Jerusalem Quartet with Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth
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Saturday, October 13, 2018, 8pm First Congregational Church Jerusalem Quartet with pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth Jerusalem Quartet Alexander Pavlovsky, violin Sergei Bresler, violin Ori Kam, viola Kyril Zlotnikov, cello with Pinchas Zukerman, viola and Amanda Forsyth, cello pROgRAM Richard Strauss (1864 –1949) String Sextet from Capriccio , Op. 85 Arnold Schoenberg (1874 –1951) Verklärte Nacht for String Sextet, Op. 4 INTERMISSION Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 –1893) String Sextet in D minor, Op. 70, Souvenir de Florence Allegro con spirito Adagio cantabile e con moto Allegretto moderato Allegro con brio e vivace e Jerusalem Quartet appears by arrangement with David Rowe Artists. www.davidroweartists.com e Jerusalem Quartet records for Harmonia Mundi. www.jerusalemstringquartet.com Support for the presentation of Israeli artists is provided by the Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust. Cal Performances’ 2018 –19 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. 2 pROgRAM NOTES Richard Strauss by the conductor Clemens Krauss under the String Sextet from Capriccio , Op. 85 microscopic scrutiny of the composer, though Capriccio was Richard Strauss’ last operatic several other writers, notably Stefan Zweig, also venture, and, like the valedictory works of other contributed ideas to the finished book. e plot great composers—Haydn’s oratorios, Verdi’s was based on a libretto by Abbaté Giovanni Falstaff , Elgar’s Cello Concerto—it not only Casti titled Prima la musica, poi le parole (First summarizes a lifetime of stylistic achievement, the Music, en the Words ), which had first but also addresses concerns that the accumula - been set by Antonio Salieri in 1786 as a one-act tion of years could not dim. For Strauss in this opera that was premiered as part of the double masterful opera, those concerns were two: one bill at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna with was the cataloging of his greatest musical loves; Mozart’s e Impresario . Zweig suggested the the other was a consideration of the essential topic to Strauss as early as 1934, but composi - dilemma of all vocal music—the relative im - tion was not begun until 1939; the score was portance of words and music. To demonstrate completed on August 3, 1941. e setting is an the music that he held in highest regard, Strauss elegant palace near Paris in 1775, the time when quoted in the score snippets from the works of the operatic reforms of Gluck had the words/ Mozart, Wagner, Gluck, and Verdi, and he even music controversy consuming the city’s intel - included fragments from some of his own com - lectual circles. Strauss intended Capriccio (sub - positions. (One of the joys of this opera for titled “A Conversation Piece for Music”) to be the knowledgeable listener is the identification a refined entertainment for his friends rather of the many musical allusions.) Regarding the than a popular theater piece—“no work for the words/music controversy, which is the true public, only a fine dish for connoisseurs,” was subject of the opera, Strauss wrote, “e battle his assessment. He was surprised therefore, and between words and music has been the prob - certainly pleased, at the excellent success lem of my life from the beginning, and I leave it Capriccio enjoyed at its premiere in Munich on with Capriccio as a question mark.” October 28, 1942 under Krauss’ baton. In his New Encyclopedia of the Opera , David e lovely string sextet that serves as the Ewen offered the following précis of Capriccio : introduction to Capriccio was first heard six “e almost action-less libretto [set in a chateau months before the work’s official premiere. In in late-18th-century France] is little more than 1942, Strauss and his wife moved to Vienna a discussion as to which is more significant in from their Bavarian home in Garmisch-Parten - opera, the words or the music. Flamand, the kirchen. eir refusal to hide their disgust with musician, becomes the spokesman for the the Nazi leadership had made their position in music; Olivier, the poet, for the words. Both are Garmisch difficult when their Jewish daughter- emotionally involved with the Countess Made - in-law and her children were threatened with leine. When LaRoche, a producer, plans a series ostracism. e governor of Vienna, Baldur von of entertainments to celebrate the Countess’ Schirach, assured Strauss that he would shelter birthday, she suggests that Flamand and Olivier the family if they would make no further pub - collaborate, using for their material the day’s lic anti-Nazi remarks. In appreciation, Strauss happenings and themselves as principal char - allowed the Sextet to be performed privately at acters. When they leave to write their ‘enter - Schirach’s house on May 7, 1942. Despite that tainment,’ the Countess (looking in a mirror) particular kindness, Schirach was sentenced to asks herself which man she prefers. She comes 20 years imprisonment for war crimes by the to the conclusion that both interest her equally. Nuremberg Trials in 1946. Her conclusion is Strauss’ answer to the prob - e opening sextet brings Strauss’ opulent lem that opened the opera: in opera, the words harmonic palette and rich instrumental textures and music have equal importance.” to his stylized recreation of elegant Rococo e libretto—perhaps the best Strauss ever chamber music. In the opera, the music begins had except for Der Rosenkavalier —was written before the stage is revealed. As it continues, the 2 PLAYBILL pROgRAM NOTES e d e o r B x i l e F curtain rises to show the characters listening to manuscripts and Zemlinsky was so impressed the music played by an off-stage ensemble as with his talent that he offered to take him on as the musician Flamand’s birthday offering to the a counterpoint student, and secured him a po - Countess. e words of Michael Kennedy about sition in the cello section of the Polyhymnia the complete opera apply equally well to this Orchestra to help earn a little money. Zemlin - beautiful sextet: “ Capriccio is Strauss’ most en - sky assumed the role of guardian to Schoen - chanting opera. It is also the nearest he came to berg, introducing the young man to his circle unflawed perfection in a work of art. It is an an - of professional colleagues and offering advice thology or synthesis of all that he did best, and and encouragement. In 1901, Schoenberg mar - it is as if he put his creative process into a cru - ried Zemlinsky’s sister, Mathilde. cible, refining away coarseness, bombast and During the summer of 1899, Schoenberg and excess of vitality.” Zemlinsky were on holiday in the mountain village of Payerbach, south of Vienna, and it was Arnold Schoenberg there that Schoenberg began a work for string Verklärte Nacht for String Sextet, Op. 4 sextet based on a poem by Richard Dehmel: At the age of 16, in 1890, Arnold Schoenberg “Verklärte Nacht” (“Transfigured Night”), which decided to become a professional musician, had appeared three years earlier in a collection having already dabbled in composition, taught called Weib und die Welt (Woman and the himself to play the violin and cello, and partic - World ). Dehmel was one of the most distin - ipated in some chamber music concerts with guished German poets of the day, whose verses his friends. His father’s death just at that time bridged the sensuous Impressionism of the pre - threw him into rather serious financial distress, ceding generation and the intense spirituality of however, and he had to scratch out a livelihood encroaching Expressionism. “Verklärte Nacht” aer leaving school in 1891 by working in a matches well the Viennese fin-de-siècle tem - bank and conducting local choruses and theater perament, when Sigmund Freud was intellec - orchestras for a few schillings per performance. tualizing sex with his systematic explorations In 1893 he met Alexander Zemlinsky, who into the subconscious and Gustav Klimt was had already established a Viennese reputation painting full-length portraits of his female as a composer, conductor, and teacher though subjects as he imagined they would look totally he was only two years Schoenberg’s senior. nude before applying layers of elaborate, gold- Schoen berg showed his new friend some of his sparkled costumes to finish the canvas. e fol - 2 pROgRAM NOTES lowing translated excerpt from Dehmel’s poem came to be viewed not as an avant-garde aber - appears in Schoenberg’s printed score: ration but as one of the foremost creations of the Post-Romantic era. “Two people walk through the bare, cold woods; the moon runs along, they gaze at it. e moon runs over tall oaks, no cloudlet pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky dulls the heavenly light into which the black String Sextet in D minor, Op. 70, peaks reach. A woman’s voice speaks: Souvenir de Florence “‘I bear a child, but not by you. I walk in Tchaikovsky’s soul was seldom at rest in the sin alongside you. I sinned against myself years following his marital disaster in 1877, and mightily. I believed no longer in good for - he sought distraction in frequent travel abroad; tune but still had mighty longing for a full Paris and Italy were his favorite destinations. In life, mother’s joy, and duty; then I grew January 1890 he settled in Florence, and spent shameless, then horror-stricken, I let my sex be taken by a stranger and even blessed my - the next three months in that beautiful city self for it. Now life has taken its revenge: working on his latest operatic venture, Pique Now I have met you, you.’ Dame (e Queen of Spades ). He took long “She walks with clumsy gait. She gazes walks along the Arno, marveled that spring upward; the moon runs along.