Quatuor Ébène - Friends of Chamber Music · Quatuor Ébène Friday, November 21 8 pm The Folly Theater The International Chamber Music Series is underwritten, in part, ... the lower

the friends of chamber music | Live Performance. Be There.

Quatuor ÉbèneThe Folly Theater8 pm Friday, November 21

The International Chamber Music Series is underwritten, in part, by the William T. Kemper Foundation

T h e W i l l i a m T. K e m p e r I n t e r n at i o n a l c h a m b e r M u s i c s e r i e s

HAYDN String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20 No. 5, Hob. III:35 Allegro moderato Menuetto; Trio Adagio Finale: Fuga a due Soggetti

MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13 Adagio; Allegro vivace Adagio non lento Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto; Allegro di molto Presto; Adagio non lento

I N T E R M I S S I O N

JAZZ SELECTIONS TBA

Pierre Colombet violinGabriel Le Magadure violinMathieu Herzog violaRaphael Merlin cello

Additional support is also provided by:

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Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, No. 5, Hob. III:35 “With the Handel Theme” Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Joseph Haydn went to work for the princely house of Esterházy in 1761, composing and supervising performance of church music and operas. His responsibilities to Prince Paul Anton were extensive. He rehearsed, coached, and directed all other facets of in-house musical activity for both sacred and entertainment music. The prince’s court orchestra included some excellent players who inspired Haydn to write many of his instrumental concertos. When Prince Paul Anton died in March 1762, he was succeeded by his brother Nikolaus, who was even more enthusiastic about music. Haydn composed for the Prince’s preferred instrument, the baryton, and performed regularly in both chamber and orchestral ensembles. Between 1769 and 1772, his duties were somewhat lighter, permitting him some free time to compose works beyond those specifically requested by the Prince. In string quartets, which he still called divertimenti à quattro (divertimenti in four parts) on his manuscripts, he could write in a concertante style for his first chair players. The seamless elegance and virtuosic difficulty of the string writing is a reminder how accomplished were the Prince’s musicians. The phrase that recurs most frequently in written discussions of the Op. 20 quartets is “emancipation of the cello.” The early 1770s were a period of transition in music. Rococo (an ornamented 18th-century style) and style galant (an 18th-century style that was more free and homophonic) elements were ceding to what we call the high classic style. Symphonies composed during these years still include a harpsichord as a component of the continuo, most often with a cello. Although the cello anchored the bass line in late Baroque and early classic music, it was relegated to a supporting harmonic role, and rarely assumed a melodic lead. In Opus 20, Haydn made a decisive change in the quartet fabric by allotting significantly more importance to the cello part. He introduced the concept of a more assertive and independent bass or cello line that revolutionized music composition, a principal that has been practiced ever since. Four of the six quartets have

fugal finales in which, by definition, the players have a more balanced distribution of material. Opus 20 is also significant in that it has two quartets in minor mode. By the second half of the 18th century, it was customary to issue works in sets of six, each one in a different tonality. Generally five of the six pieces would be in major mode, with only one in a minor key. Much of Haydn’s music from the early 1770s is characterized by flamboyance and agitation. Such works are often referred to as his Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) compositions. This quartet is representative, beginning with its tonality. For Haydn, F Minor was an intensely personal key, analogous to G Minor in Mozart’s music. Only the second movement Trio and the Adagio relieve the tension and tragedy of F Minor. The opening Allegro moderato movement has two principal themes, remarkable for their contrast in character despite having been derived from the same motive. Both themes are unusually long, heightening their pathos. Haydn stays focused on the contour of his principal ideas throughout his development, which grow out of that initial gesture. His recapitulation (see Glossary for the diagram of the Sonata-Allegro form) and coda offer further variants on the same idea. The movement ends quietly. Placement of the Menuetto second rather than third is unusual but not unprecedented. Here, it confounds our expectations by reiterating the F Minor tonality. Haydn underscores his dark mood with occasional unison passages for viola and cello. A gentle trio in F Major offers much needed respite, though its silences have an ominous quality: the shadows remain. The first violin has a monopoly on elaborate decorative figuration in the Adagio, a siciliana in F Major. In one particularly intricate passage, Haydn writes per figuram retardationis in the first violin part. The Latin phrase means that the violinist is to take his time, not keeping precise pace with the harmonic changes in the lower three parts. The effect is subtle rhythmic and harmonic disagreement, at the discretion of the first violin. Haydn’s finale is one of Opus 20’s contrapuntal glories: a double fugue whose first subject is adapted from the “And With His Stripes” chorus from Handel’s Messiah. A dramatic falling seventh, first stated by the

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the friends of chamber music | Live Performance. Be There.

second violin, defines the theme; the viola answers immediately with the second subject. Equally short, this second motive does double duty as a countersubject. The counterpoint is Baroque in inspiration, but Haydn’s treatment is classical in form and design. He uses pedal points very effectively to build rhetorical climaxes, all the while maintaining the integrity of his polyphonic fabric. The quartet ends on stark open fifths, underlining the impact of F Minor.

ORIGIN OF A NICKNAMEThe Opus 20 quartets, which date from 1772, have a curious publication history. Haydn waited nearly three years after composing them to see them in print. Johann André published the first edition in Offenbach-am-Main in 1775. Four years later, an edition issued in Berlin by the house of Hummel pictured a rising sun on its frontispiece. The image stuck, resulting in the set becoming collectively known as the “Sun” Quartets. A Viennese edition, published by Artaria in 1801, was dedicated to Baron Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovecz, who is better known as a friend and patron of Beethoven.

– L.S. ©2014

Quartet in A, Op. 13, “Ist es wahr?” Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

The genius stories about young Felix Mendelssohn are well known to most music lovers. He had penned the splendid Octet, Op. 20, at age 16, and within a year had written his magical Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21. These two masterpieces on their own would have earned him a place in music history, even had he not gone on to compose the Hebrides Overture, the Italian Symphony, Elijah, the Violin Concerto, and dozens of other magnificent works. Mendelssohn also played a central role in the “rediscovery” of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music in the 19th century. During his late ‘teens, he became engrossed in the music of Beethoven, an absorption that bore fruit in the 1827 string quartet that closes this evening’s first half. Beethoven may seem an unlikely model for the refined and elegant Mendelssohn. Generally speaking,

Mendelssohn is regarded as the most classic of the German romantics, taking Mozart as his model. Beethoven was indisputably the most influential figure of the first half of the 19th century, however, and it makes perfectly good sense that Mendelssohn would make it his business to acquaint himself thoroughly with Beethoven’s music. The late quartets held a particular fascination for young Felix, especially the A Minor Quartet, Op. 132. Although that quartet was not published until the end of 1827, Mendelssohn had certainly heard it performed. A comparison of Op. 132 with Mendelssohn’s A Major quartet, Op. 13, makes it clear that Beethoven’s work served as a model for the 18-year-old composer. For those who do not know Op. 132 well, the Beethovenian spirit of Mendelssohn’s music should still be apparent. Surprisingly, this quartet borrows more from the stormy, passionate character of middle-period Beethoven than it does the transcendent beauty of the late works. This is particularly evident in Mendelssohn’s liberal use of recitative style, most prominently in the finale. The subtitle of Mendelssohn’s quartet is that of his song, “Ist es wahr?” (“Is it true?,” Op. 9, No. 1, also known as “Frage” [Question]). Mendelssohn composed it in 1827, the same year as the quartet, while on holiday at Sakrow, near Potsdam. He had gone there for a rest and a change of scenery, to visit some family friends. Apparently he became enamored of a young lady there.

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Print of Mendelssohn by Carl Jäger, 1870

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The attachment was short-lived, and the girl’s identity is unknown. “Ist es wahr?” is thought to be an expression of his romantic devotion. It is brief: a mere 24 bars in A Major on one page of music. The declamatory text is by Johann Gustav Droysen, known as Voss, an historian and Felix’s good friend. Ist es wahr? Ist es wahr? Daß du stets dort in dem Laubgang, An der Weinwand meiner harrst? Und den Mondschein und die Sternlein Auch nach mir befragst?

Ist es wahr? Sprich! Was ich fühle, das begreift nur, Die es mit fühlt, Und die treu mir ewig, Treu mir ewig, ewig bleibt.

Is it true? Is it true? That over there in the leafy walkway, you always wait for me by the vine-draped wall? And that with the moonlight and the little stars you ask about me also? Is it true? Speak! What I feel, only she grasps -- she who feels with me and stays ever faithful to me, eternally faithful.

Essentially the speaker asks his beloved if it is true that she always waits for him in the arbored walk. The song appears in full in the quartet score. In 19th-century salon performances, the song would have preceded the quartet. Mendelssohn incorporates its opening motive as a motto in the quartet’s slow introduction, and brings it back in the finale. Listeners familiar with the piano literature will note a striking resemblance to the Absence motif from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 81a, Les Adieux. The least Beethovenian movement is the Intermezzo, which encloses a decidedly Mendelssohnian scherzo section within a capricious folk tale. The dramatic recitative-cum-tremolando that opens the stormy finale re-establishes the hegemony of Beethoven’s influence in this startling work.

Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2014

Found a word or phrase that you are unfamiliar with? Check out our extensive Glossary beginning on page 118 to discover the meaning.

b i o g r a p h y

Quatuor Ébène“A string quartet that can easily morph into a jazz band,” praised The New York Times’ Alan Kozinn following a March 2009 perfor-mance featuring the Quatuor Ébène. “Mesmerized, Mr. Kozinn describes how the four musicians first per-formed Haydn and Debussy before performing their own arrange-ment of the music from the movie “Pulp Fiction”, improvising to Chick Corea’s “Spain”, and finally closing with an encore in which the quartet unveils the vocal talents of an excellent a capella quartet. There is, in French ensemble music today, a certain élan, which suits modern chamber music particularly well. And these four French musicians move with such ease and enthusiasm between different styles.

The Quatuor Ébène studied extensively with the Ysaye Quartet in Paris as well as with the eminent Gábor Takács, Eberhard Feltz and György Kurtág. Since its dramatic 2004 triumph at the prestigious ARD international competition in Munich, where the Quartet was awarded five additional special prizes, the Ébènes have gone on to win the Forberg-Schneider Foundation’s Belmont Prize in 2005. It has since remained close to the Foundation, which arranged to loan them several unique Italian instruments from private owners.

From “promising young ensemble”, the Quatuor ébène has grown to become one of today’s foremost quartets on the international scene.

2009 marked the beginning of an especially fruitful collaboration with the Virgin Classics label. The Quartet’s Debussy, Ravel and Fauré recording was awarded several prizes, including “Chamber Music Record of the Year” by ECHO-Klassik, the fff Télérama award, the “choc” Monde de la Musique award, and most notably “Recording of the Year” by Gramophone. A Jazz and World Music album entitled Fiction, released in the Fall of 2010, received an Echo Award and nearly hit the top of the charts. In 2012, Virgin Classics released a live DVD of Fiction, recorded at Folies Bergère in Paris. This was followed by a CD with Mozart’s string quartets K.421 and K.465 and the Divertimento K.13. Both recordings received an Echo Award in 2012. “Felix & Fanny” – featuring Felix Mendelssohn’s string quartets Op. 13 and 80, as well as the only string quartet composed by his sister Fanny – was released in the beginning of 2013.

For more information visit: www.quatuorebene.com

Quatuor Ébène appears courtesy of Arts Management Group