Tokyo String Quaret

Tokyo String Quartet

Robert Blocker, Dean

withEttore Causa, viola

chamber music society at yaleDavid Shifrin, artistic director

february 8, 2011

music ofMendelssohnMozartSzymanowski

As a courtesy to the performers and audience members, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not

leave the theater during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is not permitted.

Quartet in B-flat major, K. 458Allegro vivace assaiMenuetto and Trio. ModeratoAdagio, in E-flat majorAllegro assai

Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 37ModeratoVivace scherzandoLento

intermission

Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87Allegro vivaceAndante scherzandoAdagio e lentoAllegro molto vivace

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart1756–1791

Karol Szymanowski1882–1937

Felix Mendelssohn1809–1847

february 8, 2011 · 8 pmMorse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Tokyo String Quartetmartin beaver, violinkikuei ikeda, violinkazuhide isomura, violaclive greensmith, cello

with ettore causa, viola

The Tokyo String Quartet has captivated au-diences and critics alike since it was founded over 40 years ago. Regarded as one of the supreme chamber ensembles of the world, the Tokyo Quartet – Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda (violins), Kazuhide Isomura (viola) and Clive Greensmith (cello) – has collaborated with a re- markable array of artists and composers, built a comprehensive catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings, and established a distinguished teaching record. Performing over a hundred con-certs worldwide each season, the Tokyo String Quartet has a devoted international following that includes the major capitals of the world and extends to all four corners, from Australia to Estonia to Scandinavia and the Far East.

Officially formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music, the quartet traces its origins to the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, where the founding members were profoundly influenced by Professor Hideo Saito. Soon after its forma-tion, the quartet won First Prize at the Coleman Competition, the Munich Competition, and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. An exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon firmly established it as one of the world's leading quartets, and it has since released more than forty landmark recordings. The ensemble now records on the Harmonia Mundi label.

The members of the Tokyo String Quartet have served on the faculty of the Yale School of Music as quartet-in-residence since 1976. Deeply committed to coaching young string quartets, they devote much of the summer to teaching and performing at the prestigious Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. They also conduct master classes in North America, Europe, and Asia throughout the year.

The ensemble performs on the “Paganini Quartet,” a group of renowned Stradivarius instruments named for legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who acquired and played them during the nineteenth century. The in- struments have been on loan to the ensemble from the Nippon Music Foundation since 1995, when they were purchased from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

(pictured from left to right)

Clive Greensmith, cello · Kazuhide Isomura, violaKikuei Ikeda, violin · Martin Beaver, violin

ettore causaviola

Italian-born violist Ettore Causa was awarded both the P. Schidlof Prize and the J. Barbirolli Prize for the most beautiful sound at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in England in 2000. He has since made solo and recital appearances in many of the major venues around the world, including Victoria Hall (Geneva), Zurich Tonhalle, Madrid National Auditorium, Barcelona Auditorium, Salle Cortot (Paris), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Tokyo Symphony Hall, Osaka Symphony Hall, and MSM Auditorium (New York). In addition, he has performed at numerous international festivals such as the Menuhin Festival (Gstaad), Festival de Estoril (Portugal), Salzburg Festival, Festival del Pontino (Italy), Tivoli Festival (Copenhagen), Festival of Perth (Australia), Prussia Cove (England), Savonlinna (Finland), Norfolk (Connecticut), and Lanaudiere (Canada).

A devoted chamber musician, Mr. Causa was a member of the Aria Quartet from 2004 to 2009 and currently plays in the Poseidon Quartet. He is frequently invited to prestigious chamber music festivals, where he has performed with internationally renowned musicians such as the Tokyo String Quartet, Pascal Rogé, Boris Berman, Thomas Adès, Natalie Clein, Ana Chumachenco, Alberto and Antonio Lysy,

Thomas Demenga, Anthony Marwood, Ulf Wallin, William Bennett, and others.

Mr. Causa studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy with Alberto Lysy, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and Johannes Eskar, and later at the Manhattan School of Music with Michael Tree. Upon completing his studies he was appointed first solo viola of the Carl Nielsen Philharmonic in Odense (Denmark) as well as the leader of the Copenhagen Chamber Soloists.

His first recording, featuring transcriptions of romantic music for viola and piano, was re- leased in 2006 on the Claves Record label; it garnered overwhelming success and was crowned with the 5 Diapasons. His new re- cording of the Brahms viola sonatas has been highly praised by critics worldwide.

Mr. Causa taught both viola and chamber music for many years at the International Menuhin Music Academy, and was appointed as an asso- ciate professor of viola at the Yale School of Music in September 2009. He performs on a viola made for him by Frédéric Chaudiere in 2003.

wolfgang amadeus mozartQuartet in B-flat major, K. 458

The string quartet in its modern incarnation descends from the many quartets of Franz Joseph Haydn, in particular Haydn’s Op. 20 and Op. 33 quartets. In these works, Haydn explored the musical possibilities of writing for four equal voices with individual personalities. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, twenty-four years Haydn’s junior, revered the older master and dedicated a set of six quartets to him. These “Haydn” quar- tets were written between 1783 and 1785, with the “Hunt” Quartet, k. 458, falling in the middle of the set in 1784.

The works were played for Haydn by Mozart and his father, Leopold, in Vienna on 15 January and 12 February of 1785. At the latter perfor- mance, the “Hunt” Quartet was played, along with the A major and C major quartets (k. 464 and 465). Haydn was so impressed he told Leopold Mozart, “Before God, and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest com- poser known to me either in person or by name.”

Mozart’s “Haydn” Quartets are clearly descended from Haydn’s example. Contrapuntal ingenuity, an expanded use of expressive dissonances, and some of Mozart’s finest melodic writing charac- terize the works. The Quartet in B-flat major contains all of these features, and has long been the most popular of the set. It opens with a theme in 6/8 time that strongly suggests of hunting horns, due largely to its simple triadic character. The first and second themes are both explored in the development of the first move- ment, and the opening theme is treated in imi- tation in the extended coda. The remaining

movements fit the mold established by Haydn: a minuet and trio of a gentle character, a slow movement tinged with melancholy, and a finale filled with contrapuntal discourse and virtuosic exuberance.

karol szymanowskiQuartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 37

The Ukrainian-born Polish composer Karol Szymanowski’s compositional output in the 1910s was characterized by the influence of a variety of composers and musical styles. In the works written from 1911 to 1913, a strongly Germanic element can be heard, owing much to the late Romanticism of Richard Strauss, as well as the intensely expressive chromatic palette of the young Arnold Schoenberg. In 1914, Szymanowski traveled to Sicily and North Africa, and then went north to Paris. There he began to adopt more French and Russian ele- ments into his own music, particularly in such works as the First Violin Concerto and the Third Symphony.

The First Quartet dates from the end of this fertile period. Composed in 1917, the work shows the range of Szymanowski’s musical imagination, as it marries elements of both German Expressionism and French Impression- ism into a distinctly personal style. The opening of the first movement is a bold gesture of ex- quisite loveliness, as the first violin hovers above the other three players, who enter on a C major triad. Only two chords later, the harmony moves to the remote sonority of E major. This shifting parallel harmony becomes characteristic of the slow introduction, which spins into a lyrical

notes on the program

section that seamlessly accelerates into the Allegro moderato. The bulk of the movement is texturally and harmonically aligned with the kaleidoscopic sound world of the quartets of Debussy and Ravel.

The second movement is in a similar vein, but the chromaticism of the New German School provides a different slant to the impressionistic textures throughout. The final movement was originally meant to function as a second-movement scherzo, but Szymanowski never completed a finale; instead, the work ends with a witty and unpredictable movement that seems to tiptoe out the door at its conclusion.

felix mendelssohnQuintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87

Felix Mendelssohn was one of the greatest musi- cal prodigies in history, surpassing even Mozart in precociousness. The compositions written in his early teens show a command of harmonic and contrapuntal technique approaching mas- tery, and his first truly mature masterpiece, the Octet for Strings in E-flat major, Op. 20, was completed when Mendelssohn was only sixteen. Such unbelievable achievements have often drawn focus away from Mendelssohn’s later works, but the compositions of his final years are imbued with a depth and range of feeling that show Mendelssohn to be the equal of the greatest composers of his generation.

Written in 1845, in a late but happy and pro- ductive part of Mendelssohn’s life, the Quintet in B-flat major brims with exuberance and good cheer. The first movement bolts out of the

gate with dotted rhythms in the first violin over a bed of measured tremolo. Soon, rapid triplet figures increase the sense of galloping forward. Mendelssohn tended to favor scherzos for his second movements, but after such a whirlwind first movement, he provides a delicate Andante scherzando instead of the usual fleet- footed romp. This leads to the noble sentiment of the D minor slow movement, which features many extended passages for the first violin that seem to hover over the stateliness of the other instruments.

The finale, a light-hearted affair in sonata-allegro form, with several imitative contrapuntal sections, was apparently unsatisfying to Mendelssohn. For this reason, he withheld the Quintet from publication during his lifetime. Mendelssohn may have intended to rework or perhaps replace this movement, but he died in the waning months of 1847. As such, it is impossible to know if the piece is in the condition that Mendelssohn ultimately imagined for it. It is hard to tell what so displeased the composer in this instance, as the finale is full of the grace, wit, and charm that characterize Mendelssohn’s best music.

—Jordan Kuspa

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concerts & mediaDana AstmannMonica Ong ReedDanielle HellerRichard Henebry

operationsTara DemingChristopher Melillo

piano curatorsBrian DaleyWilliam Harold

recording studioEugene KimballJason Robins

February 11 ask the sky and the earth

Woolsey Hall | Fri | 7:30 pm | FreeAsk the Sky and the Earth: A Cantata for the Sent-down Youth. The Yale Concert Band, with a Chinese chorus and soloists, premieres the wind band version of Tony Fok’s musical commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of China’s Cultural Revolution. Chen Yi’s Dragon Rhyme is also on the program. This program will be repeated at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 pm.

February 11–13 don giovanni

Shubert Theater | Fri & Sat, 8 pm | Sun, 2 pmYale Opera presents a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, conducted by Giuseppe Grazioli and directed by Sam Helfrich. Performed in Italian with English translations. Tickets $19–$41 • students $13, available at www.shubert.com or 203 562-5666.

February 15 boris berman & ettore causa

Sprague Hall | Tue | 8 pm | FreeThe Faculty Artist Series presents Ettore Causa, viola, and Boris Berman, piano. Schumann: Drei Romanzen, Op. 94; Drei Phantasiestücke, Op. 73; Brahms: Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, no. 1; Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 120, no. 2.