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Huntsville Chamber Music Guild
Trinity United Methodist Church
Huntsville
March 19, 2016
EMERSON STRING QUARTET
Eugene Drucker, violin
Philip Setzer, violin
Lawrence Dutton, viola
Paul Watkins, cello
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2
Allegro
Adagio cantabile
Scherzo: Allegro
Allegro molto quasi presto
(Philip Setzer, First Violin)
Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet in A-flat Major, Op. 118, No. 10
Andante
Allegretto Furioso
Adagio
Allegretto - Andante
(Philip Setzer, First Violin)
***INTERMISSION***
Franz Schubert: String Quartet in G Major, Op. 161, D. 887
Allegro molto modrato
Andante un poco moto
Scherzo. Allegro vivace – Trio. Allegretto
Allegro assai
(Eugene Drucker, First Violin)
The Emerson String Quartet appears by arrangement with IMG Artists and records
exclusively for Sony Classical.
www.emersonquartet.com
PROGRAM NOTES
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2
Program notes by Melvin Berger from Guide to Chamber Music/Published by
Anchor/Doubleday.
The G Major, the briefest and seemingly least ambitious quartet of Op. 18, emerges as a
charming and witty work, very close in style and temperament to the best examples of
eighteenth-century Rococo chamber music. Despite its apparent light, happy character,
though, Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet, among many other musicians, considers it the
most difficult of all Beethoven quartets to perform. And Beethoven’s notebooks reveal that
the lightness was achieved only after a lengthy and arduous struggle, covering thirty-two
notebook pages, to blend many disparate elements into a smooth, artistic creation.
The subtitle, “Compliments,” comes from the opening of the quartet in which a series of
short, balanced phrases of supple elegance conjure up, as described in Theodor Helm’s 1885
book on the Beethoven quartets, an “eighteenth-century salon, with all the ceremonious
display and flourish of courtesy typical of the period...with bows and gracious words of
greeting.” A gruff bridge passage, starting with a repeated note, leads to a second subject
and a closing theme that are attractive, but not particularly distinctive. The development is
devoted to the melodies of the first subject and the bridge. The original themes are brought
back in the recapitulation, but this time they are treated with greater vehemence and more
freedom.
The Adagio cantabile features the solo violin at first, with the other instruments playing
secondary roles. Before long, though, Beethoven takes the closing, cadential figure of this
section, quadruples its tempo, and sends the music scurrying off in a parodylike Allegro
interruption to the serious business at hand. Ending on a climactic note, the slow, gentle
strains of the Adagio cantabile return, now in variation and shared by all players.
The two violins gleefully toss back and forth the melodic flourish of the Scherzo tune until
the other instruments join in to introduce a more sober note. But the cheerful idea is not to
be repressed, and in the trio that follows the two contrasting moods, playful and serious, are
expanded. In the transition back to the repeat of the Scherzo, the cello plays a descending
scale line, and the violins, unable to contain their enthusiasm, anticipate the repeat of the
first section.
Beethoven referred to the last movement, which continues the high spirits and good humor
of the Scherzo, as “Aufgeknopft” (“unbuttoned”), connoting a free, informal character.
Starting with perfectly symmetrical, four-square phrases, it goes on to an impish second
The Emerson String Quartet appears by arrangement with IMG Artists and records
exclusively for Sony Classical.
www.emersonquartet.com
theme with a syncopated start and a delightful counter melody. Rollicking along
lightheartedly, it builds to a brilliant conclusion.
Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet in A-flat Major, Op. 118, No. 10
Program notes by Melvin Berger from Guide to Chamber Music/Published by
Anchor/Doubleday.
Just before writing his tenth quartet, Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 13, setting
poems by Yevgeni Yevtushenko, including “Babi Yar,” which tells of the Nazi slaughter of
30,000 Jews. Just after the quartet, he wrote the symphonic poem The Execution of Stepan
Rapin, also on poems of Yevtushenko, dealing with the legendary seventeenth-century
Cossack hero. Both works are programmatic and filled with highly charged extra-musical
content. It is curious, therefore, that the tenth quartet is entirely abstract, gentle, and
optimistic in tone, with all of its significance residing solely in the music itself.
The quartet opens with a subdued, but sharply etched theme played alone by the first violin.
After some expansion, the cello introduces a contrasting lyrical second theme, while the viola
plays a reiterated staccato accompanying figure. The first violin states the third theme, a
smooth line, although with widely spaced intervals. The remainder of the movement merely
replays these three subjects. Shostakovich contributes a certain sense of mystery and
expectancy by keeping everything on the piano, or soft, dynamic level.
By contracts, the second movement is never less than forte, or loud. With the sharp, jabbing
notes of the first theme, the first violin immediately sets the angry, ferocious character. The
cello presents the second theme in its upper register, which adds a certain nervousness and
agitation to the proceedings. The opening subject is then returned, somewhat modified, by
the two violins.
The Adagio is a passacaglia, an old form in which there are continuous variations over a
repeated short melody. Here the melody is played nine times, mostly by the cello, while the
first violin weaves a tapestry of warm, flowing melody, and the two middle voices essentially
fill in the harmony.
The bridge to the fourth movement, which proceeds without pause, contains melodic turns
in the first violin that give rise to the finale’s first theme, a pert, dancelike tune expressed by
the viola. The viola is also entrusted with the broadly sung second subject. Shostakovich
then builds to a powerful climax, an exciting moment as the cello sings out the passacaglia
theme from the last movement and the violins continue this movement’s opening theme.
The music gradually quiets from this high point, several short quotes from earlier movements
The Emerson String Quartet appears by arrangement with IMG Artists and records
exclusively for Sony Classical.
www.emersonquartet.com
mingling with the last movement’s subjects before everything fades away to a hushed
conclusion.
Composed during the spring and summer of 1964, the tenth quartet premiere was given in
Moscow on November 20, 1964, by the Beethoven String Quartet.
Franz Schubert: String Quartet in G Major, Op. 161, D. 887
Program notes by Melvin Berger from Guide to Chamber Music/Published by
Anchor/Doubleday.
Schubert's fifteenth and last quartet, the G major, was composed during ten days of intensive
work, from June 10 to 20, 1826, following several weeks of inactivity. A work of impressive
nobility and grandeur, but perhaps not personal or lyrical enough to become a popular
favorite, the G major's true value was little noted not much appreciated during Schubert's
lifetime. The first private performance was given on Match 7, 1827, by Schubert (playing
viola) and three friends. The composer programmed just the first movement at a public
concert of his music on March 26, 1828. Regrettably, the premiere of the entire quartet did
not take place until 1850, and publication had to wait until the following year-a full twentythree years after Schubert's untimely death.
The three musical gestures that make up the first theme leap to the fore in the striking
opening: a long, sustained chord that comes from nowhere and quickly swells; the switch
from the G major of the held chord to the G minor climax note; and the quirky, staccato
response that follows. This presentation, which almost sounds like an introduction, is
repeated before the three lower voices lay down a rich, soft tremolo carpet on which the
first violin places what sounds like the "proper" first theme, based on the rhythmic figure.
Schubert treats this material with great vehemence until he comes to a full stop. The second
theme is based on the quirky rhythm now tamed, polished, and more songlike, but with a
syncopation that adds a certain pathos and tension. The first violin statement of this theme is
followed by three more utterances-second violin, cello, and viola-each with its own scoring
and separated by what could be considered mini-developments of the theme. Some
powerful unison passages act as a transition to the development section, which is mostly on
the first theme, since the second theme was developed in the exposition. The development
rises to two impassioned climaxes before quieting down for the rather free recapitulation
and a short coda that quickly summarizes the three opening gestures.
The start of the second movement seems straightforward and easily understood as the cello
plays a lovely, melancholic melody with supportive background murmurings from the others.
With frightening suddenness, though, this quiet mood is shattered by a burst of uncontrolled
ferocity. In a towering rage, the first violin impetuously whips up the scale again and again,
The Emerson String Quartet appears by arrangement with IMG Artists and records
exclusively for Sony Classical.
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ending each ascent with an alarming roar and a wild shriek. Then, just as abruptly, the violin,
seemingly unaware of what has just happened, innocently takes up the cello's mournful
song. But the feral strain, not to be denied, explodes once again-even fiercer and more
savage than before. When its energy is spent, Schubert discourses quietly on the first theme,
although some barbarisms lurk in the background. Out of this development emerges a
shortened, ornamented reprise of the opening theme and a coda that brings the disquieting
happenings of this provocative movement to a quiet end.
The Scherzo is swift and sprightly; a single melodic/rhythmic idea-six rapid and three slower
notes-runs throughout, without any real contrast. Schubert treats the movement with the
same deft- ness of touch that we associate with Mendelssohn's best scherzos. The trio
introduces a completely different feeling; it is slower in tempo, legato in articulation and with
the character of a warmhearted, genial Landler, the peasant dance that predated the waltz.
The Scherzo, minus its repeats, comes back to end the movement.
Schubert captures all the gay abandon and frivolity of a comic Italian opera buffa scena in the
quartet finale. Moving along at a brisk clip, the music makes extreme demands on all four
players, requiring perfect ensemble and absolute control in negotiating the sudden accents
and mercurial changes in dynamics. Although cast in rondo form, the two contrasting
interludes are not significantly different, so that it is up to the performers to sustain interest
by the brilliance of their playing.
The Emerson String Quartet appears by arrangement with IMG Artists and records
exclusively for Sony Classical.
www.emersonquartet.com