Please join us for sweet music in January!
Program
String Quartet No 3 in A Major (1983; rev. 2012) by Paul Rosenbloom (1952-)
Vivace
Adagio
Scherzo: Vivace – Trio: Poco meno mosso
Tema con varizione: Allegretto amabile
L’istesso tempo
Grazioso
Lento misterioso
Con brio
Cantabile
Allegro
Piano Quintet in E Flat Major, Op. 44 (1842) by Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Allegro brillante
In modo d’una Marcia; un poco largamente
Scherzo: Molto vivace – Trio I – Trio II
Finale: Allegro ma non troppo
Musicians
Meghan O’Connor & Patricia Petersen, violins
Ilana Revkin, viola
Val Korennoy, cello
Paul Rosenbloom, piano
Program Notes
Rosenbloom String Quartet in A Major
Within the somber company of my two earlier string quartets (in E Flat Minor and F Minor), the Piano Quintet in D Minor, Violin Sonata in D Minor and Piano Trio in B Minor, the String Quartet in A Major provides a unique sunnier view of my youthful romanticism. It is a watershed work - the last I wrote in pure tonal style. My next works, including my Viola Variations, Piano Quartet, Solo Cello Sonata and String Sextet, for example, move off to explore more abstract and non-tonal realms. Although all except the serialist Piano Quartet spring from romantic gestures and feelings, their language is rough and challenging.
The String Quartet, written over the period 1976-1983 (and revised in 2012) is in four movements. The first movement, a bright Vivace, is in sonata form. Three of the four major elements of the movement are heard within the first few bars: a) the tremolo, which creates much of the texture of the movement; b) the main theme, a fanfare-like melody first stated by the cello upon its entry; and c) the final tag of the melody just a few seconds later, a skipping-like motive. The fourth element is the contrasting second theme, featuring repeated notes, first stated in F# minor. This movement is a whirlwind, almost a moto perpetuo, driven by both the tremolo accompaniment and the rapid speed of the evolving musical events.
In stark contrast, the Adagio is almost chorale-like throughout. In caressing C major (the flat mediant), it is in simple ABA form. The theme is presented first by violin, then by the cello. A short simple codetta completes the A. The B section plunges into darkness and drama: over pulses of tremolo, the violin states an impassioned melody in F minor. The storm subsides rather quickly, and C major returns. The final A section has two additional variants of the opening idea, now presented quite broadly. A brief recall of the B section material is softened in the returned codetta. A short additional coda ends the movement peacefully.
The Scherzo (in F-Sharp minor) behaves itself formally. Its theme is that of the passionate B section of the Adagio, but sped up into a galloping dance. The more lyrical contrasting Trio section derives from the main theme of the first movement. By the way, this section is in the remote key of E Flat minor, just about as far removed from A major as can be. After the scherzo da capo, an abrupt cadence is appended.
The longest, and in some ways most advanced movement, is the Finale, a set of variations on an original hymn-like theme. Four of the characteristic features of the theme that reappear more or less clearly in each variation are a) the opening bass line: since the theme does not begin on the tonic harmony, the rise of F#-G#-A is quite recognizable; b) the balancing four-note downward melody with which the theme begins; c) over-all, the theme divides into two sections (usually repeated): the first section almost always modulates to the dominant (usually E Major); and d) the second section of the theme rises in sequence before gently falling: this shape is generally maintained through the variations.
Variation I, closest to the theme, adds more flowing melodic interest as well as chromatic inner voices. Variation II, marked grazioso, opens a bit like a gentle joshing march and adds a turn motive – both as a trill and a melodic idea. The rather odd Variation III, marked Lento, misterioso, presents the theme stripped to essentials. The cello puts forth a variant of the bass line as the main idea – alternately accompanied above and below; later the first bar of the melody is shared. The second half of this variation is not repeated, but after an extended “falling” section, modulates into the next variation.
Variation IV is almost a movement unto itself: it is in A minor (usually denoted minore in classical variation sets). Marked con brio, it is the most developmental and energetically driven of the set. Its second half opens out, not slavishly following the shape of the second section (although you will hear the rising sequence and later fall).
Variation V, back in major, returns somewhat to the feeling of the theme, but enhanced by melodic lyricism and some harmonic surprises. Marked cantabile, this variation does not have repeats – or rather – the repeated formal sections are completely through-composed, so this almost acts like a double variation. In “the second time through the second half”, hesitation overwhelms the music. The main theme from the first movement and the passionate theme from the Adagio’s B section are recalled as the section breaks down into a series of sighs.
At the moment of most indecision, as through a hidden backdoor, light re-enters: the actual theme quietly returns, as if to say “remember where we started?” No repeats this time, and as the final phrase of the theme appears, it is clung to – as if hesitant to take leave. However, the violin gathers courage and forges on with that phrase; the brilliant allegro coda ensues, returning to the élan of the first movement, ending the work in ebullient high spirits. 🙢🙠
Schumann Piano Quintet in E Flat Major
Robert Schumann was a promising young pianist. He worked very hard, even inventing a contraption to strengthen the ring finger (all pianist’s Achilles heel, so to speak). Unfortunately, he had poor grasp of both anatomy and engineering and ended up permanently damaging his hands, which dashed his hopes for a concert career. He instead turned to writing, both as a visionary composer and as founder and editor of a leading music journal, Die Neue ZeitSchrift fur Musik, the podium from which he later prophetically claimed Brahms as Beethoven’s heir (“born with full faculties from Minerva’s brow”, the “chosen spirit of German music” or some such purple prose.) He married his ex-piano teacher’s daughter, one the best pianists in Europe, his beloved Clara (also to become an important figure in the life of Brahms). In 1840, after writing and publishing nearly thirty works for solo piano, his wife suggested he turn his talents to song. He did so, creating some of the Romantic era’s greatest cycles, including Dichterliebe. One day late in 1841, Clara must have casually mentioned chamber music over breakfast, and he was off and running – monomaniacally producing, in just over one year, three string quartets, the Piano Quartet and the Piano Quintet heard today.
Generally considered the first standard piano quintet (Mozart and Beethoven each wrote a quintet for piano and winds, and Schubert had written the famous Trout Quintet, with string bass), this work contains some of Schumann’s best music, taut formal construction perfectly balanced with Romantic fervor. It, along with the Brahms and Dvorak piano quintets, form the great triumvirate of Romantic piano quintets. Here the string quartet is often used as a unit against the piano. (His piano quartet features a bit more solo string writing).
The Allegro begins with a leaping energetic theme which provides material for much of the movement. A contrasting second idea is presented as a lyric duet between cello and viola; it is very linear in contrast to the leaping first theme. The development section is an extended exploration of the first four and the last eight notes of the main theme – this is one part of the work which really sounds like a mini-piano concerto! After the recapitulation Schumann ends with a short brilliant coda.
The form of the C minor Adagio is ABACA’BA. The A section is a funeral march, dark and hesitant. The B sections form a quiet and smooth contrast, a serene melody moving over wave-like accompaniment. The C section, marked Agitato, is quite furious and provides a dramatic contrast – this feeling boils over into the return to the funereal theme marked A’ above. The movement ends with a heavenly C major chord in string harmonics.
Then the scherzo breaks in, a joyful affair built on headlong scales. Like some of Mozart minuets, Schumann’s scherzo offers two trios in contrast, the first simple and melodic, almost static. The second trio is just the opposite, a nervous twitchy concoction which abandons the 6/8 time signature. As the movement nears its end, Schumann takes the last few notes of the scherzo cadence and designs a quick but effective coda.
The athletic finale begins in the wrong key, vacillating between C minor and G minor, before eventually settling on E Flat. Its march-like main theme and its spin-offs provide much of the material of the movement. The second theme is more dance-like and its answering phrase is tossed playfully between the instruments. In place of a true development, we get a long transition. However, on the way back, Schumann does add a tender descant over the the final phrase of the second theme; the descant will return gloriously in the coda. The recapitulation willfully begins in C# minor – with a few more modulations thrown in, we find ourselves properly in E Flat for the return of the second theme. Schumann now constructs a long coda. First he introduces what sounds like a new theme (syncopated but subtly based on the opening theme), then he starts up a fugue on the main theme, which after recalling the descant, leads to a dramatic series of chords and a pregnant pause. Then, with the aplomb of a magician pulling a contrapuntal rabbit out of his hat, Schumann begins an even more exciting second fugue which combines the main theme of the finale with that of the first movement! After a final tonicized cadential version of the finale theme is heard, Schumann ends the quintet in a blaze of victorious virtuosity.
NOTES by Paul Rosenbloom