friend and colleague, the win the day then the clarinet increases The longest movement in the Quar- clarinetist . We can at least its volume and insistence with its motif. tet, the Andante ma non troppo e molto be sure when he finished it—August 5, Ultimately there is no victor, as the open- cantabile is one of its glories. Beethoven 1786. When we take a closer look at the ing material quickly slips back into the presents a simple theme gracefully shared astonishing stream of music pouring out foreground. by the two violins and then writes six of Mozart in those mid-1780s, it may not The finale is a rondo with no fewer than variations on it. At times the variations have been a matter of being so busy that three contrasting episodes between the re- grow so complex that the original theme he couldn’t take time to truly relax with turn appearances of the main melody. That almost disappears; Beethoven brings it friends, but rather a case that new (and primary tune is itself based on the second back, exotically decorated by first violin sublime!) music simply wouldn’t stop pour- theme of the first movement, making for trills, at the very end of the movement. Out ing out of him. a subtle unity of the overall work. There of this quiet close explodes the Presto, the Consider: just two months earlier, is no overlooking the second contrasting Quartet’s scherzo, which rushes along on a Mozart had finished the second of his two section with the viola asserting itself in a steady pulse of quarter-notes; this powerful ground-breaking piano quartets, the K. 493, minor key. The efforts of the clarinet, with music flows easily, almost gaily. Beethoven and two weeks after the Clarinet Trio was its bouncing triplet answer in its lowest makes use of sharp pizzicato accents and finished, so was the K. 499 “Hoffmeister” register, and later the quiet, lyrical response at the very end asks the performers to play String Quartet. Let’s not forget that 1786 in the upper register of the piano, fail to sul ponticello, producing an eerie, grating also was the year of the premiere of The dissuade the persistent string theme. But it sound by bowing directly on the tops of Marriage of Figaro! isn’t long before the geniality of our skittle their bridges. Intriguing circumstances aside, a more outing with a good friend is reflected in the There follows a heartfelt Adagio, salient point about K. 498 is that Mozart closing pages of this cherishable gem of a its main idea introduced by the viola. chose to add viola to the pairing of clarinet work. Beethoven distills stunning emotional and piano. Beethoven and Brahms both —Greg Hettmansberger power into the briefest of spans here. This wrote clarinet trios with cello as the string movement lasts only 28 measures before member, but no other composer (and there the concluding Allegro bursts to life with a are only a couple of other examples, such unison attack three octaves deep. In sonata as ) came close to matching Mo- form, this furiously energetic movement zart’s achievement. But one thing we know brings back fragments of the fugue subject about Mozart the musician helps explain from the first movement. It is an exuberant the choice: like J.S. Bach, Mozart had a conclusion to so intense a journey, and at strong personal preference for playing the the very end the music almost leaps up- viola. ward to the three massive chords that bring The opening Andante is almost an the Quartet to its close. ambiguous hybrid of fast and slow move- —Eric Bromberger ment, its triple meter too relaxed for a waltz (which didn’t quite exist at that time) or even a minuet. Its mood certainly belies its supposed venue of creation! A key

5 2017 Program Notes Week Two WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART A Major—F-sharp Minor—A Major again, the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, (1756 – 1791) then to F Major and back to A Major once which had been founded in 1820, is still String Quartet No. 20 in D Major, K. 499, more. active today, and Bartók’s manuscript for “Hoffmeister” (1786) The second movement brings us the his Third Quartet remains one of its prized minuet, memorable for the theme being possessions. Here’s a unique and creative use of the placed in the upper range of the viola and The shortest of Bartók’s six quartets, the barter system: pay off a debt with a string surrounded by rich harmonies. The trio Third Quartet has proven the thorniest of quartet (doesn’t hurt if it turns out to be contrasts the opening material with lively that cycle—critics invariably refer to it as a masterpiece!). Of course, when we’re triplet figures but all of it transpiring in a “anti-romantic.” The Quartet is marked by talking about the mature Mozart (all of 27 murkier D-Minor soundscape. a fierce concentration of materials and by years old but in the midst of one his great- The third movement reminds us of Bartók’s refusal to use traditional melodic est stretches of compositions, it’s a safe bet Mozart’s mastery of the long vocal lines themes. In their place he makes use of that the recipient is getting the best of the so powerful in his mature operas. At times short motifs that are almost consciously bargain. the extension of the melodies occludes the athematic in their brevity. The Quartet The back story is that Mozart wrote 10 basic sonata form Mozart is still using as takes as its basic thematic cell a three-note quartets that are counted as his indispens- his framework. Einstein again was moved to figure first announced by the first violin in able contributions to the genre. The first state that the movement somehow hides a the sixth measure: G rising to D and falling six are the ones referred to as the “Haydn” “past sorrow.” to A. That motif and a handful of others Quartets as they are dedicated to Mozart’s The finale starts and stops with a few are then subjected to the most rigorous great contemporary, and the last three are parcels from what is actually the main and concentrated polyphonic development: known as the “Prussian” Quartets as they theme before we get the full-blown treat- canon, fugato, inversion, and simultaneous were originally meant to be part of another ment. When the next feeling of stopping presentation of material. The structure is set of six composed for King Friedrich Wil- arrives, the violins bring us the second equally concentrated. Only 15 minutes long liam II of Prussia. That leaves tonight’s theme only to be interrupted more than and performed without pause, the Third K. 499 as a kind of orphan. For many years once by rather rude and cranky viola inter- Quartet, nevertheless, divides into four sec- composers had been writing various works jections. If the development and recapitula- tions: First Part, Second Part, Recapitulation in sets of six or three, so why just one? tion seem a tad straightforward, they at the of the First Part, and Coda, which is essen- There is no definitive evidence (since Franz very least remind us of that rarefied perfec- tially a recapitulation—or a revisiting—of Anton Hoffmeister may have commissioned tion that Mozart and few others achieved. the second part. it), but it is more than possible that Mozart —Greg Hettmansberger Bartók accentuates the fierce con- wrote it for his long-time publisher/friend centration of this music by enlivening it (who was also a composer) in order to BÉLA BARTÓK (1881 – 1945) with one of the richest palettes of sound relieve himself of a debt. String Quartet No. 3, Sz. 85 (1927) of any of his quartets. The Quartet opens Whatever the circumstances, it would with a sound he rarely used in his quar- not be surprising if the work had acquired In the fall of 1927, just as he was leaving tets—artificial harmonics—and then takes another nickname, for it is a piece that on his first concert tour of America, Béla the music through a panoply of string brings surface joy in nearly every movement Bartók submitted the manuscript of his sonorities: slithering ponticellos, martellato yet is quick to detour to more ambiguous Third String Quartet to a chamber music chords snapped off at the frog of the bow, emotional territory. The musicologist and competition sponsored by the Musical Fund passages tapped out with the wood of the biographer Alfred Einstein characterized Society of Philadelphia. Bartók returned bow rather than bowed with the hair, quick the work as “despairing under a mask of to Europe in March 1928 without hearing glissandos that span more than an octave, gaiety.” Certainly the work emerged rapidly anything about the competition, and after and passages played entirely over the and at a time when Mozart was on a “hot waiting nearly a year he gave up and began fingerboard to produce the most whispery streak.” Completed on August 19, 1786, to make arrangements to have the Quartet textures. One cannot separate music and during the initial run of that incomparable published in Europe. And, of course, at just sound, of course, and the sonic phantasma- opera The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart was that point the news arrived: Bartók had goria of this Quartet is part of its unbeliev- at the height of his powers and popularity. split first prize with the Italian composer able concentration of material. Hoffmeister wasted no time in getting the Alfredo Casella. His share of the prize was The first and second parts are basi- manuscript (which showed few signs of $3,000, welcome news for a composer cally sonata-form movements without hesitation or correction on Mozart’s part) who was never wholly free from financial their recapitulation sections. The First Part into print later that same year. worries throughout his life. Bartók had (marked Moderato) is built on the seminal The first movement’s opening theme is powerful friends on the committee of six three-note figure, which will then recur in deceptively simple, presented in unison but judges who awarded the prize, among them untold shapes. Three strident chords mark soon treated to much canonic imitation. Willem Mengelberg (conductor of the New the transition to the second subject, yet Along the way we are treated to a sequence York Philharmonic), Fritz Reiner (conductor here the “accompaniment” of the lower of harmonic changes that almost presages of the Cincinnati Symphony), and Frederick strings incorporates the basic shape of Schubert, although in Mozart’s hands the Stock (conductor of the Chicago Sympho- this Quartet as does the violin duet above subtleties are remarkably smooth: ny). And, in passing, it should be noted that them. At the very end of the movement the

6 2017 Program Notes Week Two second violin and viola have a sustained Friday, July 28, 2 – 8 pm colleague to both artists and composers duet in which this figure is finally made to that were on the cutting edge of produc- sing diatonically (and very beautifully). The MORTON FELDMAN (1926 – 1987) ing art that eschewed traditional structures Second Part (marked Allegro) begins with String Quartet No. 2 (1983) and techniques. a sustained trill: moving between differ- Despite carving out a growing niche in ent instruments, this trill goes on for 39 The adjective “Olympian” can be a tempt- the musical avant-garde, Feldman contin- measures and then returns throughout. ing one to use for critics and annotators ued to earn his living working in his fam- This “part” is built on two ideas: the cello’s searching for a word that connotes an ily’s textile business in New York’s garment strummed pizzicato chords near the open- achievement epic—even heroic—in scope. district. Finally, at the age of 47 Feldman ing and the first violin’s hurtling dance tune But having encountered Morton Feldman’s earned a professorship at the University draped along asymmetric meters. As part String Quartet No. 2, it seems likely that of Buffalo and a decade later also taught of the vigorous development, Bartók treats the word has found its best application— at UC-San Diego. Around the time of the these themes fugally and at one point not only for the creative artist, but the Buffalo appointment, Feldman’s creative even combines them. The brief concluding re-creative ones, the performers…and not drive led him away from the notations and sections bring the missing recapitulations, least, the audience. instructions that were loosely categorized but now Bartók—who never liked to repeat For Feldman’s 1983 opus is of a scale as part of the movement referred to as anything literally—shortens and concen- that dwarfs even one of Wagner’s music “indeterminate music” and toward a system trates his material even more stringently. In dramas from his Ring cycle, lasting more of precisely ordered notation. This coincided the words of Halsey Stevens, the mate- than six hours unbroken in a complete with a series of works that grew exponen- rial from the first two parts here makes “a performance. (At least when coming to tially longer in playing time, culminating in psychological return, not a physical one.” grips with Götterdämmerung there are a String Quartet No. 2. The dance rhythms of the Second Part race couple of generous intermissions in the Although even the most focused listener ahead, and the Quartet No. 3 concludes on course of its four-and-a-half-hour length; will not experience traditional patterns of stinging dissonances hammered out by all heck, Wagner even intended that there be exposition, development, and recapitula- four instruments. a sit-down dinner at the end of Act I before tion (they are there but do not function in The first performance of the Third String resuming the daunting work.) the traditional manner of structure or even Quartet took place in Philadelphia on De- Returning to our initial point about emotional response), it can still be helpful cember 30, 1928. The quartet on that oc- adjectives and their judicious use, could to understand something of the way Feld- casion was made up of the principal string we find a better candidate than Feldman man orders his materials. Christian Wolff, players of Stokowski’s Philadelphia Or- for the tried-and-true labels we so freely writing liner notes for the FLUX Quartet’s chestra: concertmaster Mischa Mischakoff, apply to folks such as Charles Ives, Arnold groundbreaking recording of the work, tells David Dubinsky, Samuel Lifschey, and Wil- Schoenberg, and other luminaries of the us: lem van den Burg. The Waldbauer-Kerpely prior century, such as “unique,” “ground- “…the score of String Quartet No. 2 is Quartet gave the European premiere of the breaking,” and “uncompromising”? A brief written on a fixed grid: 124 pages, each Third Quartet seven weeks later in London, overview of Feldman’s life and career page having always the same three systems on February 19, 1929, at Wigmore Hall. reveals these traits and more. of nine bars each (so always 27 bars to a —Eric Bromberger Born in Queens, New York, to Russian page) … A few times material extends over immigrants, Feldman’s early musical train- a number of pages, occasionally it takes up ing lay outside traditional academic paths. only part of a system. This grid is defined by But his first composition teachers included just one tempo, quarter-note = 63-66 beats Wallingford Riegger, who was spreading the per minute. But the grid is used altogether gospel of Schoenberg’s 12-tone system, and fluidly because Feldman idiosyncrati- Stefan Wolpe, who himself had studied un- cally sets the bars…in almost continually der Webern, one of Schoenberg’s first dis- changing meters, continually reshaping the ciples. While the influence of Webern was rhythm. The shortest metrical space in the particularly strong, an event in 1950 proved piece, 1/8 or half the length of a tempo a turning point in Feldman’s compositional beat, takes up the same visual space as the explorations. In the audience for a New longest, 11/4. …One page of the score, then, York Philharmonic performance of Webern’s may last as little as about a half minute or Symphony, Op. 21, Feldman walked out, as much as nearly seven minutes.” upset with the general (unapproving) reac- Feldman uses only six dynamic markings tion of the majority of listeners. This had (fff, f, mf, mp, ppp, ppppp), and the quieter had a similar effect on John Cage, who had markings predominate, especially in the also fled to the foyer. Sharing their mutual last hour or so of the piece. But while this disdain for the unapprehending masses, is clearly a work in which the whole is far their relationship deepened so quickly that greater than the sum of its sparse parts and Feldman moved into Cage’s apartment will affect every listener in a different way, building. Cage soon introduced his young it is Wolff’s opening lines that put it best:

7 2017 Program Notes Week Two “The point of course is to listen. There’s no Saturday, July 29, 5 pm is full of falling lines, all of them encrusted final information to be conveyed…Listening with turns and other ornaments; the music to this music is like looking at a star-filled FRANÇOIS COUPERIN (1668 – 1733) speeds ahead in its closing section. The night sky; anything else is material for an Vingt-septième ordre from Pièces de finale is titled La Saillie, which can mean astronomy lesson.” clavecin (Book 4) (1730) sally or quip. Couperin marks this move- —Greg Hettmansberger ment Vivement. François Couperin trained as an organist, —Eric Bromberger but we remember him today primarily for his harpsichord music. In 1716 at the age JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU (1683 – 1764) of 48, Couperin published a treatise on Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin harpsichord-playing titled L’art de toucher (1728) le clavecin, and over the final two decades of his life he published 220 pieces for the While it seems a safe assumption that harpsichord. He organized these pieces into creative artists believe they have more 27 groups, which he called “orders” rather left to say at the time of their passing, it than suites, and these were published in is endlessly intriguing to muse upon how four “books” between 1713 and 1730. disparate creators must have had some sort Couperin’s ordres bear some relation to of inner clock: Mozart, dead at the age of the Baroque keyboard suite—both contain 36, and Schubert, leaving this earth at 31, dance movements, for example—but what each left hundreds of works despite the distinguishes Couperin’s collections is the short time given them. vast number of character pieces, often with Rameau, on the other hand, could not fanciful titles. Sometimes these pieces can have been more deliberate. There can be be descriptive, offering musical portraits of little debate that he showed his talent early specific people or things. But more often (both his father and brother probably gave their titles are abstract and sometimes him his first organ lessons), but there is no intentionally obscure, and these cause evidence that he wrote anything of import listeners to come to the music with fresh in his early life. Indeed, his wife averred perceptions. that she knew next to nothing about it. Couperin was a theorist as well as a Apparently there was little to know. composer, and in L’art de toucher le clavecin Rameau spent years studying theory and he was quite specific about his ideas of harmony, and as for original compositions, proper ornamentation and other aspects of there was only a relatively scant number of harpsichord playing. A number of subse- motets and cantatas and two volumes of quent pianist-composers have fallen under harpsichord music. the spell of Couperin’s keyboard music, and But when Rameau moved to Paris in the their number includes such diverse artists early 1720s, he felt he had everything in as Brahms, Ravel, and Bartók, all of whom place to take his career to an entirely new were drawn to the precision, clarity, craft, level. In what may be the most famous let- and expressiveness of this music. ter never answered, Rameau wrote in 1727 Couperin’s Vingt-septième ordre (27th to the famous librettist Antoine Houdar de and last) is the final section of Book 4; it la Motte laying out his case as a composer was published in Paris in 1730. It consists ready to write great operas. Alluding to his of four short pieces, each with a descrip- lack of finished work, he spoke of his belief tive title. The opening piece takes the form that one should “study nature before paint- of an Allemande, though Couperin gives it ing it,” but he also cited his harpsichord the further title L’exquise (“The Exquisite pieces of 1724 as worthy examples of his One”). Perhaps this music was inspired by a ability to portray emotion. beautiful young woman. The piece is built De la Motte did not respond to the ea- on flowing and stately melodic lines with a ger would-be opera composer, but Rameau central section full of dotted rhythms. The wasted no time in completing a set of second piece is titled Les pavots, though harpsichord pieces that, in some respects, no one hearing this music would read- give us a classic “the chicken or the egg” ily identify it with poppies—Couperin’s scenario. For the Nouvelles suites de pièces performance instruction for this piece is de clavecin not only have been cited as nonchalamment. The third piece is titled quasi-orchestral in their timbral breadth Les chinois, and again there is nothing and dramatic in their range of emotional recognizably Chinese about this music. It expression, but a number of them did find

8 2017 Program Notes Week Two their way into the operas Rameau eventu- ally wrote. ERIC BROMBERGER earned his doctorate One of the most obvious examples is in American Literature at UCLA and taught Les sauvages, a piece that Rameau stated for 10 years before quitting to devote had been representative of the dance of himself to his first love, music. A violinist, a pair of Louisiana Indians he saw at the Bromberger writes program notes for the Paris Fair of 1725. Later he would use it in Minnesota Orchestra, Washington Perform- the feast of the Peace Pipe in the opera Les ing Arts at The Kennedy Center, San Fran- Indes galantes. Even the three traditional cisco Performances, University of Chicago dance movements which open the work Presents, La Jolla Music Society, San Diego manifest an emotional sweep more akin Symphony, and many other organizations. to the opera house than the salon. The He has been a pre-concert lecturer for the annotator Silas Standage further points Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1999. out that, while Nouvelles suites certainly presages Rameau’s later orchestral writing, GREG HETTMANSBERGER has contributed some passages in the opera may pay a kind criticism and features to the Los Angeles of reverse homage: “Take for example the Times, L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Daily News, Sarabande, which appears as the first of the Performing Arts, and the Santa Barbara Enchantments in Act 2 of Zoroastre: do the News-Press and was a staff writer for Los string double-stops imitate the harpsichord Angeles Opera, for which he has written arpège, or is it the other way round?” two yearbooks. This is his 22nd season of Happily we can look back on Rameau’s writing program notes for the Santa Fe career and be glad that he was true to his Chamber Music Festival. He currently con- inner creative clock—and that he had plenty tributes articles to Madison Magazine and of time left. After Nouvelles suites his only writes the blog WhatGregSays at other published works for harpsichord were www.whatgregsays.wordpress.com, the four Pièces de concert and the single La co-hosts the radio program “Sacred Choral Dauphine…but he went on to write some Classics,” and provides annotations for the 30 operas in the remaining 36 years of his New Mexico Symphonic Chorus. life. —Greg Hettmansberger HANNELORE N. ROGERS has been the editor of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s program book for 10 years. A writer/editor based in Omaha, Nebraska, her current and past clients also include the New York Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada), the National Arts Centre English Theatre (Canada), the Handel and Haydn Society, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Omaha Chamber Music Society, among others. Prior to her work as a freelancer she was the marketing director of the Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and New Mexico symphony orchestras.

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