CALDER QuARTET - Rockport Music

7
Thursday
july
calder quartet
Benjamin Jacobson, violin
Andrew Bulbrook, violin
Jonathan Moerschel, viola
Eric Byers, cello
8 PM
GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY SUSANNE GUYER AND THAD CARPEN
STRING QUARTET IN G MINOR, OP. 10
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Animé et très decide
Assez vif et bien rythmé
Andantino, doucement expressif
Très modéré—En animant peu à peu—Très mouvementé et avec passion
KONGSGAARD VARIATIONS
Anders Hillborg (b. 1954)
:: intermission ::
STRING QUARTET NO. 8 IN E MINOR, OP. 59, NO. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Allegro
Molto Adagio
Allegretto—Maggiore (Thème russe)
Finale: Presto
35TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 73
WEEK 6
the program
STRING QUARTET IN G MINOR, OP. 10
Claude Debussy (b. St. Germain-en-Laye, August 22, 1862; d. Paris, March 25, 1918)
Notes
on the
program
by
Sandra Hyslop
Composed 1893; 24 minutes
At the great Paris International Exposition of 1889-90, the young French composer Claude
Debussy discovered the music of the Far East through the performances of the gamelan
orchestras of Javanese musicians. That encounter not only worked its magic on Debussy,
but through him it altered the course of music composition in his time.
Unlike other composers, including Beethoven and Shostakovich, Debussy did not wait until
his maturity to tackle the writing of a string quartet. By 1893, satisfied that he could express
his idiosyncratic ideas in this medium, Debussy undertook his String Quartet No.1, which he
intended to dedicate to his friend the composer Ernest Chausson. Working simultaneously
on the quartet and his new orchestral work L’Après-midi d’une faun,
Debussy explored daring new music territory. Midway through the
composition of the string quartet, Debussy wrote to Chausson, whom he
counted on for an understanding ear, “As for the last movement, I can’t get
it into the shape I want, and that’s the third time of trying. It’s a hard slog….”
At the 1889 Exposition
Universelle in Paris—where
the newly opened Eiffel
Tower served as the entry
gate—Claude Debussy first
heard the music of gamelan
ensembles from Java. Under
the everlasting spell of the
scales, harmonies, and
timbres of these ensembles,
Debussy composed his
String Quartet of 1893.
After Chausson had heard the quartet in a trial run, he wrote to Debussy
with criticisms and reservations. Debussy replied, “I must tell you that for
some days I have been greatly upset by what you said of my quartet….I felt that in the end it
only resulted in your being attracted to certain aspects of my work to which I attach little
importance.” And to what did Debussy “attach little importance”?
Studying the eventual form of the String Quartet, as well as the great orchestral works he
composed later, one can see that Debussy had little regard for the traditional sonata form, with
its development sections and thematic manipulations. He ignored the rules of counterpoint,
which controlled (or forbade) the use of parallel voices, preferring to set chords upon chords,
in fleet waves of motion. Through it all, his ear for his own language dictated a rhythm and
a flow of his music that ran counter to the definitive thrust of traditional Germanic rules of
composition. He reveled in the pentatonic scales and cross rhythms of the music of the Far
East. No wonder Chausson did not understand.
In the Quartet, Debussy begins with the germ of a theme that appears in all four of the
movements. Both Hector Berlioz and César Franck had utilized this approach, using a
recurring motif to stitch movements, or parts of movements, together. This motif, together
with the sheen and freshness of his harmonic inventions, supply all the “structure” that
Debussy needed to make of this string quartet a unified whole.
In some ways, Debussy clung to tradition in this work. Attempting a string quartet was in
itself a vestige of his attachment to the past. In addition, the forms of the first movement
(a modified sonata allegro), the second movement (a scherzo with trio), and the third (song
form) give the superficial impression of a “regular string quartet.” However, the musical
content of the Quartet points the way forward, toward the Debussy of the shimmering
orchestral works to come.
In the end, Debussy dedicated his First String Quartet to the Ysaÿe Quartet (Eugène Ysaÿe,
Mathieu Crickboom, Léon van Hout, and Joseph Jacob), who gave the first performance of
the work on December 29, 1893. Its mixed critical reception revealed that at least some in
74 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
the audience understood the electrifying vitality, brilliant sonic colors, and sparkling clarity
of the young composer’s singular achievement in writing for string quartet.
KONGSGAARD VARIATIONS
Anders Hillborg (b. Stockholm, Sweden, May 31, 1954)
Composed 2006; 14minutes
The Swedish composer Anders Hillborg has developed significant ties to the United States
music world, where his works have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he
was composer-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival in 2008.
Premiered in 2006 by the Prazak Quartet, the Kongsgaard Variations is dedicated to John
and Maggy Kongsgaard. John Kongsgaard, a winemaker in Napa Valley, California, is a
co-founder of the Arietta winery, whose wine labels include an image of a Beethoven
manuscript excerpt: two measures of the Arietta theme from the composer’s final piano
sonata. Mr. Hillborg has written the following about his Kongsgaard Variations:
Wine labels from the Arietta
vineyard (Napa Valley,
California) feature a
two-measure excerpt of
Beethoven’s manuscript
for the Arietta theme from
the composer’s final piano
sonata.
…So when I was asked to compose a piece in honour of this fabulous wine, this
[Arietta] theme would naturally have a key role in the piece. But whereas Beethoven’s
piece is a set of rigourously carried out variations with a steadily increasing intensity
curve,… the Kongsgaard Variations are more like meditations, with no directional
process.
The music floats aimlessly through the centuries, displaying reminiscences of
Baroque, folk music, Renaissance, and Romanticism, but with Beethoven’s Arietta
theme as the musical epicenter. Although scarcely audible, the piece actually starts
with music directly derived from the Arietta theme, leaving out the melody, but
maintaining the same rhythmical flow and harmonic landscape, as if Beethoven’s
theme is dreaming about yet another variation on itself.
Arietta means “little song,” and these beginning bars are then cloned and mutated
into other “little songs” that occur on several occasions in the piece.
After the introductory section the first violin takes on a simple, thoughtful solo motif,
and again, this is cloned and mutated and appears later in the piece in different
shapes. Then comes a viola solo, joyful, as in trance, leading into a section where
all instruments sing the praise of wine and music.
Shortly after the middle of the piece, we hear the Arietta theme for the first time,
but strangely distorted and stretched, in the same way a cubistic painting twists the
motif it uses. It’s almost as if the music is being played backwards.
A simple chorale lands us in the music that started out the piece. Then, finally, comes
the first part of the Beethoven theme in C major in its pure, original shape, succeeded
by the second part of the theme in A minor, but here again distorted, before the music
completely vaporizes into a mist of harmonics.
35TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 75
STRING QUARTET IN E MINOR, OP. 59, NO. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, December 16, 1771; d. Vienna, March 26, 1827)
Notes
on the
program
by
Sandra Hyslop
Composed 1805-06; 35 minutes
Beethoven’s three string quartets, composed in 1805-06 and published in 1808 as Opus 59,
were commissioned by and dedicated to Count—and later, Prince—Andrei Kirillovich
Rasumovsky, the Russian Ambassador in Vienna. They immediately became known as
“the Rasumovsky quartets.”
This patron and friend of Beethoven, one of the wealthiest men in Europe, was a passionate
amateur musician. He maintained a professional string quartet for performances, on call,
in his elegant home in Vienna. For several years, that ensemble was the quartet of the
Beethoven’s close friend and colleague the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776-1830).
Schuppanzigh, six years younger than Beethoven, was a leading figure in Vienna’s community
of musicians and served as the principal violin in the premier performances of many of
Beethoven’s compositions—chamber music as well as orchestral works.
An acquaintance in that social circle said that “[Beethoven] was as much at home in
Rasumovsky’s palace as a hen in her coop. Everything he wrote was taken warm from the
nest and tried out in the frying pan.” Although Beethoven declined Rasumovsky’s request
to give him lessons in theory and composition, he did accept his commission for the three
string quartets. At their first performance, in the Rasumovsky palace, Schuppanzigh sat first
violin and Count Rasumovsky himself, as was his custom, played the second violin part.
Ignaz Schuppanzigh
(1776-1830), violinist,
violist, conductor, and
close friend of Ludwig van
Beethoven, occupied a
central place in Vienna’s
music life for forty years. As
his handsome countenance
and fit figure metamorphosed
into morbid obesity,
Schuppanzigh became
known for his corpulence,
about which his friend
Beethoven occasionally
commented. In fact,
Beethoven even wrote a
short choral composition
entitled “Lob auf den Dicken,”
[In praise of the fat one]
“in honor of” his friend.
The text reads, in part,
“Schuppanzigh ist ein
Lump.
Wer kennt ihn nicht,den
dicken Sauermagen…”
[Schuppanzigh is a lump,
who doesn’t know him,
the fat sour belly?...]
Beethoven’s humor, if such
it was, apparently had little
effect on their relationship,
as Schuppanzigh was a loyal
friend and colleague for
Beethoven’s entire life
in Vienna.
Thayer, in his Life of Beethoven, reported that the Vienna correspondent of the Allgemeine
musikalische Zeitung (that important eighteenth- and nineteenth-century journal that
provides us copious details of musical happenings throughout Europe) wrote the following
remark about the Opus 59 in 1807: “…three new, very long, and difficult Beethoven quartets…
are attracting the attention of all connoisseurs. They are profoundly thought through and
admirably worked out, but not to be grasped by all.”
Beethoven was aware of the advanced nature of these compositions. An Italian musician,
Felix Radicati, asked the composer if he seriously considered these quartets to be music.
Beethoven quickly replied, “Oh, they are not for you, but for a later age.”
That “later age” arrived sometime in the twentieth century, when a profound appreciation for
Beethoven’s more challenging quartets began to take hold. What to Signore Radicati seemed
bizarre, now reaches modern ears as the exciting force that Beethoven breathed naturally
into the music.
Opus 59, No. 2, begins with two dramatic and incisive chords, in the tonic, E minor, and its
dominant, B major, followed by a silence. This theme—chords and silence—recurs throughout
the first movement, contrasted by rapidly swirling melodic passages. The music of the
slow—molto slow—second movement demands sustained legato expressivity, more prayerful
than sentimental in tone. It ends serenely. In the Trio of the exuberant Scherzo, marked
“Allegretto,” Beethoven employed a Russian theme (no doubt to honor his patron), which he
delineated in energetic canonic passages. The final movement completes the work, in
relatively short order, with ebullient and rapidly paced good humor. The frequently recurring
principal theme, memorably jaunty, is like an invitation to a roisterous dance.
76 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM