Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Chamber Music Series Programme Notes Online

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1 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Chamber Music Series Programme Notes Online Pavel Haas Quartet Tuesday 8 May pm St George s Hall Concert Room sponsored by Investec ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK ( ) String Quartet No.14 in A flat major, Op.105 Adagio ma non troppo allegro appassionato / Slow but not too slow fast, passionately Molto vivace / Very lively Lento e molto cantabile / Very slow and in a singing style Allegro non tanto / Fast but not too fast As an accomplished viola player who for a time made his living by playing the instrument, it was only natural that Dvořák should compose string quartets. In fact, apart from during the final phase of his career when he focused on writing operas and symphonic poems, the Czech composer produced a steady stream of quartets. He began work on this, the fourteenth and final of them, while still in America where for three years he had been director of New York s then newly-founded Conservatory of Music. However, he laid it aside and did not complete it until composing his Quartet in G major (No.13) which he wrote in November and December 1895 after his return to Prague. Simultaneously, much of his A flat major quartet must have been forming in his mind, for by 30 December it was also fully committed to paper. In the United States Dvořák produced not only his hugely famous New World Symphony but his equally alluring American Quartet (No.12), works that reflected both his fascination with America

2 and deep yearning for his own homeland. Yet not surprisingly given their chronology, his final two string quartets convey something quite different. In the words of the Dvořák scholar and cataloguer Jarmil Burghauser, they express his feelings at leaving America and at freeing himself from the distractions of foreign travel generally, on his final return to his homeland. Though the A flat major quartet was premiered by the Rosé Quartet of Vienna, like the G major it was popularised, appropriately, through performances by the celebrated Bohemian (Czech) Quartet. Dvořák, the prodigal son, had returned with what Burghauser has described as a wise and perceptive affirmation of life that immediately struck a chord with his compatriots. And what an affirmation it is, though the opening movement begins with a somewhat sombre slow introduction (Adagio ma non troppo). It is set in motion by the cello, with the viola, second violin and then first violin answering its statement in turn. This material returns but is transformed during the main body of the movement (Allegro appassionato) and ultimately a sense of irrepressible energy wins the day. Notable too are the movement s unexpected changes of rhythmic pulse and occasional wanderings into distant harmonic territories. Accordingly, the more modernistic Leoš Janáček, who was to become the pre-eminent Czech composer after Dvořák s death, hugely admired this music. Many have judged the second movement (Molto vivace) to be one of the finest scherzos Dvořák ever wrote. Breathtaking in its sheer rhythmic exuberance, there are also echoes of a gentle lullaby from the Dvořák s opera The Jacobin ( ). Again, in the scherzo itself and in its central trio section there are rhythmic and harmonic sleights of hand that doubtless impressed and inspired Janáček. In the slow movement (Lento), with its long-lined and deeply-felt main melody, powerful increases of intensity alternate with oases

3 of tranquillity. During the latter, to again quote Burghauser, mysterious voices of nature seem to whisper. The finale (Allegro non tanto) opens with a gloomy figure low down in the cello s register, second violin and viola answering with an ominous tremolando (fast repeated notes). Various twists and turns follow during the work s most extensive movement, but that glorious affirmation of life unambiguously has the final say, as does a joyful sense of homecoming. DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH ( ) String Quartet No.2 in A major, Op.68 Overture: moderato con moto / moderately, with movement Recitative and Romance: adagio / slow Waltz: allegro / fast Theme and variations Chamber music demands of a composer the most impeccable technique and depth of thought. I don t think I will be wrong if I say that composers sometimes hide their poverty-stricken ideas behind the brilliance of orchestral sound. The timbral riches which are at the disposal of the contemporary symphony orchestra are inaccessible to the small chamber ensemble. Thus, to write a chamber work is much harder than to write an orchestral work. So Shostakovich responded to a questionnaire in early January 1944 about his views on chamber music. He also added that he was currently working on a piano trio (namely No.2 in E minor, Op.67). Progress on that particular work was slow due to depression, illness and various other professional responsibilities, but it was eventually completed in August 1944 at an artist s dacha in Ivanovo, a few hundred miles north-east of Moscow. Immediately afterwards he began work on his Second Quartet and, in contrast to the drawn-out genesis of the trio, the quartet emerged with remarkable rapidity. On 6 September, the twentieth

4 anniversary of their acquaintance, Shostakovich wrote the following to his lifelong friend, the composer and pedagogue Vissarion Shebalin: Yesterday I finished the second movement of the quartet I began composing while here. I started the third movement (penultimate) without a pause. To commemorate the aforementioned anniversary, I would like to dedicate the quartet to you. By 20 September the work was complete it seems that composing chamber music was not always quite so difficult. This issue aside, given its date of composition, to what extent is this an example of a War Quartet? After all, in previous years the composer had completed the first two of a trilogy of War Symphonies (No.7 the Leningrad and No.8) in which he musically mediated, in two contrasting ways, his and his compatriots experiences of The Great Patriotic War. In terms of the quartet medium, like a delayed reaction, it was Shostakovich s Third Quartet (1946) that more obviously reflected the conflict, though this is not to say that the Second Quartet was innocent of its tumultuous historical context. Certainly, the tough-fibred first movement evinces a sense of conviction and defiance, the entire opening section of which is played forte (loud) or louder. The movement s central section for a while brings gently lyrical, whimsical contrast, though after a gradual build-up of tension there is a modified reprise of the steely opening music. The second movement represents Shostakovich s first use in his quartets of instrumental recitative. Recitative is a style of operatic vocal writing in which the rhythms and intonation of speech are imitated, though Shostakovich frequently employed it in all types of composition. It might be possible that his powerful dramatic instincts had to find other outlets after his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was condemned by Stalin and others in 1935, leaving Shostakovich unwilling to complete another full-length opera. Fanciful on my part perhaps, but the recitative technique is hugely effective and gives way as it would do in an opera to

5 an aria (here designated Romance ), sung out by the first violin who throughout takes the role of diva. The recitative returns before the movement ends with a hymn-like cadence perhaps a prayer for peace or a thanksgiving for friendship. A brooding waltz follows. Music replete with restless, nervous energy, it brings to mind the ghostly waltz section of Rachmaninov s Symphonic Dances of The finale starts with a brief introduction, then a statement of a theme that forms the basis of 13 ingenious variations, each progressively faster. This fascinating process culminates in a return of the slow introduction and a grand restatement of the theme itself. The work was premiered, along with the Second Piano Trio, in Leningrad on 14 November 1944 by the renowned Beethoven Quartet. The trio was particularly well received, though in chamber music terms it was the string quartet that preoccupied Shostakovich for the rest of his life. He eventually produced no fewer than 15 works for the medium. Programme notes by Anthony Bateman 2017