concert program iii: Lobkowicz Legacy JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) July 25 and 26 String Quartet in G Major, op. 77, no. 1, Hob. III: 81 (1799) Allegro moderato Friday, July 25, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School Adagio MS MS Minuetto: Presto A Saturday, July 26, 8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at A Finale: Presto Menlo-Atherton Danish String Quartet: Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, Frederik Øland, violins; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) PROGRAM OVERVIEW String Quartet no. 10 in E-flat Major, op. 74, Harp (1809) Members of the Lobkowicz family, one of the most prominent Poco adagio – Allegro Adagio ma non troppo Bohemian lineages dating back to the fourteenth century, Presto have ranked for generations among the Western world’s most Allegretto con variazioni significant arts patrons. The seventh Prince Lobkowicz, Joseph Danish String Quartet: Frederik Øland, Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violins; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Franz Maximilian, was a benefactor to Haydn and Beethoven Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello and was the dedicatee of Haydn’s Opus 77 string quartets, IntermissiON nicknamed the Lobkowicz Quartets. Beethoven, too, dedicated numerous works to the prince, including his Opuses 18 and LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN CONCERT PROGR CONCERT 74 quartets, the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, and his An die ferne Geliebte, op. 98 (1816) PROGR CONCERT Third, Fifth, and Sixth Symphonies. Presented in conjunction Auf dem Hügel sitz ich spähend with Encounter II (see p. 10), led by William Lobkowicz— Wo die Berge so blau Leichte Segler in den Höhen Maximilian’s modern heir and trustee of the Lobkowicz family’s Diese Wolken in den Höhen trove of musical manuscripts—Concert Program III celebrates Es kehret der Maien the Lobkowicz family’s rich cultural legacy, with works all Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder commissioned by or dedicated to the seventh prince. Randall Scarlata, baritone; Gilbert Kalish, piano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartet no. 1 in F Major, op. 18, no. 1 (1800) SPECIAL THANKS Allegro con brio Adagio affettuoso e appassionato Music@Menlo dedicates these performances to the following Scherzo: Allegro molto individuals with gratitude for their generous support: Allegro July 25: Betsy Morgenthaler Danish String Quartet: Frederik Øland, Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violins; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; July 26: Eileen and Joel Birnbaum and Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello also to Terri Bullock Střekov Castle, a historic monument owned by the Lobkowicz family. Photo credit: Marie Lasáková Program Notes: Lobkowicz Legacy JOSEPH HAYDN most ferocious of all Classical scherzi, bristling with demonic energy, flying (Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Lower Austria; died May 31, 1809, Vienna) leaps, and extreme registers. The finale is a sparkling sonata based on an irresistible melody that H. C. Robbins Landon called “Haydn’s farewell to String Quartet in G Major, op. 77, no. 1, Hob. III: 81 the world of Eastern European folk music.” Composed: 1799 —Dr. Richard E. Rodda Other works from this period: Keyboard Trio in E-flat Major, Hob. XV: 30 (1797); Mass no. 12 in B-flat Major,Theresienmesse (1799); The Seasons, Hob. XXI: 3 (1799–1801) Approximate duration: 23 minutes LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (Born Bonn, baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827, Vienna) Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowicz, born into one of Austria’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 74, Harp most distinguished families in 1772, was among Vienna’s preeminent Composed: 1809 patrons of music at the turn of the nineteenth century. Beethoven’s First performance: Autumn 1809, Vienna biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer described him as “a violinist Other works from this period: Three String Quartets, op. 59, Razumovsky of considerable powers and so devoted a lover of music and drama, so (1806); Piano Trio in D Major, op. 70, no. 1, Ghost (1808); Symphony profuse a squanderer of his income upon them, as in twenty years to no. 5 in c minor, op. 67 (1809); Piano Concerto no. 5 in E-flat Major, reduce himself to bankruptcy.” In 1799, the young prince commissioned op. 73, Emperor (1809) not one but two sets of string quartets—one from the young lion Ludwig Approximate duration: 30 minutes van Beethoven, who had first pounced upon the city seven years before, and the other from Joseph Haydn, then Europe’s most revered composer, who was still basking in the unalloyed triumph of the premiere of The The year 1809 was a difficult one for Vienna and for Beethoven. In May, Creation in April 1798. Though Haydn had reached the not inconsiderable Napoleon invaded the city with enough firepower to send the residents age of sixty-seven, he was still vital and energetic and readily set to work scurrying and Beethoven into the basement of his brother’s house. The on Lobkowicz’s order for a series of six new quartets. bombardment was close enough that he covered his sensitive ears with MS Haydn completed two of the pieces for Lobkowicz in 1799 (G major pillows to protect them from the concussion of the blasts. On July 29th, A he wrote to the publisher Breitkopf und Härtel, “We have passed through and F major, published by Artaria in Vienna in 1802 as Opus 77, nos. 1 and 2, with a dedication to the prince), but then he broke off the series to a great deal of misery. I tell you that since May 4th, I have brought into the take up the enormous labor of The Seasons, the successor to The Creation, world little that is connected; only here and there a fragment. The whole which so sapped his strength that he was unable to finish any more of course of events has affected me body and soul...What a disturbing, wild life around me; nothing but drums, cannons, men, misery of all sorts.” He the quartets. In 1803, he managed to write an Andante movement and a bellowed his frustration at a French officer he chanced to meet: “If I were minuet for a third quartet but got no further and allowed Breitkopf und Härtel to publish that final instrumental effort in 1806 as his Opus 103. a general and knew as much about strategy as I do about counterpoint, That original edition produced the calling card Haydn presented to visitors I’d give you fellows something to think about.” As a sturdy tree can root in and correspondents during the waning years of his life: “Gone is all my flinty soil, however, a number of significant musical works grew from these strength, old and weak am I.” The two quartets of Opus 77 were the last unpromising circumstances—by the end of that year, 1809, Beethoven had in the incomparable series of instrumental creations stretching over half completed the Opus 78 and Opus 81a (Lebewohl) piano sonatas, the Opus a century with which Haydn brought the quintessential forms of musical 79 Sonatina, the Opus 77 Piano Fantasy, the Emperor Concerto, and the String Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 74. Classicism to their perfected states. The Opus 74 Quartet, apparently composed during the summer and CONCERT PROGR CONCERT The Quartet in G Major, op. 77, no. 1, not only culminates the experience Haydn had gained in some eighty previous works in the genre but also early autumn of 1809, was dedicated to Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowicz, presages in its internal movements the expressive vistas of encroaching who, with Prince Kinsky and Archduke Rudolph, had contracted to provide Beethoven with a generous annual income if he would remain Romanticism. The opening Allegro, buoyant and elegantly polished, in Vienna and not accept a proffered position in Germany. So confident focuses principally on a single theme, a teasing little ditty in dotted- rhythmic figures initially proposed by the first violin. This subject also did Beethoven feel with this turn of events that he proposed marriage to Therese Malfatti, a teenage pupil of his. Though the deaf, gruff, notoriously serves as the second theme, though a short phrase of lyrical character untidy thirty-nine-year-old composer was hardly a likely partner for an is introduced for contrast. Both the dotted-rhythm motive and the lyrical aristocratic debutante, he was deeply wounded by the family’s rejection of phrase figure in the development section, into which Haydn inserted one his suit. (The thought of Beethoven as a husband threatens the moorings of his favorite devices—a “false recapitulation,” which implies that the movement’s concluding section has been reached only to take the listener of one’s presence of mind!) It is the optimism and confidence of that year, however, rather than its disappointment and destruction that are reflected on further motivic and harmonic adventures. The true recapitulation is condensed by the excision of the earlier lyrical phrase. in the E-flat Quartet. The quartet opens with a hushed introduction into which is The Adagio, one of Haydn’s most touching slow movements, achieves a profound intensity of introspective expression that looks forward to the woven a preview of the upcoming principal theme. A quick crescendo music of Schubert and, in its suave but daring harmonic flights, Schumann. leads directly to the fast-tempo main body of the movement, which commences with three ensemble chords followed by the principal Though it hints at traditional sonata structure, the movement’s form has a smoothly flowing eighth-note figuration in the second violin been compared to a free passacaglia because of the frequent returns of subject, upon which is draped a melody with dotted rhythms in the first violin. its opening motive. The third movement is labeled “minuetto,” but it is The heard in the transition and frequently thereafter really a fully developed scherzo, a form that had gained considerable pizzicato arpeggios currency in fashionable Viennese musical circles following the publication in the movement suggested the quartet’s sobriquet—Harp.