SFCMF 2017 Week Two W Cor(2)

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 viola. Schumann sent it to his publisher ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810 – 1856) be placed in an asylum where he died two Breitkopf & Härtel, along with his Cello Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales), Op. 132 years later. Concerto 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 sonatas, symphonies, and concertos Mozart’s estimable “Kegelstatt” Trio and Piano Trio in C Minor, 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 sonata-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 Rondo 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.

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