Program Notes Tesla Quartet Salon Concert, Feb 16, 2013

Program Notes Tesla Quartet Salon Concert, Feb 16, 2013
Copyright © 2012 by Jason S. Heilman, Ph.D.
Tonight’s program presents two string quartets from
early nineteenth-century Vienna. This was the epicenter
of the genre in its heyday, but these two quartets—
composed just thirteen years apart—could not be any
more distinct. Franz Schubert’s E-flat Major Quartet has
all the energy of a precocious young composer coming to
terms with Haydn’s legacy, while Ludwig van Beethoven’s valedictory F Major Quartet shows a master composer reflecting on a lifetime of work in the genre.
Quartet in E-flat Major, D.87
composed in 1813 – duration: 25 minutes
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
1840 as the first of two quartets numbered Opus 125. By
the time the first complete edition of Schubert’s string
quartets came out in the late nineteenth century, this
quartet was thought to have been composed around
1817, and it was numbered as his Tenth Quartet. In the
twentieth century, when the musicologist Otto Erich
Deutsch compiled his definitive chronological catalogue
of all of Schubert’s works (creating the now-familiar “D.”
numbers) his analysis placed the E-flat major quartet
much earlier: in 1813. Thus he gave this quartet the
number D.87 (out of 992), cementing it as a remarkably
early piece in Schubert’s output—in fact his seventh and
not his tenth quartet.
One of the few well-known Viennese composers to have
actually been born in Vienna, Franz Schubert spent virtually all of his short life in that city and its suburbs. Displaying musical gifts from an early age, Schubert sang
with distinction in the Imperial court choir as a child,
and had the opportunity to study composition with Antonio Salieri in his teenage years. Harsh economic realities ultimately forced Schubert to abandon a professional
musical career and follow instead in his father’s footsteps as a schoolteacher, a job he started in 1814 when he
was only seventeen. But Schubert never gave up on music; he continued composing in his spare time and spent
his evenings playing concerts in the homes of his many
friends and patrons. Eventually he became famous for
his Lieder, or song settings of German poetry for voice
and piano, of which he composed more than six hundred. Yet the prolific Schubert also wrote numerous instrumental works, the overwhelming majority of which
languished in obscurity for decades after his death until
they were rediscovered later in the century. This situation has effectively given Schubert two musical lives: first
as an acknowledged master songwriter, then a posthumous second life as a renowned composer of symphonies
and chamber music.
Deutsch’s findings place the E flat Major Quartet in the
same transitional period that saw the seventeen-year-old
Schubert completing his formal musical studies with Salieri and preparing to embark upon his new career as a
schoolteacher. Thus this quartet is a kind of graduation
exercise; together with his contemporaneous First Symphony (D.82), it shows the extent to which the young
Schubert had mastered the prevailing Viennese style of
Haydn and Mozart. The fact that this piece remains the
earliest of Schubert’s string quartets to be frequently
performed attests to that precocious mastery. Structured
like one of Haydn’s quartets, Schubert’s E-flat Major
Quartet opens with an allegro moderato first movement
in a classical sonata form; its themes are, in turns, both
noble and dramatic. The very brief second movement is a
sprightly scherzo with a flowing central trio section. This
is followed by a serene adagio movement that shows
Schubert’s lyrical gifts manifesting at an early age. The
allegro finale, soundly Haydnesque in its character,
brings the quartet to a cheerful resolution.
In stark contrast to his popular Lieder and piano pieces,
very few of Schubert’s instrumental works were published during his lifetime. Yet after his death—and long
into the nineteenth century—the appetite for Schubert’s
chamber compositions steadily grew, resulting in regular
posthumous publications. This has led to a great deal of
confusion in the numbering of Schubert’s instrumental
works, as early and late pieces were introduced to the
public out of sequence. Schubert’s only string quartet in
the key of E-flat major is a prime example of this: likely
unperformed in Schubert’s lifetime, it was published in
In the years since his death, the final compositions of
Ludwig van Beethoven have taken on a special aura, due
largely to their relative scarcity as well as the conditions
surrounding their creation. These works exemplify his
so-called “late style”: a radical departure not only from
the musical norms of the age but also from Beethoven’s
own previous compositional style. As early as 1802, Beethoven became aware of his impending deafness, and
after talking himself out of his despair, he embarked upon a remarkably fertile decade that saw the genesis of the
majority of his most popular works. But this flurry of
Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135
composed in 1826 – duration: 25 minutes
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
activity was followed by a fallow period, brought on by
Beethoven’s now-complete deafness (he gave his final
public performance at the keyboard in 1814), the troubles he experienced in completing his opera Fidelio, and
his protracted custody battle over his late brother’s son,
Carl. But Beethoven could not retire from composing
altogether, and battling off illness, he returned to work
in the 1820s, spurred on by his groundbreaking idea for
a symphony with an extended choral finale. The long
process of composing his Ninth Symphony must have
reawakened Beethoven’s artistic impulses; during his
last decade, he also wrote five piano sonatas, the Missa
Solemnis, and a final set of string quartets.
The “late quartets” were initially occasioned by a commission from the Russian nobleman and amateur musician Nikolai Galitzin. Writing Beethoven in 1822,
Galitzin offered to pay the reclusive composer for up to
three new string quartets—a genre Beethoven had not
composed in for more than ten years at that point. Beethoven accepted the commission and initially seemed
optimistic that he could make his self-imposed spring
1823 deadline, but work on his Ninth Symphony got in
the way. Prince Galitzin remained patient, however, and
his gentle prodding paid off: not only did Beethoven ultimately deliver all three of Galitzin’s string quartets, but
he was inspired to compose two more without commission. And what quartets they were: the five late quartets
all push the boundaries of musical form and style in
ways that had never before been attempted. The broad
scope of these works, rivaling Beethoven’s symphonies in
length, and his use of harmony and form were unlike
anything the Viennese public had experienced. For a
time, the late quartets were considered unplayable—the
result of a fevered mind, perhaps. Today they are cornerstones of western music.
The last of these quartets was Beethoven’s final complet-
ed work; finished only four months before his death, the
Sixteenth String Quartet in F major was a truly unusual
piece. It is the shortest of the late quartets, returning to
the standard four-movement layout Beethoven had
abandoned in his previous quartets. It also has, in places,
a much lighter tone than one would expect from a composer facing his own mortality. The allegretto first
movement is practically nonchalant: opening with a gentle walking theme, the movement occasionally veers toward darker and more somber tones, but always comes
back. This movement is followed by a scherzo that repeatedly builds to dizzying speeds only to crash to momentary halts and start again. The dramatic third
movement (lento assai, cantante e tranquillo) is operatic
in character, taking the form of a stately cavatina sung
by the first violin. The finale of this quartet is an enigma:
it bears the title, in Beethoven’s own handwriting, Der
schwer gefaßte Entschluß (“The hard-fought decision”)
and has two sections: a slow introduction marked Muß
es sein? (“Must it be?”) followed by a faster main section
titled Es muß sein! (“It must be!”). For the record, no
one actually knows what this means—whether it has any
personal significance for Beethoven, or if he felt that the
titles simply reflected the dramatic nature of the music.
(This has not stopped decades of rampant idle speculation, however.) Per Beethoven’s notation, the question
“must it be?” is posed in the three-note figure played by
the cello and viola to open the movement, which starts
an ominous introduction. The question is answered by
another three-note motive in the violins (“it must be!”),
which forms the basis for the brisk melody at the heart of
this movement. Eventually the question is posed once
more, with a very dramatic return to the opening motive
underneath violin tremolos. The answer is the same,
however, with the “it must be” motive turning into a kind
of taunting round dance, leading into a coda that builds
to a resounding finish.