PROGRAM: SUNDAYS WITH THE ST. LAWRENCE OCTOBER 4 / 2:30 PM BING CONCERT HALL

ARTISTS PROGRAM St. Lawrence String Quartet Joseph Haydn: Quartet in G Minor, op. 20, no. 3 (Hob. III:33) (1772) Geoff Nuttall, violin Allegro con spirito Owen Dalby, violin Menuetto: Allegretto Lesley Robertson, viola Poco adagio Christopher Costanza, cello Allegro di molto

Pedja Muzijevic, piano and Graf fortepiano Ralph Vaughan Williams: Piano Quintet in C Minor (1903, rev. 1904–5) Anthony Manzo, double bass Allegro con fuoco Andante Fantasia (quasi variazioni) Sundays with the St. Lawrence is presented in partnership with Music at Stanford. INTERMISSION

Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, op. 114, D. 667, Trout (ca. 1819) Allegro vivace Andante Scherzo – Presto Tema con variazioni – Andantino Allegro giusto

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.

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JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS falling chords heard at the very beginning are QUARTET IN G MINOR, OP. 20, (1872–1958) immediately inverted and expanded into a NO. 3 (HOB. III:33) (1772) PIANO QUINTET IN C MINOR flowing melody for viola. Violin and then the (1903, REV. 1904–5) full ensemble develop the idea into a mighty Joseph Haydn wrote his six Op. 20 quartets statement over a sustained pedal note low in in 1772 at the age of 40. They contain his Like his contemporary Edward Elgar, the double bass. The four-note motif then finest chamber music up to that point, a fact English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams evolves into a quiet, wistfully lyrical theme, recognized both by his contemporaries and took time to find his voice as a composer. which is prophetic of the mature Williams. the composer himself. With Op. 20, Haydn There was a long period between the end Each of these musical ideas is vigorously reached true mastery of the form and the of his formal studies in Cambridge, then at worked through a restless, forward-surging texture of the string quartet. This is music London’s Royal College of Music, and the development reminiscent of the idiom designed to move and stir the emotions, landmark song cycle for tenor, piano, and of Brahms and other late-19th-century rather than to merely please and entertain. string quartet On Wenlock Edge (1908–9) composers. The modal, hymn-like melody It has been said that even if Haydn had and the Tallis Fantasia (1910) for double string of the slow movement, over which the piano written nothing after the six quartets we orchestra. It was a time of uncertainty and lingers long and lovingly, is also prophetic of now know as Op. 20, these alone would doubt, years spent searching for a direction the mature composer. It draws from the song have earned him an important place that English music might take away from Silent Noon, which Williams composed that in 18th-century musical history. They the shadow of German romanticism. But it same year. Echoes of the four-note motif from were likely first played by violinist Luigi was also a period of experimentation and the opening movement color and bring unity Tomasini, Haydn’s colleague and friend, discovery, with a series of large-scale chamber to both the slow movement and the Fantasia with other members of the Esterházy court works, including a string quartet and this finale. This has something of the character orchestra. “No one plays my quartets like piano quintet—both of which the composer of an Elizabethan fantasy for viols, though Luigi,” Haydn is reported as saying. subsequently withdrew. The Piano Quintet its structure is essentially that of a theme in C Minor was completed in 1903 but then with five variations. Although he consigned The G-minor quartet opens in a serious extensively revised over the next two years the Piano Quintet to oblivion for the best vein. Its G-minor theme is purposeful and before its premiere in London’s Aeolian Hall. part of a century, Williams did not forget unusually constructed (seven plus seven bars, The last documented performance took place the work. Shortly before his death, he again not the customary symmetrical eight-bar in 1918, by which time, on returning from the wrote variations on the Fantasia movement phrases). Haydn devotes great attention to First World War, the English composer had theme in the finale of his Violin Sonata. the development of fragments of themes. built a growing reputation for independence He explores a wide range of emotions, of thought and for his symphonic writing from stirring fanfares that seem to call and wished to purge his catalogue of FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828) the audience to attention to the gentlest several earlier transitional works. Only in PIANO QUINTET IN A, OP. 114, whispers of a theme. It is a long way from 1999, as the 50th anniversary of his death D. 667, TROUT (CA. 1819) the graceful, untroubled rococo style of his was approaching, did his widow Ursula give earliest quartets. The second movement permission for a performance of the quintet The period around the year 1819, when Franz is a minuet, but the mood is a far cry from at a conference titled “Vaughan Williams in a Schubert wrote his Trout Quintet, one of the genteel elegance of the courtly minuet. New Century” and its subsequent publication. the most endearing works in the repertoire, It’s in the minor key for one thing. And the was a rich one for lovers of chamber music. theme is again unusually balanced (five Williams collected the first of the 800 English Beethoven, then in his 50s, was writing his plus five bars). The mood is poignant, folksongs that he would quickly absorb into profound late string quartets. Mendelssohn, although there is some relaxation of its dark his own distinctive musical language in 1903. barely in his teens, was shortly to write his emotions in the contrasting trio section. There are a few tantalizing glimpses of this Octet. Schubert, in his early 20s, had ahead The movement ends on a troubled note. in the full-blooded, late-romantic musical of him such masterpieces as the Death and After a solemn, dignified slow movement in landscape that the Piano Quintet’s three the Maiden Quartet, the Octet, and the the major key, Haydn returns to the earnest movements inhabit. The piece is scored for Great C-Major Quintet. Chamber music was intensity of the opening, and the finale piano with a quartet of violin, viola, cello, and alive and well, and living, above all, in the city ends with a sigh rather than a flourish. double bass—the same infrequently heard of Vienna. It was here that the tradition of combination to be featured in the Schubert hausmusik thrived among the music-loving Trout Quintet later today. The four fiery middle classes and bourgeoisie. And it was for

34 STANFORD LIVE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 this tradition of amateur music-making in the ST. LAWRENCE STRING QUARTET and Jonathan Berger. Of the ensemble’s home that Schubert wrote his Trout Quintet. Established in 1989, the St. Lawrence String collaborations with Adams, the Washington He was on vacation in the Alpine countryside Quartet has developed an undisputed Post asserted, “If good relationships are built in the town of Steyr, just outside Vienna, reputation as a truly world-class chamber on trust, the bond between the St. Lawrence when the commission came. Steyr was the ensemble. Called “witty, buoyant, and wickedly String Quartet and composer John Adams is hometown of his friend, the well-known attentive” (Montreal Gazette) with a “peerless” a marriage made in chamber music heaven.” singer Johann Vogl, for whom Schubert wrote sense of ensemble (Financial Times), the many of his 600 songs. Schubert was Vogl’s quartet is celebrated for its “smoldering In late summer 2015, the quartet toured guest, and together they visited another Steyr intensity” (Washington Post) and “flexibility, Europe with the San Francisco Symphony, resident, Sylvester Paumgartner, who was a dramatic fire, and…hint of rock ‘n’ roll energy” performing Adams’ Absolute Jest under the wealthy mining director and keen amateur (Los Angeles Times). SLSQ performs baton of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas cellist. Paumgartner asked Schubert to write internationally and has served as ensemble-in- for audiences in the United Kingdom, a chamber work for his hausmusik group. residence at Stanford University since 1998. Germany, Romania, and Switzerland. Later The idea of including a movement based on in the season, SLSQ performed at Carnegie Schubert’s song “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”) The St. Lawrence continues to build its Hall in New York and in Vancouver and also seems to have come from Paumgartner. reputation for imaginative and spontaneous Toronto; Madison, Wisconsin; Worcester, The instruments specified—piano, violin, viola, music-making through an energetic Massachusetts; Eugene, Oregon; and East cello, and double bass—remain an unusual commitment to the great established Lansing, Michigan. Spring highlights included grouping. But they were the instruments quartet literature as well as the championing a residency at the University of Maryland used in a published Viennese arrangement of of new works by such composers as John and a special Haydn-themed performance Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s popular Septet Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, Ezequiel Viñao, at the 92nd Street Y in New York. During of 1816, which Schubert would have known.

The number of movements in the Trout Quintet is also unusual. Four was the ALL IN-STOCK FABRICS 30% OFF convention. But here, a fifth movement, 9,000 square feet of beautiful textiles a series of variations on “The Trout,” was inserted between the Scherzo and the finale. The movement starts with a simplified version of the opening of the song. As the music progresses, the theme only gradually reveals its full subtleties, culminating in the final variation, the focal point of the quintet. The work’s great clarity of texture comes about largely through the way Schubert contrasts the rich, resonant (and potentially bottom heavy) scoring for the four string instruments with a brighter, more transparent piano line—created by having the pianist frequently play in octaves high in the upper range of the keyboard, much as in Schubert’s piano duos. Another hallmark of the work is that the piano is usually heard in dialogue with the strings, rather than in a mutual single texture that develops the work’s themes. Schubert wrote to his brother Ferdinand about the “inconceivably beautiful” countryside around Steyr, and it’s not hard Sal Beressi Fabrics to imagine the sunlit freshness of the Alpine 1504 Bryant Street, 2nd Floor • San Francisco, CA 94103 air in the five movements of the quintet. 415-861-5004 • [email protected] —© 2015, Keith Horner MONDAYS, NOON-6PM • TUESDAY-SATURDAY 10 AM TO 6 PM

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PEDJA MUZIJEVIC Hailed by critics as a thinking musician with engaging stage presence and a gratifying combination of virtuosity and eloquence, pianist Pedja Muzijevic has defined his 37-year career with creative programming, unusual combinations of new and old music, and lasting collaborations with other artists and ensembles. London’s Financial Times Anthony Manzo Pedja Muzijevic eloquently sums him up as “a virtuoso with formidable fingers and a musician with fiercely the summer season, SLSQ also continued joined the group in 2003. Owen Dalby, original ideas about the music he plays.” its long association with Spoleto Festival from the San Francisco Bay Area, joined USA in Charleston, South Carolina. in 2015. All four members of the quartet Highlights of the 2014–15 season included a live and teach at Stanford University. residency at Bay Chamber Concerts in Maine; In recent seasons, SLSQ has been a solo recital debut at Chicago’s Ravinia highlighting first violinist Geoff Nuttall’s ANTHONY MANZO Festival; returns to Spoleto Festival USA, admiration for Haydn with a series of Despite the inherent challenges of travel with Toronto Summer Music Academy, Ottawa concerts in which the foursome explores and a double bass, Anthony Manzo remains a Chamberfest, and Moab Music Festival; and unpacks the composer’s string quartets from sought-after chamber musician, performing performances of the piano duo version of various perspectives and then performs the at such noted venues as the Chamber Music Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in Atlanta with works in their entirety. Mr. Nuttall, hailed Society of Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Robert Spano, staged by Lauri Stallings. Mr. as “the Jon Stewart of chamber music” Hall; Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, Muzijevic also returned to the Saint Paul (New York Times), explains, “To be really South Carolina; Bay Chamber Concerts Chamber Orchestra for performances of devastated by the genius of Haydn’s music, in Rockport, Maine; and the Chesapeake Frank Martin’s Petite symphonie concertante, the performers and audiences have to be Chamber Music Festival on Maryland’s conducted by Christian Zacharias, and curated connected…exploring the material in a Eastern Shore. Mr. Manzo is also the solo a monthlong residency at the Banff Centre really active way.” The quartet will continue bassist of San Francisco’s New Century that explored what a concert is today and to offer these Haydn discovery programs Chamber Orchestra and a regular guest artist how it can better establish itself in our society. at least through the 2016–17 season. with the National Symphony Orchestra and He returned to the Library of Congress in the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society Washington, D.C., and Mainly Mozart in San The quartet’s residency at Stanford includes near his home in Washington, D.C. Formerly Diego and performed Olivier Messiaen’s work with music students as well as extensive the solo bassist of the Munich Chamber Oiseaux exotiques with Novus NY and Grant collaborations with other faculty and Orchestra, he still returns whenever possible Gershon at Trinity Wall Street in New York. departments, using music to explore myriad to Europe to play, most recently performing topics. Recent collaborations have involved with the Camerata Salzburg in Austria Mr. Muzijevic’s 2012–13 season included a the School of Medicine, the School of in collaborations that have included the recital at the Smithsonian in Washington, Education, and the Law School. In addition to group’s summer residency at the Salzburg D.C.; chamber music at Stanford University their appointment at Stanford, the members Festival as well as two tours as double bass with the St. Lawrence String Quartet; two of SLSQ serve as visiting artists at the soloist alongside bass/baritone Thomas solo recitals at Bargemusic in New York; and University of Toronto. The foursome’s passion Quasthoff in Mozart’s “Per questa bella recitals with Simon Keenlyside in Atlanta for opening up musical arenas to players and mano” (with performances in Salzburg, and with Leila Josefowicz at Dartmouth listeners alike is evident in the group’s annual Paris, Vienna, Budapest, and Istanbul). College. In the summer, he performed summer chamber music seminar at Stanford. several concerts at Spoleto Festival USA in Mr. Manzo is also an active performer on Charleston, South Carolina, and returned to Lesley Robertson and Geoff Nuttall are period instruments with groups that include Bravo! Vail in addition to appearing at Salt founding members of the group and hail the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston and Bay Chamberfest, Maverick Concerts, and from Edmonton, Alberta, and London, Opera Lafayette in Washington, D.C., and is Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Ontario, respectively. Christopher a member of the double bass and chamber and festivals in Toronto and Ottawa.• Costanza is from Utica, New York, and music faculty of the University of Maryland.

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