Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble SAT / OCT 12 / 7:30 PM Tomo Keller Robert Smissen VIOLIN VIOLA Harvey de Souza Fiona Bonds VIOLIN VIOLA Jennifer Godson Stephen Orton VIOLIN CELLO Martin Burgess Will Schofield VIOLIN CELLO PROGRAM Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) String Sextet No. 2, Op. 36 (1864-5) i. Allegro non troppo ii. Scherzo: Allegro non troppo iii. Poco Adagio iv. Poco Allegro Sally Beamish (b. 1956) “Partita” for String Octet (2019) i. Prelude ii. Fugue iii. Chaconne Intermission Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) String Octet, Op. 20 (1825) i. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco ii. Andante iii. Scherzo. Allegro leggierissimo iv. Presto Pre-show Spotlight Talk with Santa Monica College Music Faculty James Bergman, 7:00 PM Classical Music Series at The Broad Stage made possible in part by generous support from the Colburn Foundation. PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 14 Ealovega Benjamin by Photo ABOUT THE PROGRAM The Academy’s work in the US is You can also find the Academy on: two violins, two violas and two cellos, supported by Maria Cardamone and Facebook: /asmforchestra finishing the finale the following May. Paul Matthews together with the Twitter: @asmforchestra This was to be his Op. 36. At the American Friends of the Academy of YouTube: /TheASMF time, Brahms told the singer Joseph St Martin in the Fields. SoundCloud: /asmf Gänsbacher: “I have freed myself from my last love.” The Academy of St Martin in the Instagram: @asmf_orchestra Fields Chamber Ensemble appears by He did so literally, as well as arrangement with David Rowe Artists, figuratively, by including a sequence PROGRAM NOTES www.davidroweartists.com of notes by way of catharsis in the JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) opening movement. The phrase is The Academy Chamber Ensemble String Sextet No. 2, Op. 36 (1864-5) repeated three times, high on the was formed in 1967, drawing its first violin and first viola, immediately membership from the world- “I love you! I must see you again! after the cello introduces the warmly renowned chamber orchestra the But I cannot wear fetters.” With lyrical second theme and it continues Academy of St Martin in the Fields, these words in a letter to the soprano to appear throughout the first which was itself founded by Sir Neville Agathe von Siebold, the 25-year- movement. Its notes are A-G-A-D- Marriner in 1958 and is currently old Brahms broke off their secret H-E (H being the German B natural). led by Music Director Joshua Bell. engagement. Brahms had almost The reference to Agathe would have The purpose behind the formation daily contact with Agathe, two years been immediately clear to Brahms’s of the Chamber Ensemble was to younger than himself, over a two- circle of friends, since they were perform the larger scale chamber month period in the summer of accustomed to musical ciphers in music repertoire with players who 1858. They exchanged letters which the music of Brahms, Schumann and customarily worked together, instead Agathe, a professor’s daughter from other romantics. of the usual string quartet with Göttingen, viewed as “the source of additional guests. Drawn from the the deepest and purest joy.” Brahms The second movement is a principal players of the orchestra and was even photographed wearing an bittersweet scherzo. Its darkly play-directed by Academy Director/ engagement ring that summer, though colored opening is a reworking of Leader Tomo Keller, the Chamber it was never publicly acknowledged. an earlier Gavotte for piano, while Ensemble now performs in multiple Agathe had a voice that his friend the the contrasting middle section is a configurations from wind trios to violinist Joseph Joachim compared thigh-slapping ländler of great gusto. string octets. Its touring commitments with the sound of an Amati violin. The E minor Adagio that follows is are extensive and include regular But after Brahms sent his letter in a melancholy and subdued set of tours of Europe and North America, 1859, the couple never again met. variations on another earlier theme, whilst recording contracts with Philips Both wore the scars of the broken this time associated with a more Classics, Hyperion and Chandos have relationship for years and only in old persistent desire, his love for the led to the release of more than thirty age could Agathe bring herself to widowed Clara Schumann. The finale CDs. reply to a greeting that Brahms sent of this magnificently sonorous, closely via Joachim. integrated Sextet returns to a more The Academy Chamber Ensemble’s upbeat mood. October 2019 tour of the United Characteristically, Brahms worked States is supported by Maria out his feelings in music, not in The G major Sextet was the first work Cardamone and Paul Matthews, words. Characteristically, too, it by Brahms to receive its premiere in together with the American Friends took him several years before the the United States, given October 11, of the Academy of St Martin in the work came together on paper. 1866 at the Mendelssohn Quintet Club Fields. The American Friends was It also took a melancholy return in Boston. The European premiere founded in 1998 to support the work visit to Göttingen, once Agathe had followed in Zurich the following of the Academy around the world, fled the town of painful memories month. particularly in the USA. Find out more to become a governess in Ireland. — Program notes © 2019 Keith Horner. at www.asmf.org Shortly afterwards, in September 1864, back at his summer retreat in Comments welcome: Baden-Baden, Brahms composed [email protected] the anguished, intense and revealing songs of his Op. 32. Within the month, he also completed the first three movements of a G major Sextet for PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 15 ABOUT THE PROGRAM SALLY BEAMISH (b. 1956) FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) always been the favorite movement of “Partita” for String Octet (2019) String Octet, Op. 20 (1825) the Octet, inspired by the Walpurgis night dream section of Goethe's (for the Academy of St Martin in the With this Octet, the 16-year-old , with its vivid insect and small Fields, and dedicated to PFT) Mendelssohn earned a place in Faust animal imagery. The mood of the the line of great composers in the This piece is inspired by my Octet's finale is hard to put into Western classical tradition. He had experience of the Carl Nielsen Violin words. The opening, which is played started daily composition at the Competition, where I was a juror in low down on scrubbing cellos, seems age of 11. By 16, he could look back March 2019. I heard many superb humorous and the countermelody on a catalog of four operas, three performances of the Bach solo which soon evolves is less than piano quartets, a virtuoso sextet sonatas and partitas, and for 10 days, reverentially lifted from the Hallelujah and, most significantly, a dozen my head was filled with Bach. Chorus from Handel’s at string symphonies. These were the Messiah the words: “And He shall reign for Felix Mendelssohn was strongly apprentice works that allowed the ever and ever.” In fact, the entire influenced by Bach and Handel, and precocious young man to appear to movement seems to evolve as a light- this is evident in his brilliant octet. burst forth as a fully mature and, hearted treatment of the academic I have taken the idea of a partita, indeed original, composer at the age form of the fugue. It is youthful in which is traditionally a suite for a solo of 16. Everything came together to its exuberance, tongue-in-cheek instrument. A string octet could be favor early development. His family at times, effortlessly modulating seen as a single entity – almost like a was rich and highly cultivated, with from one key to another, joyous bowed keyboard – as well as being an weekly Sunday musicales in the and assured. It represents a perfect ensemble of soloists. family's magnificent Leipzigerstrasse rapport between form and content, estate in Berlin. Later, the The Prelude takes a fragment from the likes of which Mendelssohn was to philosopher Friedrich Hegel, a family the prelude to Bach’s D minor Sonata achieve only infrequently again. for solo violin, and weaves it into an friend, taught Mendelssohn at the ostinato, initially on 1st viola. This University of Berlin. Even as an — Program notes © 2019 Keith Horner. begins to fragment and break apart, adolescent, Mendelssohn was a gifted reaching a climax which converges all-rounder. He painted, he fenced, onto a single note. he wrote verse as well as a copious BIOS quantity of letters. As a musician, (VIOLIN) was born The Fugue is based on the Handel TOMO KELLER he was an accomplished pianist and in Stuttgart in 1974, to German- quote (from the Messiah) which forms played both violin and viola tolerably Japanese musicians, and started a fugato in the last movement of well. playing the violin at the age of six. Mendelssohn’s Octet. I have used it as At ten years old he gave his first a slow theme. The fugue is in 8 parts. In the Octet, Mendelssohn reveals a palette of eight essentially equal performances with orchestra. He The Chaconne takes a famous instruments and paints in myriad studied at Vienna’s University for Mendelssohn theme, which is heavily instrumental colors, ranging from Music and Performing Arts and New disguised. After a fanfare-like the hushed monochrome unison at York’s Juilliard School of Music. opening, stated on lower strings, the end of the Scherzo to the burst Numerous top prizes and awards there are eight chaconne variations, of multi-colored hues in the eight- followed, at the Fritz Kreisler each featuring a different member part fugal exuberance that follows.