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Wednesday January 27, 2010 7:30 pm Fauré Piano Quartet Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center 450 West Ohio Street Indianapolis, IN 46202 FREE PARKING *Pre-concert lecture, 6:45 pm Pre-concert lectures are given by Lisa Brooks, Ph.D., Butler University Program Quartettsatz in A Minor Gustav Mahler Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor (K. 478) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Opus 25 Johannes Brahms The Musicians The musicians founded the Fauré Quartett in 1995 taking on his name out of appreciation for the composer’s two piano quartet pieces. It did not take the quartet long to win top prizes and awards for their interpretations including the “Deutsche Schallplattenpreis”, “Echo”-Prize, “Preis des Deutschen Musikwettbewerbes” and the “Parkhouse Award” in Great Britain. Today it is the leading European ensemble in this permanent formation. Ten years later, the Fauré Quartett has already climbed to the top as the only such German chamber ensemble. This led to a recording contract with the Deutsche Gramophone in 2006 for the Mozart Anniversary with the two Mozart piano quartets followed by a Brahms CD release, featuring op. 25 and op. 60, only two years later. The Fauré Quartett has performed on the most important international stages in London (Wigmore Hall), Berlin (Philharmonie), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro (Sala Cecilia Meireles) Buenos Aires (Teatro Colon) and in Tokyo, Paris and Milan. The quartet is also a regular guest at renowned festivals such as the Martha Argerich Festival Buenos Aires, Schleswig-Holstein- Musikfestival, Rheingau-Musik-Festival, Ludwigsburger Festspiele, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Kissinger Sommer to name a few. The Fauré Quartett has toured extensively in West and East Europe, Asia, Mexico, and is a welcome guest in South America, where the Fauré Quartett has already traveled throughout this continent for the fifth time. Radio and television stations worldwide have broadcast programs featuring the Quartett. Additional CD recordings were produced by ARS MUSICI, covering the works of G. Faure, A. Dvorak, J. Suk and Th. Kirchner. The Fauré Quartett has maintained contact with the Karlsruhe Music Lyceum, where they are currently the “Quartet in Residence.” Karlsruhe had not given out this title for 30 years, and they are the first piano quartet to have received this honor. Their influential mentor was the Alban Berg Quartett in Cologne. Gustav Mahler Quartettsatz in A Minor When he was sixteen, finishing his first year at the Vienna Conservatory, Gustav Mahler tried his hand at a bit of chamber music while studying composition under Robert Fuchs. His Piano Quintet garnered two prizes, and then he tore it up. The next and final excursion into the chamber music genre was to be a piano quartet in A minor, of which the first movement (“quartettsatz”) and parts of a second andante (thirty four measures) exist. The first movement was not published until the 1970’s. My score, published by Silvertrust, is particularly interesting vis-à-vis the copious performance notes which Mahler included. A projected second movement was completed by the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke in 1988. The first performance of the single movement occurred July 10, 1876 with Maher as pianist; the first public performance occurred September 12, 1876, again with Mahler as pianist. Though written by a teenager, this movement is far from a bit of juvenilia. Mahler’s seriousness, melancholy, and angst show through every measure. A minor was a key, for Mahler, which was full of foreboding “the unconscious anticipation for things to come.” an apt choice for his musical content. A fine interview regarding the piano quartet movement can be found in Chamber Music Today, July 16, 2007, titled “The Open-ended Present.” Mahler’s music begins with the piano, quietly playing triplet a minor thirds for two measures before sounding the central idea of the movement in the base: specifically moving from, A-up to F-resolving to E against the throbbing right hand thirds. The violin latches on, proclaims the gesture, and soon the viola and cello re-iterate the kernel. The strings allow the somewhat threatening gesture to evolve into a lyrical statement, moving under the leadership of the violin. Cello and violin converse about the idea, as the piano takes an active part in the conversation we are led inexorably into turbulence. As the movement progresses, this “motif” or kernel impregnates the entire movement: sometimes played lyrically, sometimes played with extensions, sometimes compressed, sometimes rhythmically changed, but always nearby either by intrusion or cloaked in mystery. The movement grows steadily in intensity, orchestral in scope, rushing to the inevitable an “inevitable apocalypse.” A tender mid-section tames the gesture into a gentle idea, but remains everlastingly sad with the piano having a solo lyrical turn. At the end, solo violin has the last word in stating the idea with the piano gently adding small quotes, leading to a resigned soft closing. Everywhere we find in its incipient stages the Mahler of unrelenting emotion, unrelenting hurt, unrelenting conviction, and incredible beauty. You Tube offers several performances for your comparison, varying in speed. Michelle Diehl has made an arrangement for flute, violin and piano. Should you wish to communicate with her about her arrangement, she is on Facebook. Notes by: Marianne W. Tobias Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478 In the mid-1780’s Mozart was a darling in Viennese social and musical circles. Viennese cultural life was fertile ground for the young composer. He was a darling in social and musical circles: popular, respected, and adored. Banking on this adulation, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Mozart’s friend and publisher, offered Mozart a commission in 1785 for three piano quartets. Mozart, as always, needed money to support is lifestyle and fancy clothing; Hoffmeister saw a lucrative market: more music for the nobility and royalty to play in their salons. The populace was filled with musical amateurs. The genre was new to the scene: piano trios had been standard fare. The cello adding support to the lower base notes, the violin adding coloration in the higher registers. The piano was the star. A piano quartet was a novelty, a combination which would bear fruit in the 19th century. “The G minor Piano Quartet can be cited as the single piece that led to the establishment of the piano quartet as a popular, viable genre of chamber music.” (A. Robert Johnson). Mozart seized upon the commission with enthusiasm. He liked the Viennese pianos, such as those by Stein and Roseberger with their light action, vocal clarity, and dynamic abilities. As a pianist, he had dazzled salon and concert audiences with his singing tone and dexterity: a new setting for this new instrument would be splendid. Quite naturally, perhaps thinking this could be a vehicle for his own keyboard prowess, Mozart wrote his first piano Quartet with virtuosity in mind, a feature which some have assessed resulted in this case to be a mini-concerto for the instrument. The interplay between piano and strings displayed K. 478 set a standard. Now, the strings assumed a new role, united more or less as a unit vis-à'88-vis the keyboard. And the discourse between the two units (strings and keyboards) was more specialized and intense. The devil as usual, lay in the details. Mozart produced an amazing work, but with a piano part which was too difficult for most of the amateurs of Vienna. The Journal des Luxus und der Moden, published in Weimar in June 1788 noted that “As performed by amateurs, it (the Quartet) could not please: everybody yawned with boredom with the incomprehensible tintamarre (sea of ink) of four instruments which could not keep together and whose senseless concentus never allowed any unity of feeling.” Hoffmeister immediately saw the problem and advised Mozart “Write more popularly or else I can neither print nor pay for anything more of yours!” What he meant was, write something easier to play. Mozart responded, “Then I will write nothing more, and go hungry, or may the Devil take me.” He did allow Mozart to keep the advance on the commission, however. And, eventually the Devil did “take” Mozart in the declining years. On December 31, Mozart finished his First Piano Quartet: devilishly hard, a huge piano part, and a strange key choice of G minor. The music begins with high passion in a dramatic opening with piano and united strings offering up serious thought. January 25, 2006, pianist Uchido Mitsuko spoke in an NPR interview about the “darkness, the tragedy, and the tense opening” of the Quartet. She found in this a “great musical opportunity” but not “entertainment.” “It is all so dark,” she said. This was not the sunlight and fun which Viennese audiences expected and desired. K. 478 begins with tight collaboration between the two forces: strings and keyboard. The motives and scales found in the exposition find a presence throughout the movement. A lyrical second theme introduced by piano alone offers respite, but the turbulence is unrelenting. The second movement is an elegant Andante in B flat. Solo piano opens the scene, and the strings soon join in with a lyrical melody. Melodic adornment and textural change (contrapuntal treatment) add enchanting dimensions to the intimacy of the movement. His final movement emerges in G major, a fine romp for all instruments. Now, the fun begins, and Mozart lets the “entertainment” feature shine in a stunning, joyful rondo marked Allegro. All those at the final party converse, dance, display virtuosic For those interested in detailed analyses: Mozart: His Music in his Life (Ivor Keys,) Mozart Studies 2, (Cliff Eisen,) Mozart and His Times (Eric Schenk, Richard Winston, Clara Winston) Mozart, His Character His Work (Alfred Einstein) The Mozart Companion (H.C. Robbins Landon) A Mozart Diary (Peter Dimond) Wolfgang Mozart: Essays on His Life and His Music (Stanley Saide) and the Cambridge Companion to Mozart (Simon P. Keefe) are good beginning points. Notes by: Marianne W. Tobias Johannes Brahms Piano Quartet Number One, Opus 25 Allegro Intermezzo: Allegro Andante con moto Rondo alla Zingarese: Presto Opus 25 premiered in Hamburg on November 16, 1861 with Clara Schumann as pianist. Critics were mildly enthusiastic, at best, and its future did not seem bright. One year later it was a very different story. Henry Drinker wrote, “It was with this quartet that Brahms made his bow to Vienna. Shortly after his arrival in September 1862, he went to call on the kindly, generous and ever youthful Julius Epstein. "My name is Johannes Brahms", he said as he entered. Epstein, who was well acquainted with his already published works, hearing that he had with him two new piano quartets, at once summoned Joseph Hellmesberger, the leading quartet player in Vienna, to a rehearsal, followed by breakfast, (in the house where Mozart wrote Figaro). At the conclusion of the G minor, Hellmesberger startled young Brahms by falling on his neck, exclaiming "This is Beethoven's heir", and announcing that they must play the quartet at their next concert, which they did on October 14th, arousing great interest, considerable praise, some scorn, much discussion pro and con, --an auspicious beginning for Brahms' Vienna career. Brahms was nervous about this musical calling card, noting in his Diary that “the fiddlers scratched away or slept, although I put my heart into it.” But his worry was unwarranted: the Quartet was received with enthusiasm, especially the last movement. Brahms was deeply influenced by the musical heritage of European composers. He respected that past, he learned from it, and he had no intention of throwing the past aside for the sake of “new music.” This “Music of the Future” championed by Wagner and Strauss and Liszt was not to his liking or his commitment. We see tendrils of the past over and over again in the Brahms’ repertoire. For example in each chamber work, he preserves the traditional sonata form for the first movement (except the Horn Trio.) Was he “mired in the past?” Was he a strange reactionary amid the hot romanticism of his time? Hostility raged. As examples: Hugo Wolf: "The art of composing without ideas has decidedly found in Brahms one of its worthiest representatives." Gustav Mahler: "I have gone through all of Brahms pretty well by now. All I can say of him is that he's a puny little dwarf with a rather narrow chest." Benjamin Britten: "It's not bad Brahms I mind', it's good Brahms I can't stand." Arnold Schoenberg in “Style and Idea” (1933) declared just the opposite in an article “Brahms the Progressive” assessing that the composer was indeed “a great innovator in the realm of musical language.” In fact, he made an orchestral arrangement of Opus 25 in 1937, which he called “Brahms Fifth Symphony”. Chamber music was of significant interest to Brahms, and he wrote in the genre continually during his career. Daniel Mason in The Chamber Music of Brahms writes that “In the g minor quartet we see the composer struggling to form a personal style form the elements of German and Hungarian folksong, of gypsy music, and the contributions of Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert who make up his musical heritage.” In the first movement Brahms presents his first subject with piano and strings united, and a lyrical theme in which he experiments, allowing his second theme to emerge in d minor before its full introduction in D major. Throughout the 180 measure exposition, Brahms devotes approximately 80 to a “second subject” expansion of ideas. A masterful development section follows before a traditional recap and coda. The Intermezzo, first titled scherzo, is marked allegro ma non troppo. It features muted strings, arpeggiated piano writing, and consistent use of Brahms’ rhythmic fingerprint: the mixing of duple and triple meter. In his last movement, Rondo alla Zingarese, Brahms releases all the stops for a gypsy spree. While touring with the violinist Remenyi he had steadily absorbed the gypsy sounds and idioms. For his Hungarian Dances (soon to be published for piano) proved that he had absorbed the style with distinction. So: Fasten your seat belts! All four string players invite you to the opening dance, a gypsy Csárdás, cast into a rondo format. Immediately, the composer gives us the basic idea that will return six times. Interspersed are interludes by the piano, (return of main theme) all together (return of main theme) a lush, romantic swirling episode) flashy cadenza for piano, and the stunning conclusion. According to contemporary reports, this movement “brought the house down.” For those computer savvy, go to You Tube, and listen to various renditions of the final movement…as well as clips from other movements. My favorite recording of Opus 25 is with Menahem Pressler as pianist. Brahms wrote extensively for the piano, was a pianist himself, and Opus 25 demands absolute mastery of that keyboard. Mr. Pressler, my teacher, is that master. The two piano quartets (Opus 25 and 26) were composed c. 1856, and released for publication in 1863. Notes by: Marianne W. Tobias |
New 2009-2010 Season Wednesday October 7, 2009 7:30 The Ying Quartet with Christopher Taylor, piano Wednesday November 18, 2009 7:30 The St. Lawrence String Quartet Wednesday January 27, 2010 7:30 Fauré Piano Quartet Wednesday February 24, 2010 7:30 Brooklyn Rider Wednesday March 17, 2010 7:30 Sérgio and Odair Assad, guitar Wednesday April 21, 2010 7:30 Takács Quartet All concerts are presented in: Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center Frank and Katrina Basile Theatre 450 West Ohio Street Free Parking |
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