Please join us for our season opening concert, featuring our horn quintet!
Program
Quartet Op. 29 “Rosamunde” by Franz Schubert
Allegro ma non troppo
Andante
Menuetto
Allegro moderato
Horn Quintet in E Flat Major K. 407 by W.A. Mozart
Allegro
Andante
Rondo/Allegro
5 Stücke für Streichquartett by Erwin Schulhoff
Alla Valse Viennese (allegro)
Alla Serenata (allegretto con moto)
Alla Czeca (motto allegro)
Alla Tango milonga (andante)
Alla Tarantella (prestissimo con fuoco)
Musicians
Violins: Catherine LiVolsi, Patricia Petersen
Violas: Ilana Revkin, Patricia Petersen
Cello: Val (William) Korennoy
Horn: Susan Winterbottom-Shadday
Program Notes for October 6, 2024 by Paul Rosenbloom
SCHUBERT: String Quartet in A Minor
Schubert had been composing chamber music for his friends’ private enjoyment for many years, but decided to turn more seriously to the form. He made his bid with the A minor string quartet, which landed up being the only work published during his lifetime. (1824 was an amazing year: he composed this quartet, the Octet, the Grand Duo, the Arpeggione Sonata, as well as the Death and the Maiden Quartet.) Having written music for Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus, a play which failed miserably, he rescued the Entr’acte by repurposing it as the theme of the quartet’s slow movement – thus the quartet’s nickname.
He also found golden nuggets in two other earlier songs. The quartet opens with two bars of lonely accompaniment; the second violin gives us a restless figuration (recalling his song Gretchen am Spinnrade), supported by a quiet drumming in the viola and cello. The first violin enters with the haunting main theme, an extended melody above. After a modulation to the relative C major, the second violin presents the second theme – starting with three rising notes with a trill on the middle one – with the viola taking over a calmer figuration under. This broad sonata form movement develops all this material thoroughly. After the recapitulation of the second theme in the tonic A major, Schubert returns to A minor and the lamenting first theme for his coda. Throughout the quartet, but especially in this movement, you can hear Schubert’s fascination with playing off the changing emotional colors of major and minor.
The second “Rosamunde” movement is in reduced sonata form (without development). The gentle main theme is presented in C major, and its short-short-long rhythm dominates the movement. The second theme in the dominant, G major, is gently flowing. In lieu of a proper development section, Schubert dramatically escalates the transition between first and second themes in the recapitulation. In a short coda, both motives bid farewell.
The cello opens the minuet with a mysterious figure, immediately answered by the others; originally appearing as the introduction of Schubert’s earlier song “The Greek Gods”, the rhythm of this figure is the prevailing idea of the movement. Although back in A minor, this minuet is pretty light on its feet. However, listen for the return of the opening idea which leads shockingly – but briefly – to C# minor. The contrasting trio opens by turning that idea to A major, but mainly is a flowing laendler. The movement ends with a recall of the mysterious opening. Brahms surely had this movement in mind as he composed the minuet of his own string quartet in A minor, which also starts with a similar cello gesture.
The last movement opens with a sprightly theme featuring a couple of snappy motives (derived from the just-heard minuet) and prominent off-beat accents. A second important idea in dotted rhythm has a slight “Hungarian” (or maybe “Turkish”!) flavor; it alternates between C# minor and E major here in the exposition, and is properly resolved in the recap to F# minor and A major. These two ideas are developed through the movement, but the lopsided syncopations of the main theme win out in the end.
MOZART: Quintet in E Flat for Horn and Strings
Mozart certainly did not mince words when indulging in, er, humor – remembering the letter to his female cousin which concluded “Your Cousin of Virtue fair/in Weather Foul or Fair/W.A. Mozart/who shits without a Fart”. Well, his favorite cheese-shop owner and horn player, Josef Leutgeb, was the butt of many such jokes – one horn concerto is dedicated to him “out of pity for that ass, ox and fool of a Leutgeb”; another is written in a confusing mix of red, green, blue and black ink; in another, to confuse him, Mozart marked the orchestra Allegro and the solo part Adagio. In rehearsals, Mozart would “accidentally” strew Leutgeb’s part over the floor, and enjoy watching him scramble to gather it up. Aside from this foolery, however, one thing remains clear: Mozart obviously thought very highly of the musical ability of his friend, and wrote some beautiful and challenging music to show off his talents. While cellists bemoan a lack of a single concerto from him, Mozart wrote four horn concertos, and the Quintet (in E Flat, the key par excellence for the horn) heard today for his heckled friend. The work is scored unusually for one violin, two violas, cello and horn, giving Mozart the opportunity to richly support his horn part in the middle register.
The first sonata-form movement opens with an exchange of fanfare and whimsical reply, immediately followed by the first of many lovely horn melodies. The horn soon boldly ventures into C minor to begin the transition to the dominant, B flat, and the second theme, which is a bit more virtuosic in nature. It is repeated by the strings with the horn adding an answer between phrases. Much of the harmonic meandering of the usual development section is missing here, due to the limited pitches available on the natural horn for which Mozart was writing; rather, it is an extended transition to the recapitulation, which, except for a witty exchange near the end, proceeds without incident.
The Andante gives a chance for the horn to sing. The strings state the lovely theme first, and the horn repeats it; echoes of the last phrase modulate to the second theme, shared by violin and horn. A short cadential figure rounds out the exposition. The strings begin the development with a strong minor version of the theme; when the horn enters, the key briefly shifts to major, then deepens back into minor, with some panting and sighing, before the main subject returns to begin the recap. A coda, featuring some reflective pauses, postpones the farewell of the cadential theme.
The final movement is a rondo – interestingly, it is not in the 6/8 “hunting style” used in all of Mozart’s horn concerto finales. The rondo theme curiously starts on an upbeat, but it sounds like a downbeat, which adds a bit of extra fun to the proceedings every time the rondo subject returns. The strings answer the horn statement, almost orchestrally. Along the way there are many chances for horn pyrotechnics. The most important episode is in C minor, and features strong syncopations. Listen for the scales passed from bottom to top on the way back to the rondo theme. After that, the horn takes off in pure soloist fashion, provoking a fanfare exchange. Then Mozart polishes off his playful theme in a mock-serious canon, starting from the top down, before the horn concludes in full gallop.
SCHULHOFF: Five Pieces
Schulhoff is not known very well. He was Jewish, of Austro-Czech descent, a supporter of Communism, and, as you might imagine, suffered greatly under the Nazi regime; in 1941 he was thrown into Wülzberg prison in Bavaria and died there fourteen months later of tuberculosis. His biography is of great interest. Encouraged by Dvořák, he studied under some of the greats of the time, including Debussy and Reger. His style changed a lot over his lifetime, but he always showed an interest in fusing new genres into his output, including jazz and ragtime. He even anticipated Cage’s 4’33” in 1919, in a movement consisting only of rests, with the tongue-in-cheek performance instruction “the whole piece with free expression and feeling, always, until the end".
As you can see by the movement listing, these pieces actually form a suite of dances. You will hear echoes of Vienna in the Valse, but you won’t be able to dance to it, since the meter is 4/4 not 3/4! You will notice the cello is often used as an ostinato (repeated pattern) throughout the suite – here it attempts in vain to hold the quartet to waltz-time. The Serenade brings us south of the Pyrenees, in a sort of fever-dream of a humid Spanish night. The cello and viola often provide a guitar-like strumming. Again, playing with expectations, this movement is in a subliminally unsettling 5/8 meter. Note the colorful use of col legno (with the wood of the bow) toward the end of the movement.
The middle movement comes closest to an expression of Schulhoff’s Prague upbringing. It is a folk-song in a Lydian/Mixolydian mixed mode (raised fourth and lowered seventh) - its style a cross between Dvořák and Bartók. Here the viola drums out a discord of a major second, almost acting like a percussion instrument. The fourth dance is languorous Tango; the lower three parts often recede to provide the characteristic rhythmic accompaniment to the first violin’s emotional, almost improvisatory, lines. The final Tarantella, urged on by obstinate viola prodding any time it threatens to cease for even a moment, is a brilliant ending to a work by a composer who is unjustly unknown.