STRING SEXTET • PIANO QUINTET DORIC STRING QUARTET JENNIFER STUMM • BARTHOLOMEW LAFOLLETTE • KATHRYN STOTT viola cello piano Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Hollywood, late 1934 Garnier George 2 2 Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Hamburg, December 1920 Hamburg,December Korngold, Erich Wolfgang Arnold Mocsigay Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 – 1957) Quintet, Op. 15 (1921 – 22)* 32:24 in E major • in E-Dur • en mi majeur for Two Violins, Viola, Cello, and Piano Bildhauer Gustinus Ambrosi gewidmet 1 I Mäßiges Zeitmaß, mit schwungvoll blühendem Ausdruck 12:28 2 II Adagio (Freie Variationen über die Lieder des Abschieds, Op. 14) Mit größter Ruhe, stets äußerst gebunden und ausdrucksvoll – Variation I. A tempo – Variation II. A tempo – Variation III. Rascher als das Hauptzeitmaß – Variation IV. Noch etwas rascher – Variation V. Dasselbe Zeitmaß (mit erregtem Ausdruck) – Variation VI. Hauptzeitmaß (Adagio, mit größter Ruhe) – Variation VII. Ganz langsam – Variation VIII. Doppelt so rasch – Variation IX. Dasselbe Zeitmaß (mit ununterbrochen zu steigerndem Ausdruck) – Hauptzeitmaß (Adagio, mit größter Ruhe) 11:52 3 III Finale. Gemessen beinahe pathetisch – Allegro giocoso 7:53 5 Sextet, Op. 10 (1914 – 16)† 34:21 in D major • in D-Dur • en ré majeur for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Two Cellos Herrn Präsidenten Dr. Carl Ritter von Wiener gewidmet 4 I Moderato – Allegro 10:00 5 II Adagio. Langsam 10:04 6 III Intermezzo. In gemäßigtem Zeitmaß, mit Grazie 6:55 7 IV Finale. So rasch als möglich (Presto). Mit Feuer und Humor 7:07 TT 66:58 Jennifer Stumm viola† Bartholomew LaFollette cello† Kathryn Stott piano* Doric String Quartet Alex Redington violin Jonathan Stone violin Simon Tandree viola John Myerscough cello 6 Korngold: String Sextet / Piano Quintet Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 – 1957) was and completed in 1916. Korngold dedicated it one of the most astonishing prodigies in the to Dr Carl Ritter von Wiener, an official in the history of western music. Admired by Mahler, Ministry of Education and former President of Strauss, and Puccini, his compositions were the Staatsakademie. The premiere, on 2 May regularly performed by renowned musicians 1917 (from the manuscript), by an augmented worldwide. During the rise of Nazism in the late Rosé Quartet was tremendously successful. By 1930s, his Jewish heritage eventually forced him the end of 1917, Korngold would be serving in into exile in Los Angeles, where he composed the Austrian military for the final year of World eighteen original film scores, winning two War I. Oscars along the way. A return to Europe Set in four movements, the Sextet is a after the war was ultimately unsuccessful, fine example of Korngold’s masterful use of the musical world having moved beyond contrapuntal textures, with an emphasis on the intensely late-romantic style in which he inner voices, giving each part a chance to excelled. He died in Los Angeles in 1957 at the shine. Composed simultaneously as the age of sixty, believing himself forgotten. opera Violanta, the Sextet shares some of Though unplanned as such, the two works the chromatic – and perhaps theatrical – recorded here represent chamber-work elements of that work. bookends for Korngold’s brief participation The first movement’s sonata structure is in World War I. The Sextet was the last major often difficult to recognise through the many chamber work composed before Korngold was elaborations and highly intricate counterpoint called to military service. The Quintet was the among the different voices. An opening triplet first chamber work he completed after the War. figure forms the foundation, and this gives way almost immediately to an expansive first Sextet for Two Violins, Two Violas, and theme in the first violin. A transitional section Two Cellos moves through some unusual key changes Work on the Sextet for strings in D major, before reaching a yearning, lyric theme in Op. 10 was underway by the summer of 1914 B major, again in the first violin. A fugal 7 passage based on the opening triplet figure to the highly charged atmosphere that leads to the recapitulation. The reflective was established by the preceding Adagio. coda ends with a succession of accelerating The movement varies in mood between pizzicati that culminate in yet another frivolity and sentimentality, Korngold here presentation of the triplet figure, before playing fondly – sometimes with an air of the movement concludes with a series of irony, sometimes jokingly, sometimes more resolute, triple-stopped chords. straightforwardly – with that most Viennese The Adagio comes closest in mood of genres, the waltz. The thematic nucleus and intensity to Verklärte Nacht by Arnold is a variation of his personal motto theme, Schoenberg, the Sextet’s most frequent the ‘Motif of the Cheerful Heart’, which concert companion prior to World War II, he liked to include somewhere in each of when Nazism banned the compositions his major compositions, while the second of both composers. A declamatory subject is a wonderfully nostalgic thought. appoggiatura opens the movement, but A series of exquisite episodes leads to a there is an immediate shift to a sensuous, yearning yet smiling conclusion, the violin almost erotic mood as the first cello presents ‘whistling’ thoughtfully the main theme as the a theme from which the movement draws movement slips away. its primary inspiration. Overlapping this, the In a fashion typical of Korngold, the Finale first viola plays a subsidiary idea derived is high spirited and good humoured. Also from an unpublished song which Korngold typical are references to the themes of had composed in 1913, based on the poem preceding movements, binding the entire ‘Nachts’ by Siegfried Trebitsch (1869 – 1956). work together as a whole. The four repeated The ensemble explores these two themes, B flats that open the movement link it with which are supported by highly unusual its predecessor before the music quickly harmonies and extreme bitonality, possibly shifts to D major and the primary theme in suggested by that opening appoggiatura the first cello. Supported by a light, almost which combines D major and D minor. whimsical accompaniment, the theme flits Emotionally intense, the tension building and weaves with a generally genial mood. throughout, the movement ends quietly. The jaunty second subject presages the Exceptionally Viennese in character, the finale of Korngold’s Symphony in F sharp and Intermezzo brings a much needed relief the work is rounded off with the unexpected 8 reappearance of the opening theme of the difficulty, and string writing on a virtuosic first movement, before a rapid restatement scale. Abounding in good humour and charm, of the Finale’s first idea races to an emphatic the work displays Korngold’s optimism and conclusion in D major. sunny disposition. The first movement, in sonata form, begins in the tonic major, Quintet for Two Violins, Viola, Cello, and Piano with an expansive, upward leaping theme, Thanks to a sympathetic doctor, Korngold typical of Korngold. Following a complex was exempted from combat duty during The contrapuntal transition is a second, exquisite Great War. Confined to Vienna, he was made song-like theme, first introduced by the musical director of his regiment, conductor cello. The central development is in three of the regimental band, and manager of its parts. Demonstrating the composer’s musical library. Original composition during innovative adaptation of traditional forms, this period appears to have been minimal. the recapitulation continues the process of Following the Armistice in November 1918, he shifting keys and subtle thematic exploration resumed work on what would become his most instead of presenting a simple restatement. famous opera, Die tote Stadt, begun in 1916. A quiet, reflective segment leads to a brief After completing it in 1920, he retreated into coda, pizzicati and trills quickly increasing the world of chamber music, and composed the dramatic tension and leading to the his song cycle Abschiedslieder, Op. 14, while triumphant conclusion. beginning work simultaneously on his first The Adagio is a set of nine free variations String Quartet, Op. 16 and the Quintet for Two based on Korngold’s newly composed Violins, Viola, Cello, and Piano in E major, Op. 15. Abschiedslieder. The third song, ‘Mond, so Completed in 1922, a year before the String gehst du wieder auf’ (Moon, thou riseth Quartet, the Quintet was dedicated to the deaf- again), forms the principal subject for mute sculptor Gustinus Ambrosi (1893 – 1975), the variations, but both clear and hidden a close friend of the Korngolds. The highly quotations from the other three songs of the successful world premiere was given in set are all included. Also incorporated is a Hamburg on 16 February 1923, by the Bändler musical code that Korngold had developed Quartet with the composer at the piano. to communicate secretly with his fiancée, The Quintet is in three elaborate, complex Luise von Sonnenthal. Disapproving of the movements, with a piano part of considerable match, his parents would be completely 9 unaware as Korngold used this secret code dynamic advocate for her instrument. A native during his concert performances to send of Atlanta, Georgia, she studied with Karen loving messages to Luzi, seated elsewhere Tuttle at the Curtis Institute of Music and at in the audience. This movement is marked the Juilliard School and also pursued interests by Korngold’s highly original, post-Straussian in politics and astronomy at the University of harmonies, and demonstrates