ABOUT THE MUSIC Presented in partnership with Mona

TWO SONGS & QUARTET Monday 9 March 7.30pm Brahmsiana Mona, The Nolan Gallery Jane Edwards mezzo-soprano Jennifer Owen Douglas Coghill Jonathan Békés Ying Ho piano

BRAHMS Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano, Op 91 ‘Gestillte Sehnsucht’ ‘Geistliches ’

BRAHMS No 2 in A, Op 26 Allegro non troppo Poco adagio : Poco allegro – Trio Finale: Allegro

lthough the Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano share an opus number and are always performed Aas a pair, they were written twenty years apart: the first, ‘Gestillte Sehnsucht’ (Stilled Longing), in 1884; the second, ‘Geistliches Wiegenlied’ (Sacred Lullaby), in 1864. A setting of a poem by Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866), ‘Gestillte Sehnsucht’ is full of Romantic imagery and sentiment: the protagonist stands before a peaceful forest glade in the golden light of evening and compares the serenity of nature (gentle breezes, whispering birds) to the stirrings of an agitated heart. The protagonist recognises that a time will come when that restless heart will be stilled, falling into the slumber of eternity. The ‘Geistliches Wiegenlied’ conjures up the Christian nativity scene and includes, in the viola part, an old Christmas Saturday 7 March Monday 9 March cradle song, ‘Josef, lieber Josef mein’. Mary asks the angels to pacify the cold, blustery weather outside. 7.30pm 7.30pm The Christ child, who will grow up to carry ‘the sorrows of the world’, is sleeping. The words are a Nolan Gallery, Mona Nolan Gallery, Mona German translation of a poem by Spanish poet, playwright and novelist Lope de Vega (1562-1635). Unlike the , which accumulated a large and impressive body of music from as early as BRAHMS Violin No 3 in D minor BRAHMS Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano BRAHMS in E-flat BRAHMS Piano Quartet No 2 in A the 1780s, the piano quartet was not weighed down by so much ‘history’. For a composer like Brahms, who felt the burden of history keenly, this was probably liberating. A skilful pianist himself, Brahms was drawn to compose chamber music which included piano, whether accompanied (violin, Sunday 8 March cello, clarinet/viola), piano trios, quartets or the single piano . The A-major Piano Quartet was 7.30pm written in the early 1860s, the period of Brahms’ first maturity, receiving its première in Vienna in 1862 Nolan Gallery, Mona (with Brahms performing the piano part). It is monumental in scope, lasting in excess of 45 minutes. Nevertheless, Brahms resists the urge to overreach the limits of the four instruments, maintaining a BRAHMS String Quartet No 1 in C minor warmth and intimacy throughout and, as such, finding the true essence of chamber music. DVOŘÁK No 2 in G ABOUT THE MUSIC

VIOLIN SONATA & HORN TRIO BRAHMS QUARTET & DVOŘÁK QUINTET Saturday 7 March 7.30pm Sunday 8 March 7.30pm Mona, The Nolan Gallery Mona, The Nolan Gallery Emma McGrath violin Sercan Danis violin Greg Stephens horn Hayato Simpson violin Jennifer Marten-Smith piano Anna Larsen Roach viola Jonathan Békés cello BRAHMS James Menzies double bass Violin Sonata No 3 in D minor, Op 108 Allegro BRAHMS String Quartet No 1 in C minor, Op 51 No 1 Adagio Allegro Un poco presto e con sentimento Romanze: Poco adagio Presto agitato Allegretto molto moderato e comodo – Un poco più animato Allegro BRAHMS Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano in E-flat, Op 40 DVOŘÁK String Quintet No 2 in G, Op 77 Andante – poco più animato Allegro con fuoco Scherzo: Allegro Scherzo Adagio mesto Poco andante Finale: Allegro con brio Allegro assai

lthough (1833-1897) became well acquainted with music for violin and piano rahms composed only three string quartets. The first two – in C minor and A minor – were written Ain the early 1850s when he toured Germany as accompanist to the Hungarian violinist Eduard Bconcurrently and share an opus number, 51. Ever the perfectionist, Brahms laboured on them for Hoffmann (alias Reményi), he waited until much later in his career, the late 1870s, before he himself years. We know that early versions were trialled in 1869 but it was not until 1873 that he brought them to composed sonatas for violin and piano. His third and final violin sonata – the work performed in this completion and sent them to his publisher, Simrock. They received their premières before the year was recital – was written later still, being finished in 1888, and given its première early the following year, out: No 2 in Berlin in October, and No 1 in Vienna in December. The Allegro gets off to a frenzied start and in Budapest. It is the most ambitious of Brahms’ three violin sonatas. That said, it is also remarkably maintains heightened energy for much of the exposition. Motivic working-out is key to extending and concentrated, Brahms wasting no time at all advancing through the structural parameters of each elaborating the musical argument. Indeed, the entire work is characterised by careful attention to motivic movement (indeed, the 3rd movement clocks in at under three minutes). Violin and piano are integrated elaboration – small gestures at the start of each movement function as germinating cells from which throughout with considerable demands placed upon each performer. In fact, the work is dedicated not themes and larger structures grow (Brahms was a keen student of the music of Beethoven!). Moreover, to a violinist but to pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow. Brahms invites connections between movements by forging motivic reminiscences – backward glances What can have motivated Brahms to compose the trio for violin, horn and piano? It is not as if this as we move forward. particular combination of instruments was in any way standard. Quite the opposite; Brahms’ work is Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), a citizen of the polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire, had one-of-a-kind. The answer might lie in Brahms’ fondness for the French horn, an instrument he learnt, to overcome prejudice from the German-speaking élite in his quest to be taken seriously as a composer. albeit briefly, as a youngster. A much earlier work than the Violin Sonata No 3, the Horn Trio was His music is imbued with a freshness which springs, to some extent, from the folk music of his native composed in 1865, around the same time as the String Sextet No 2 and some years after the colossal Bohemia. Brahms played an important role in advancing Dvořák’s career. Early to recognise Dvořák’s . Some commentators have noted an elegiac mood in the Horn Trio, perhaps on account talent, Brahms recommended the Czech’s music to his publisher, Simrock, who, in turn, commissioned of the restrained opening movement and, more particularly, the Adagio, which carries the additional from Dvořák the Slavonic Dances. These proved to be tremendously successful, bringing commercial word ‘mesto’ (sad), pointing out that the work was composed shortly after the death of Brahms’ mother. success to Simrock and international attention to Dvořák. All of this was in 1878-9. A few years prior, In fact, the Adagio includes a quotation from a German funeral chorale. But the work’s reflective and in 1875, Dvořák composed his String Quintet in G, Op 77. Dvořák took the unusual step of dispensing mournful qualities are nevertheless offset by the high-spirited antics of the Scherzo and Finale. with a second viola in the ensemble, adding a double bass instead. The bass is heard to good effect in the slow movement, Poco andante, adding the subtlest of depth with strategically placed plucked notes.