Download LMM - Artaria String Quartet 2015-16 Program III Its Revolutionary

Artaria Chamber Music Series 2015-16
Music in the Shadow of War
Program III: It’s Revolutionary
Both Stravinsky and Beethoven were revolutionaries in their musical styles, but they were also affected by
revolutionary wars—Stravinsky by both World War I and II and Beethoven by the Napoleonic Wars (17991815). While Beethoven championed Napoleon for his early democratic ideals, he also withdrew the
dedication of his Third Symphony when he learned that Napoleon had declared himself emperor. Stravinsky’s
musical revolutionary spirit persisted through troubled times and drove Western Classical music to a new
freedom that never should be taken for granted in our conflicted world of today.
Igor Stravinsky (1882(1882-1971)
Three Pieces for String Quartet
Sempre piano e molto tranquillo, quarter note=52
Quarter note=168
Quarter note=160
ABOUT THE COMPOSER: Igor Stravinsky’s music can be divided into three periods with
somewhat arbitrary dates: the opulent and ferociously primitive years (1908-1919) that produced The Rite of
Spring; his so-called “Neoclassical” period (1920-1954) which brought L’histoire du soldat, Pulcinella, the Octet
and the 1924 Piano Sonata; and the third period of Serialism (1954-1968) which saw such works as The Rake’s
Progress. As usual, categorization fails to tell the whole story and, in fact, here introduces certain inaccuracies.
Stravinsky himself scorned the Neoclassical label smacked on him with the composition of Pulcinella.
In the shifting styles throughout Stravinsky’s compositional life nothing was lost, for the greatness of
his music transcends stylistic changes. Stravinsky said of himself that he “only continues” and that he “never
returns.” On this subject, Milan Kundera, in his brilliant collection of essays, Testaments Betrayed, is clear about
this when he speaks of Stravinsky’s “vagabondage through musical history” as never compromising his
“incomparable originality.”
ABOUT THE WORK: The single work entitled Three Pieces for String Quartet was written in
1914, the year after The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky himself commented that the pieces marked “an important
change” in his music. By this he meant his turning from the lavish style of The Rite of Spring to the more
austere style that would mark his second period.
Signaling this change are the simple metronome markings he gave to the movements. Later he would
add titles that aptly describe the individual pieces. The first he called “Danse,” the second “Eccentrique,” and
the third “Cantique.” Thus we have the first piece with its folk-dance rhythms, the jocular second piece that
Stravinsky said was “inspired by the great clown, Little Tick,” and the third piece that he describes as “choral
and religious in character.”
The work was premiered in Paris on May 19, 1915.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770(1770-1827)
String Quartet
Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1
Allegro
Allegretto vivace e sempre
Adagio molto e mesto
Thème russe: Allegro
ABOUT THE COMPOSER: While categories will never fully explain Beethoven, they remain a
way of dealing with his greatness and his elusiveness. The sixteen string quartets of Beethoven’s monumental
canon span thirty-six of his fifty-seven years and represent, perhaps better than any other of his works, the
revered Early, Middle, and Late periods of his compositional life. These so-called “periods” are not mere
academic divisions but rather a glorious arc of Beethoven’s work. So, too, do they encompass his deafness
from his first awareness of it to a final and awful silence.
Artaria Chamber Music Series 2015-16
The three “Razumovsky” quartets of Op. 59, so named after their commissioner and dedicatee,
Count Andrey Razumovsky, were written between July and September of 1806 and represent the Middle
Period as well as a daring exploration into an uncharted territory of emotional expression. Op. 74, “Harp,”
and Op. 95, “Serioso,” came, respectively, in 1809 and 1810 and are fascinating transitions between the
Middle and Late periods, suggesting what has been and what will come.
Conflict is inherent in the public reception of the entire Op. 59 quartets. The reactions to the three
“Rasumovsky” quartets that represent Beethoven’s Middle Period stretched from animosity to bewilderment.
A member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet reportedly complained about the technical difficulties of the F Major
Quartet, causing Beethoven’s famous retort quoted in Antony Hopkins Music All Around Me: “When I
composed that, I was conscious of being inspired by God Almighty. Do you think I can consider your puny
little fiddle when He speaks to me?” Also quoted in Eliot Forbes’ Thayer’s Life of Beethoven is Beethoven’s
response when violinist Felix Radicati said to him, concerning the Op. 59 quartets, “Surely you do not
consider this music.” Beethoven replied, “Not for you, but for a later age.”
While we might conclude that the animosity has receded, surely we cannot hear any of the Op. 59
quartets without some sense of wonderment over the differences among them. It is this total individualism
that drives the opus and explains its transitional position between the elegance of the Op. 18 quartets and the
elusive greatness of the late quartets.
“Let your deafness no longer be a secret—even in art,” Beethoven scrawled on a page of sketches for
the Op. 59 quartets. So it is that he unleashed his truthfulness upon us who, even in this century, remain
startled.
ABOUT THE WORK: Six years separate the three “Razumovsky” Quartets of Op. 59 from the
earlier set of Op. 18. In those six years Beethoven had come to terms with his growing deafness as suggested
by the question he included in the sketchbook: “Can anything stop you from expressing your soul in music?”
The answer to that question seems obvious in this first Razumovsky Quartet, which marks the start of his socalled Middle Period but in many ways seems more like a culmination than a beginning.
Indeed, the first movement is as sure-footed in its lyricism as in the sharp chords that interrupt the
lovely song treated by each instrument. The particularly interesting cello parts may be a bow to Beethoven’s
patron, Count Razumovsky, an accomplished amateur cellist. A noble and highly developed exposition is
followed by a huge development section and a recapitulation that is a still further development of the opening
theme. The whole movement suggests a culmination of Classical form.
The repeated notes that open the second movement were probably a source of bewilderment for the
musicians of Beethoven’s time, and, in truth, are no less imposing today. We are teased by the staccato
playing of this aptly indicated Allegretto vivace e sempre movement with its merry eight-note theme twisted and
turned about in every way imaginable. Delicacy, however, turns to power. Lyricism sings over a staccato
accompaniment, and we have a suggestion of the contrasts and conflicts that will follow in Op. 59, No. 2.
The ending of this movement affirms Beethoven’s new confidence and the advancing power of his genius.
On the score of the third movement, Beethoven wrote, “A weeping willow or acacia tree upon my
brother’s grave,” elusive words that have been given various interpretations by scholars but which ultimately
point to the profoundly contemplative quality of the movement. Some are tempted by programmatic
interpretations that suggest Beethoven’s distress over his brother Casper’s marriage to Johanna Riess, but
perhaps it is best to hear it as a crying out for what is sad in the world.
The brilliant final movement, which follows without pause, is built on a Russian theme, possibly
requested by the work’s dedicatee, Count Rasumovsky, but implemented fully by Beethoven in terms of
elegance and spirit. After a dramatic pause, it comes to a remarkable conclusion.
© 2015 Lucy Miller Murray
Lucy Miller Murray is the author of Chamber Music: An Extensive Guide for Listeners published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2015.