|
Our 2012-2013 Past Seasons: 2011-2012 |
PROGRAM NOTESThe twelve Cypresses for string quartet, B. 152, originate from eighteen love songs for voice and piano dashed off by Dvorak in a period of 17 days. The text was taken from poems by the Moravian poet Gustav Pfleger- Moravsky. The songs were written when Dvorak was 24 and smitten with unrequited love for a 16 year old pupil (he ended up marrying her younger sister). Dvorak chose never to publish the songs in their original form, but material from several of the songs cropped up in his first two symphonies and in his operas and other vocal works. In 1887, he took twelve of the songs and revised them for string quartet in a grouping entitled Echo of Songs. They were not published until after his death, and the title Cypresses was conferred upon them at the time of their publication in 1921. In most of the movements the first violin takes the part originally written for voice, and there is a masterly transcription of the piano accompaniments. The melodic themes of the songs remain intact, as do the harmonic and rhythmic aspects. The movements are songforms based on single thematic ideas resulting in a constant flow of melody -- lyrical, undemanding, and beautiful, and they have been perhaps unfairly dubbed "Chamber Music Lite".
BEETHOVEN. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132 In 1822 Prince Nicholas Galitzin commissioned Beethoven to write a number of quartets, but Beethoven did not begin work until 1824. He completed Opus 132 in October 1825 after a long recuperation; the music is directly related to his illness and recovery. Although it is not specifically programmatic, its progression from darkness to light, similar to the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies, is, according to Joseph de Marliave, evidence of the "habitual state of the mind of the composer: the fight against destiny, the triumph of joy over pain". Beethoven cast the monumental forty-minute quartet in five movements. Its magnificent Adagio, fourteen minutes long and placed at the center of the work, is the heart of the quartet. In form the movement alternates between two contrasting ideas clarified by Beethoven's inscription above the score. The first section, a "Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity by a Convalescent", in the Lydian mode, is, Charles Rosen says, a reworking of the Gregorian chant Veni Creator, Spiritus. Beethoven's inscription indicates that the second section, more rhythmically dynamic and dramatic, represents a "Feeling of New Strength". What kind of music can support the Adagio's sublimity? A large scale Allegro full of brilliant interplay of motifs and a long scherzo and trio precede it. A straightforward two-minute march follows it and offers "an almost shocking descent" from its exalted realms. The final movement, based on a theme Beethoven had intended for the Ninth Symphony, brings the quartet to a victorious close in its A major tonality and its lyricism, although "an undulating turbulent rocking motion" throws "an uneasy cast on the proceedings".
DVORAK. String Quartet in G Major, Op. 106 Dvorak composed this last of his string quartets after his return to Prague in 1895. The quartet is more classical and exhibits more Czech flavor than the preceding compositions in the American style. The thematic material of the first movement is not complex -- two themes and one transitional motif. The first theme is more rhythmic than melodic: three incisive upward leaps, the last prolonged by a quick fluttering, followed by a descending passage in triplets. The second theme bears traces of a folk tune. Throughout the movement Dvorak ingeniously weaves the two themes together to create a rich texture in which the movement dances in the ears and in the imagination. The Adagio grows out of an extraordinarily beautiful and poignant song characterized by a deeply Slavic sentiment. Dark-hued and melancholy, the song is introduced by the violin, and although the movement is not a theme and variations, Dvorak casts a variety of lights on his subject by moving it through the colors of various keys. The Molto Vivace is a jaunty scherzo with two trios; it contains an unexpected element -- a lyrical interlude that carries a whiff of Dvorak's New World melodicism. The structure of the movement may be represented as A-B-AC- A. The pentatonic melody of the main section has immense dancelike verve in its balanced phrases. The violin and viola sing a gentle duet in the first trio (B); following a short return of A, a quiet second trio is reminiscent of a rocking Czech song. A final statement of the A theme ends the movement. A short introduction in moderate tempo opens the last movement, which becomes exuberantly joyful with the arrival of the Allegro con fuoco. The principal surprise is the appearance, midway through, of the dancing melody from the first movement. It disappears and reappears in nostalgic snatches as the movement advances through its cyclical rondo form (A-B-A-C-A-D-C-B-D-C-A), but the Czech exuberance wins out, bringing Dvorak's last string quartet to a rousing conclusion.
|