concert program ii: Quartet Dimensions JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)! July 21 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Sunday, July 21, 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 876, and Fugue in d minor, BWV 877, from at Menlo-Atherton Das wohltemperierte Klavier; arr. String Quartets nos. 7 and 8, K. 405 JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) PROGRAM OVERVIEW String Quartet in d minor, op. 76, no. 2, Quinten (1796) The string quartet medium, arguably the spinal column of the Allegro chamber music literature, did not exist in Bach’s lifetime. Yet Andante o più tosto allegretto Minuetto: Allegro ma non troppo even here, Bach’s legacy is inescapable. The fugues of his semi- Finale: Vivace assai nal The Well-Tempered Clavier inspired no less a genius than Danish String Quartet: Frederik Øland, Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violins; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Mozart, who arranged a set of them for string quartet. The influ- Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello ence of Bach’s architectural mastery permeates the ingenious DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Quinten Quartet of Joseph Haydn, the father of the modern Piano Quintet in g minor, op. 57 (1940) string quartet, and even Dmitry Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, Prelude composed nearly two hundred years after Bach’s death. The Fugue Scherzo centerpiece of Beethoven’s Opus 132—the Heiliger Dankgesang Intermezzo CONCERT PROGRAMSCONCERT eines Genesenen an die Gottheit (“A Convalescent’s Holy Song Finale PROGRAMSCONCERT of Thanksgiving to the Divinity”)—recalls another Bachian signa- Gilbert Kalish, piano; Danish String Quartet: Frederik Øland, Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violins; ture: the Baroque master’s sacred chorales. Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello INTERMISSION LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) SPECIAL THANKS String Quartet no. 15 in a minor, op. 132 (1824–1825) Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Iris and Paul Brest Assai sostenuto – Allegro with gratitude for their generous support. Allegro ma non tanto Molto adagio (Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Ton) Alla marcia, assai vivace Allegro appassionato Danish String Quartet: Frederik Øland, Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violins; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello Kai Rösler (b. 1957). St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, 2010, where Bach was Music Director from 1723 to 1750 www.musicatmenlo.org CONCERT PROGRAMS Program Notes: Quartet Dimensions JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH JOSEPH HAYDN (Born March 21, 1685, Eisenach; died July 28, 1750, Leipzig) (Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Lower Austria; died May 31, 1809, Vienna) String Quartet in d minor, op. 76, no. 2, Quinten WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg; died December 5, 1791, Vienna) Composed: 1796 Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 876, and Fugue in d minor, BWV 877, Published: June 1797 from Das wohltemperierte Klavier; arr. String Quartets nos. 7 and 8, Other works from this period: String Quartet no. 66 in G Major and K. 405 String Quartet no. 67 in F Major, op. 77, Lobkowitz (1799); String Quartet Composed: ca. 1740 in C Major, op. 76, no. 3, Emperor (1797); Mass no. 12 in B-flat Major, There- sienmesse (1799); The Seasons, Hob. XXI: 3 (1799–1801); Symphony no. Arranged: 1782 104 in D Major (1795) Other works from this period: Symphony no. 34 in C Major, K. 338 Approximate duration: 23 minutes (1780); Symphony no. 35 in D Major, K. 385 (1782); Symphony no. 36 in C Major, K. 425 (1783); String Quartet in G Major, K. 387 (1782); String Quartet in d minor, K. 421 (1783); Fantasy in d minor, K. 397 (1782); Piano Franz Joseph Haydn spent much of his career serving as Kapellmeister Quartet in g minor, K. 478 (1785) to the immensely wealthy Esterhazy family in Vienna. Hired by Prince Paul Anton (1711–1762) as Vice-Kapellmeister in 1761, Haydn was elevated to the Approximate duration: 5 minutes prestigious position of Kapellmeister by Anton’s successor, Nicolaus, in 1766. Nicolaus, a baryton player, was Haydn’s most significant benefactor and a In the early 1780s, Mozart was a frequent visitor to the home of the Baron generous financial supporter; the fruits of this relationship included much of Gottfried van Swieten, an imperial official at the Viennese court as well as Haydn’s grand oeuvre of symphonic and chamber works. Prince Nicolaus a great music lover and amateur composer. Van Swieten hosted Sunday died in 1790, leaving the estate to his son, Anton, who, caring decidedly salons, at which Mozart would play and study the fugues of Bach and less for music than did his father, immediately dismissed all of the musical Handel. By exploring these works, Mozart steadily developed his own staff of the Esterháza Palace in an effort to diminish expenses. With little facility at composing fugues, a musical form prevalent during the Baroque work left to be done in Esterháza, Haydn accepted a lucrative opportunity period in which multiple voices enter in turn, playing the same musical idea in London from the prominent impresario Johann Peter Salomon, leading (called a subject), creating a polyphonic conversation. Mozart wrote in a to two consequential visits, in the 1791–1792 and 1794–1795 concert seasons. letter to his father: After the isolation of Esterháza, located nearly twenty-five miles south- east of Eisenstadt, the bustling and vibrant culture of London left Haydn The Baron van Swieten, to whom I go every Sunday, gave me both bewildered and artistically rejuvenated. The celebrity treatment he all the works of Handel and Sebastian Bach to take home with received, combined with the amount of public, demonstrative music mak- me after I had played them to him. When Constanze heard the ing in London, opened the doors to what unquestionably became some of fugues, she absolutely fell in love with them. Now she will listen his greatest mature works, including the final twelve of his 104 symphonies to nothing but fugues and, particularly, the works of Handel and (collectively known as the London symphonies), the Rider String Quartet, Bach. Well, as she often has heard me play fugues out of my and other works. Of his arrival in London, Haydn wrote, “My arrival caused head, she asked me if I had ever written any down, and when I a great sensation…Everyone wants to know me…If I wanted, I could dine out CONCERT PROGRAMSCONCERT said I had not, she scolded me roundly for not recording some every day.” By the time Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795, his fame brought of my compositions in this most artistic and beautiful of musical him international recognition as the world’s foremost composer; Beethoven forms and never ceased to entreat me until I wrote down a fugue was still very early in his career, and Mozart had recently died. It was at this for her. time that Haydn wrote some of his most ingenious string works, including the Opus 76 set of six quartets in 1796, commissioned by Count Joseph Mozart’s arrangements of five fugues from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Erdödy. Clavier, K. 405, are one of several experiments with this form. Other exam- The second work of this collection, the Quartet in d minor, op. 76, ples include another set of Bach fugue arrangements, K. 404a, and the no. 2, has become known as Die Quinten, or Fifths. The nickname derives Fugue in c minor for Two Pianos, K. 426, later rearranged for string quar- from the motif of two descending fifths that opens the work and perme- tet as the Adagio and Fugue, K. 546. (This is not to mention the untold ates much of the first movement Allegro. (Scholars often note that this number of improvised fugues played for the entertainment of audiences motive, used episodically throughout the movement, evokes London’s Big ranging from his wife to Emperor Joseph II. Some of these have been lost, Ben tower, which chimes the same four notes at the third quarter of every but more were lamentably never written down.) In any event, Mozart’s fasci- hour.) After launching the first theme, this motif serves as the basis of the nation with fugal writing—and with the fugues of Bach in particular—formed entire exposition, spinning a series of melodic ideas, all closely related to an integral part of the development of his craft. Biographer Julian Rushton the Quinten motif. Rather than introducing a second theme, Haydn decep- writes, “Perhaps no composer since the young Purcell had so fructified his tively broaches the Quinten motif again, modulating from d minor to the own style by earnest wrestling with the practices of a bygone era.” relative F major. —Patrick Castillo In contrast to the intensity of the Allegro, the slow movement offers a charming interlude before the minuetto, whose mildly demonic character has earned it the subtitle Hexen-Menuett, or “Witches’ Minuet.” The move- ment is structured in ternary form, beginning with a canon. The unison Music@Menlo 2013 two-voice melody in the violins is perfectly echoed by the viola and cello solemnly around a quicker, but more introspective, middle section. The (set an octave lower), creating a sort of musical doppelgänger. The light slow g minor fugue that follows represents the quintet’s emotional center of and energetic trio section that follows gives lead to a captivating reprise of gravity. Its deeply affecting subject, introduced by the first violin, captures the canon. The rhythmically vibrant Vivace assai begins with a constrained the feeling of a melancholy Russian folk tune, whose tension Shostakovich theme in d minor. The movement steadily gains momentum, modulating draws out exquisitely. to the bright key of D major for a joyous finale. —Andrew Goldstein Following the emotionally devastating fugue, Shostakovich offers the listener some measure of relief with the rambunctious scherzo.