Takács Quartet - The Friends of Chamber Music

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Takács Quartet
Friday, April 8
8 pm
The Folly Theater
Edward Dusinberre violin
Károly Schranzviolin
Geraldine Walther viola
András Fejér
cello
DVOŘÁK
String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105
Adagio ma non troppo; Allegro appassionato
Molto vivace
Lento e molto cantabile
Allegro non tanto
WEBERN Langsamer Satz in E-flat Major
INTERMISSION
BEETHOVEN
String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 “Rasumovsky”
Introduzione: Andante con moto; Allegro vivace
Andante con moto quasi Allegretto
Menuetto: Grazioso
Allegro molto
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program notes
String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 (1895)
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Autumn harvest: the miracle of late Dvořák
In certain respects, Dvořák's late works were
retrospective. He was trained in the Germanic school
and struggled, successfully, to develop a highly personal
nationalistic style. During his final creative years, however,
he was drawn to the programmatic tone poem style of
Franz Liszt, which had found new energy in the more
recent works of Richard Strauss. After a distinguished
career with strong commitment to the forms of absolute
music (non-programmatic music), Dvořák wrote five
symphonic poems, all based on Bohemian legend and
history. The parallel with his older countryman Bedřich
Smetana (whose masterwork, Má Vlast, is a collection of
six such tone poems) cannot be lost on us.
Before turning to these late orchestral pieces, however,
he made his musical farewell to the realm of absolute
music with two string quartets, published as Opp.105
and 106. The A-flat Quartet, though it bears the earlier
opus number, was actually the last quartet that Dvořák
completed. He began it in 1895 while in New York City,
during the final month of his long stay in the United
States. Enormously happy to be back in Czechoslovakia,
but exhausted from his journey, he took an unprecedented
seven months' leave from composing. Work on the A-flat
Major quartet resumed in December 1895; Simrock
published it in 1896.
Coming home: Bohemian elements and a nod to
Beethoven
Unlike Dvořák’s straightforward, folk-like American
works, his A-flat Major Quartet shows no influence
of the New World. To the contrary, it has decidedly
Czech themes and dance rhythms. After a somber slow
introduction in the remarkable key of A-flat minor,
Dvořák settles into a joyous Allegro appassionato in sonata
form. His main theme, a fanfare-like flourish, is the first
of several appealing melodic ideas. It is his harmonies and
subtle shifts of tempo, however, that give this opening
movement its complex, late romantic texture.
Dvořák's biographers have interpreted the Opp. 105
and 106 Quartets to be expressions of the composer's
thanksgiving to be back in his native land. In Op. 105, the
tripartite (A-B-A’])slow movement most clearly
Photo of Antonín Dvořák, 1870
reflects the hymn-like character one might expect from
such sentiments. This elegiac, philosophical Lento e
molto cantabile in F major speaks to us with nobility. We
can hear, in its middle minore section, how far Dvořák's
chromatic wanderings had taken him. With his return to
the A-section, he embroiders his original ideas with filigree
work in the middle voices. A brief coda momentarily
recalls the darker B-section. Using the cello’s pedal-point
as underpinning, Dvořák dispels any lingering shadows
with a tranquil and reassuring conclusion.
In terms of psychological depth and a remarkable
balance in the string writing, the A-flat Major Quartet
shows considerable affinity with the late quartets of
Beethoven. If Dvořák was reverting to his romantic
heritage at this stage of his life, he also continued his
lifelong search for novel approaches to organizing a large,
multi-movement sonata form. The second movement
Molto vivace is a furiant, a fast dance of Bohemian origin,
whose pulse alternates between 3/4 and 2/4 meters (think
“America” from West Side Story). The finale also has a
strong Czech imprint, again overflowing with the piquant
harmonies and lively rhythms of Bohemian folk dance.
Well-integrated string writing and Dvořák’s inexhaustible
gift for melody add up to first-rate listening.
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program notes
After his death, however, a cache of unpublished
manuscripts was discovered among his effects. He
composed them between 1899 and 1908; nearly all date
from before he met Schoenberg in autumn 1904. These
early compositions, including the Langsamer Satz that is on
tonight’s program, show how firmly anchored Webern was
in the Viennese tradition. Their post-romantic harmonic
language reveals the influence of Wagner, Strauss and
Brahms.
Souvenir of a special springtime holiday
Langsamer Satz means ‘slow movement,’ in this case a single
movement for string quartet. He wrote it on the heels of
an idyllic holiday with his cousin Wilhelmine Mörtl. They
had fallen in love in 1902 and would marry in 1911. In the
spring 1905, during the Pentecost holiday, the pair took
a trip to Waldwinkel, a lovely area of countryside about
60 miles west of Vienna. Webern and his cousin, both
adored the outdoors. And at twenty-one, Webern was head
over heels in love. His diaries are filled with extravagant
descriptions, even on rainy days.
"My heart was jubilant. I spent wonderful hours
during the afternoon. When night fell, the skies shed
bitter tears, but I wandered with her along a
road. A coat protected the two of us. Our love rose
to infinite heights and filled the universe! Two souls
were enraptured. "
Then, the next day:
Photo of Anton von Webern
Langsamer Satz
Anton von Webern (1883-1945)
Expansive early romanticism from the pen of a terse
writer
Few of us know Webern’s music. Not to be confused
with the German 19th century romantic Carl Maria
von Weber, the Viennese native Anton Webern was a
disciple and star pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, inventor
of the twelve-tone system. Webern became a master of
compression and expressivity, writing twelve-tone pieces of
utmost brevity. His complete published works fit on three
compact discs – and that includes his orchestrations of
music by Bach and Schubert.
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"We wandered through forests. It was a fairyland!
High tree trunks all around us, a green luminescence
in between, and here and there floods of gold on the
green moss. The forest symphony resounded. "
Love music
He composed the Langsamer Satz in June. It is, quite
simply, love music: love of nature, love of Wilhelmine. It
is also the work of a 21-year-old composer still finding his
way. Writer James Beale calls it “disarmingly conventional
. . . almost sugary.” Biographer Hans Moldenhauer is more
generous: “The music is pervaded by a sweet poignancy;
serene happiness rises to triumphant ecstasy in the coda.”
Most striking are the textural ideas. Webern was a lifelong
contrapuntalist and the independence of his voices adds to
the interest of this movement.
program notes
About the music
A mysterious introduction opens the work,
marked Andante con moto perhaps as a joke by
the composer, for there is little motion of any sort
in its 29 measures. There is, however, a marked
parallel with Mozart’s String Quartet K. 465, also
in C Major, called the "Dissonance." Like Mozart
in the earlier work, Beethoven passes briefly
through many tonalities prior to settling in to the
home key of C. His sunny, sprightly main theme
initiates a largely untroubled Allegro vivace.
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Das Niederösterreichische Landhaus in Wien vom Minoritenplatz gesehen by Rudolf von Alt, 1845
String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827
Beethoven returned to the medium of the string quartet
in 1804 for the first time in four years. His impetus was a
commission from Count Andrey Kyrillovich Rasumovsky,
Russian ambassador to the Austrian court since 1792.
Immensely wealthy and cultured, Rasumovsky built a splendid
residence in Vienna which he filled with a superb library
and art collection. Rasumovsky was married to a sister-inlaw of Prince Karl Lichnowsky, another important patron of
Beethoven. A capable violinist, he maintained a household
filled with music. From 1808 to 1816, he employed an
in-house string orchestra that included many of Vienna’s finest
players, including the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh.
When the three Quartets of Op. 59 were first performed
by the Schuppanzigh Quartet in Vienna in 1806, both the
performers and the audience were mystified, and the overall
reaction to the new works was negative. The third Quartet
fared somewhat better than the others, probably because of
its reflective nature. More than the other two, this C Major
work harks back to the revered traditions of quartet writing in
the late 18th century. Though unmistakably imprinted with
Beethoven's dramatic hand and heroic style, its reference – and
its deference – to Haydn and Mozart are readily discernible.
Clearly Beethoven's contemporaries perceived those qualities
as well.
Musicians and scholars alike have always
been fascinated with the A Minor slow movement
to this quartet. Initially its lilting 6/8 meter hints
at a Venetian boat song, or perhaps a siciliana.
But the mournfulness which permeates this
movement, so effectively established by the cello's
pizzicato, is Slavic in nature.
Count Rasumovsky apparently asked Beethoven to
incorporate Russian melodies into the new pieces. Only in the
first two Quartets of Op. 59 did Beethoven use actual Russian
folk tunes. Perhaps this melancholy slow movement was his
attempt to endow the music with a Russian "feel." Is it the
most effective use of "Russian" music because it embodies
Beethoven's perception of the Russian spirit?
We do not know what Count Rasumovsky may have
thought, but the movement is mesmerizing. It holds our
attention with its graceful insistence on rhythmic continuity.
Beethoven chooses not to deviate from the 6/8 pattern. His
decision is unusual; rather than relying upon rhythmic variety,
he makes his creative statement with harmonic explorations.
Having switched gears altogether for this fascinating
intermezzo, Beethoven remains reflective in the third
movement, which is cast as an 18th century minuet.
Stylistically, this movement is a throwback, in marked contrast
to the lively scherzo that had become Beethoven’s norm in
multi-movement works. There is method to his madness: one
needs the breathing time during this elegant, restrained music,
for Beethoven holds in abeyance a headlong race at top speed.
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program notes
A TALE OF THREE PATRONS
Two Russian noblemen and a Slavic prince
played crucial roles in Beethoven's monumental
contribution to the string quartet literature. The
first was the Bohemian Prince Joseph Franz
Maximilian Lobkowitz. In the late 1790s, he
encouraged Beethoven to produce the six
quartets which comprise Op. 18.
The Lobkowitz family had a long history of
interest in music. Beethoven’s Prince Lobkowitz
maintained a private orchestra in Vienna and at
his other family residences. Involved with several
musical societies, he tossed his hat more actively
in the ring when two Viennese operatic theatres
required a management bailout in 1807.
He first sponsored Beethoven in 1795 with a
concert featuring the young Bonn virtuoso. The
two men were particularly close in the first
decade of the 19th century, glorious years for
Beethoven as a composer. He gave his patron a
measure of immortality with further dedications
to the Eroica Symphony, the Triple Concerto,
and the String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major,
Op. 74, entitled the Harp. The Fifth and Sixth
Symphonies were jointly dedicated to Prince
Lobkowitz and Count Rasumovsky.
The three Op. 59 quartets (1805-1806)
are generally referred to by the name of
their dedicatee, Count Andrey Kyrillovich
Rasumovsky. Sometimes they are called the
Russian Quartets, although they are not the only
ones with a Russian connection. The Count was
a career diplomat who served first in Naples,
then in Copenhagen and Stockholm, before
he was appointed Russian ambassador to the
Imperial Austrian court. Aided by considerable
family wealth, Rasumovsky established a lavish
residence in Vienna, spending freely in the
areas of art, music, and literature. He took a
strong interest in Beethoven as early as 1795,
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when he subscribed to Beethoven’s Piano Trios,
Op.1. His household orchestra included the
members of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, which
premiered many of Beethoven’s string quartets.
Rasumovsky was a creditable violinist who
occasionally took the second violin part with
his resident ensemble. He was joint dedicatee,
with Prince Lobkowitz, of the Fifth and Sixth
Symphonies.
The nobleman responsible for Beethoven’s
late string quartets was Prince Nikolai
Borisovich Golitzin who, like Rasumovsky, was
attached to the Austrian court in a diplomatic
and administrative capacity. Golitzin was a
competent cellist who admired Beethoven’s
music. He arranged a handful of Beethoven’s
piano sonatas for strings, subscribed to major
works such as the Missa Solemnis, and was
instrumental in enlisting the Russian Czar
Alexander I to subscribe as well. Golitzin
helped to spread Beethoven’s reputation in
Russia.
Golitzin initially asked for “one, two, or three
quartets.” Beethoven was notoriously delinquent
in delivering the music. The two men sparred
about compensation, and their financial
haggling was unresolved when Beethoven died
in March 1827. Though a number of letters
exchanged between patron and composer
survive – primarily in French, the language of
educated Russians – the two men never met.
Although Beethoven took several years to
fulfill Golitzin’s initial request, the resulting
works were well worth the delay. Ultimately
he composed not three, but five quartets, plus
the Grosse Fuge. These works are universally
regarded as the summit of his chamber music.
– L.S. ©2015
biography
Whether the last movement is a fugue has been cause
for great debate. Technically it is developed not as a fugue,
but rather as a sonata form. Certainly it has strong fugal
elements and a number of true contrapuntal entrances.
Its magic lies partly in its moto perpetuo cascade of eighth
notes, and partly in its exuberant, unbridled vitality. Always
the consummate dramatist with the unfailing instinct for
maximum effect, Beethoven saves the best for last, writing
into his recapitulation a buildup that gathers momentum
and dynamism much like a Rossini overture, to an
exhilarating climax. As the English composer and violist
Rebecca Clarke observed nearly 90 years ago:
"This fugue, one of the greatest movements in the
whole of quartet literature, is a most intoxicating thing
to play from beginning to end. In the passage where
each instrument in turn runs up the whole length of a
string there is a glorious feeling of license at being
allowed to make a crescendo in which the other players
may not join."
Beethoven knows, of course, that music this exultant cannot
be fully grasped on only one hearing – so he has his players
repeat it. And the effect is even more exuberant the second
time around, both for the musicians and for the audience.
Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2015
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Takács Quartet
W
idely recognized as one of the world's great ensembles, the
Takács Quartet plays with a unique blend of drama, warmth
and humor, combining four distinct musical personalities to bring
fresh insights to the string quartet repertoire. For thirty-two years
the ensemble has been in residence at the University of Colorado,
Boulder.
In 2015-2016, the Takács returns to Carnegie Hall for two
programs, one featuring a new work by composer Timo Andres,
commissioned by Carnegie Hall, and one with pianist Garrick
Ohlsson. They also perform with Mr. Ohlsson at Stanford,
the University of Richmond, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, and at the
University of Florida. In addition to their annual Wigmore Hall
series in London, where the Quartet are Associate Artists, other
European engagements in 2015-2016 include performances in Oslo,
Amsterdam, Budapest, Hamburg, Hannover, Brussels, Bilbao and a
concert at the Schubertiade in Hohenems, Austria.
The Quartet's award-winning recordings include the complete
Beethoven Cycle on the Decca label. In 2005 the Late Beethoven
Quartets won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC
Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award, Album of the Year at the
Brit Awards and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings
of the early and middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy,
another Gramophone Award, a Chamber Music of America Award
and two further awards from the Japanese Recording Academy.
The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt
Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz,
Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. It first
received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and
the Critics' Prize at the International String Quartet Competition
in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the
1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions, and First Prizes at
the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and
the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North
American debut tour in 1982. In 2001 the Takács Quartet was
awarded the Order of Merit of the Knight's Cross of the Republic
of Hungary, and in March of 2011 each member of the Quartet was
awarded the Order of Merit Commander's Cross by the President of
the Republic of Hungary.
For more information visit: www.takacsquartet.com
Takács Quartet appears courtesy of Seldy Cramer Artists
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