(1756 – 1791)

Allegro moderato                                                                                                       

Andante

Minuetto Allegretto

Allegro

After the six quartets dedicated to Haydn, Mozart intended to dedicate a set of six to Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, in the hope of receiving patronage and with it financial security.  However, he wrote only three (K575, 589 and 590) before dire necessity forced him to sell them for “a wretched sum”.  The quartets date from 1789-90, the period of Cosi fan Tutte, and Haydn’s op. 64 quartets.

To flatter the King, a keen cellist, Mozart featured this instrument prominently in all three quartets.  The consequent need to balance the texture led him towards the quatuor concertant style, where different instruments take the melody in turns.  This is immediately apparent in the first movement of the F major quartet, where the broad, lyrical themes are given to the first violin and the cello, with the viola getting its share in the recapitulation.  The development makes much of two tiny phrases, rising chromatic quavers and widely spaced crochets, which reappear in the mocking coda.

The andante is a simple, almost hesitant theme in 6/8 time, developed with gentle semi-quaver decorations for all four instruments.  The minuet and trio are more adventurous, with contrasts in texture, harmony and dynamics.  The last movement bursts with invention, the initial semi-quaver theme being turned and twisted and tossed between the players, with tantalising pauses to keep you guessing right up to the witty end; and a fitting end at that, for this was Mozart’s last quartet.

Last ACMC Performance: the Emperor Quartet – October 1998

 Pavan                                                                                             Thomas Tomkins

                                                                                                                                     (1573 – 1656)

 A pupil of William Byrd, Thomas Tomkins became organist at Worcester cathedral in 1596, remaining there until his death.  He was a prolific composer of madrigals, keyboard music, verse anthems, and consort music, in a style which looked backwards to the renaissance rather than forward to the baroque.  In his long life he saw troubled times:  the Civil War and the destruction by Cromwell of the organ at Worcester, and in 1649 the execution of Charles I.  Shortly after this, he composed the keyboard piece A Sad Paven for these Distracted Tymes.  The Paven (or Pavan) was a seventeenth century dance, described as slow and stately.

   First ACMC Performance

 “A Sad Paven for these Distracted Tymes”                       Maxwell Davies

                                                                                                                                              (1934 – )

 Peter Maxwell Davies, one of our most distinguished composers, and Master of the Queen’s Music, and since 1971 an Orcadian, is no stranger to the string quartet.  His ten works for the medium are known as the Naxos Quartets after their commissioner, Naxos Records.  Tonight’s short piece was completed in 2004, for the Paulo Borciani International String Quartet Competition.  It was inspired by the Tomkins work, and the Herald described it at its UK première at the St. Magnus Festival as “short and to the point, its intentions clear from the melancholic opening bars – a brief but lovely vignette with memorable melodic writing, especially for the violins”.

First ACMC Performance

INTERVAL

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Two Pieces                                                                                        Copland

(1900 –  1990)

Lento Molto                                                                                                              

Rondino

Early in his career Copland studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and it was here in 1923 that the Rondino was written for string quartet.  Later, in 1928, he composed the Lento Molto for the same medium, and realising that the two went well together they were then published as a pair, at the same time as he transcribed them for string orchestra.  The spare astringent harmonies of the Lento Molto are already recognisably Copland, building to an intense climax, and then dying away.  Boulanger wrote of it as “a masterpiece – so moving, so deep, so simple”.  The earlier Rondino was written at the time of Faure’s death, as a homage, built loosely on the sol-fa versions of the letters of his name.  Alternating spiky rhythms with more tranquil sections, it is reminiscent of Stravinsky in his neo-classical mood.

First ACMC Performance

 Quartet in G op. 18 no. 2                                                              Beethoven

(1170 – 1827)

Allegro                                                                                                                 

Adagio cantabile

Scherzo Allegro

Allegro molto quasi presto

Although he already had sizeable achievements, and a growing popularity in Vienna, it was not until 1799, the year in which Haydn published his last two complete quartets op. 77, that Beethoven began working on the op. 18 quartets.  Perhaps he was wary of tackling the forms in which Haydn and Mozart reigned supreme.  Op.18 no. 2 shows a civilised elegance, which has earned it the nickname “the Compliment”.  The first movement mixes a thorough understanding of Haydn’s style with a new dramatic thrust that is unmistakably Beethoven, for example at the beginning of the recapitulation, where the main theme is shown in a new light, rhythmically charged with accented octaves.  The following adagio cantabile has an unusual formal layout, with a fleet-footed allegro sandwiched between the slow, lyrical theme and its more decorated later version.  The scherzo and the finale again show a combination of Haydnesque technique with Beethovian rhetoric – the resulting energy derives from this tension between a refined, courtly elegance and a more earthy directness.  Perhaps the most apt description of the last movement is the one given by Beethoven himself: ausgeknöpft, meaning unbuttoned!

Last ACMC Performance:  the Almira Quartet – January 1998

(1756-1791)

Allegro                                                                                                                      

Andante grazioso

Allegro

Trios for strings and harpsichord have a long history, but trios with piano are relatively recent.  After all, the date of the invention of the piano can be put at 1709, and it was only in the last quarter of that century that pianos, pianists, and piano composition became common.  It is interesting to speculate how different Mozart’s music might have been if the development of the piano (and also the clarinet) had come a few decades later!  In the baroque trio sonatas, usually for two violins or violin and flute, the harpsichord played a subservient role as continuo, perhaps with the bass line supported by a cello.  The piano trio took a rather different direction.  Apart from an early divertimento, all Mozart’s six piano trios date from the last few years of his life, 1786 and 1788.  The last three, including the E major, were published under the title Tre sonate per il clavicembalo o forte-piano, con l’accompagnamento d’un violino e violoncello.  This seems to be a slight exaggeration – it is true that there is much brilliant piano writing, but the strings are subtly integrated into the whole.  However, the cello is never exploited to the same extent as in the string quartets, and in their three movement structure, the trios are closer to the piano concertos than to the four movement quartets.  It seems that they were intended for private enjoyment rather than (as in the case of the string quartets) for public performance.  In a letter to his friend Puchberg, Mozart wrote “When can we make a little music again at your place?  I have written a new trio!”

The E major trio begins with the theme on the piano alone, followed immediately by an elaborated restatement by all three instruments.  The development builds on a little falling phrase which seemed insignificant in the exposition.  The slow movement is based on a gentle rocking theme, which recurs like a rondo, in embroidered forms.  The beginning of the finale is marked dolce, but the gentle conversational theme soon develops some spectacular passages both for piano and violin.

Last ACMC Performance: the Gould Piano Trio – December 1991

Piano Trio in F major op. 80                                                     Schumann

(1810-1856)

Sehr lebhaft (very lively)                                                                                        

Mit innigem Ausdruck (with heartfelt expression)

In mäßiger Bewegung (at a moderate speed)

Nicht zu rasch (not too fast)

Thehigh pointof Schumann’s chamber music came in 1842 with the three quartets op. 41, and the piano quartet and quintet, but he also wrote three piano trios, the first two of these (op. 64 and 80) in 1847.  His wife Clara probably provided the inspiration; she had written a piano trio the previous year, and she and Robert had spent much time together studying counterpoint and the works of Bach.  She was the pianist in the first performance of the F major trio, and it made a great impression on her, as she wrote in her diary “I love it passionately and want to play it again and again!”

The first movement has a broad, sunny feel, with its bucolic opening theme in 6/8 time on the two strings.  After a spiky few bars, the piano presents the quieter second subject, which is closely related to the first.  Perhaps for this reason, at the start of the development Schumann introduces a new melody, which has been identified as that of one of his earlier songs.  The development proper shows off his contrapuntal skills, and his inventiveness in unusual key changes, before the recapitulation and accelerating coda.  The slow movement might be described as Brahmsian, had Brahms not been only fourteen years old when it was written.  It has a lyrical theme on the violin, over a triplet accompaniment in the right hand of the piano, but beneath this the left hand and the cello have a long canon – contrapuntal writing at its most subtle.  The third movement, in the remote key of B flat minor, again exploits dotted rhythms, in contrast with the running semiquavers of the central section.  The exuberant finale brings the work to an exciting close.

First ACMC Performance

INTERVAL

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Piano Trio in C major op. 87                                                            Brahms

(1833-1897)

Allegro                                                                                                                          

Andante con moto

Scherzo: Presto – poco meno presto

Finale: Allegro giocoso

Brahms had composed his first piano trio, op. 8 in 1854, but it did not satisfy him and he was to completely rewrite it in 1889.  However, before that he had embarked on his second trio, writing the first movement in 1880, and the remaining movements in 1882.  Ever his own sternest critic, it is good to report that Brahms was pleased with the result, writing to his publisher: “You have very likely not published one to equal it within the last ten years”.  The piano and the piano trio had come a long way since Mozart, the power of the instrument now needing the combined strength of the two strings to balance it.  Indeed, in much of this trio the strings play in unison, as exemplified in its very opening where they state the bold first theme.  In total there are four different themes laid out in the exposition of the sonata form movement, and then what seems to be the repeat of the exposition in fact ushers in the fascinating development.  This includes a section marked animato where the main theme is converted into a singing waltz, which also recurs in the extended coda.  The second movement, in A minor, is a set of five variations on a theme again stated by the strings in octaves – Clara Schumann suspected that it had folk origins, and it has a distinctive Scotch (or Hungarian?) snap to it.  The fourth variation is in the major, and the 2/4 time relaxes into 6/8 leading to a wonderfully gentle final variation.  The scherzo has something of the hob-goblin about it, mutterings from the strings, and fleeting arpeggios, while the slower central trio section in contrast looks to broad sunlit uplands in the major key.  The cheerful finale lives up to its billing of giocoso, amusing or playful.  It combines two motifs from the very start, the string theme set against a four-quaver figure on the piano, revels in the typically Brahmsian contrasts of quavers against triplets, and brings the work to a triumphant conclusion.

First ACMC Performance

(1862-1918)

Animé et très décidé                                                                                                 

Assez vif et bien rythmé

Andantino doucement expressif

Très modéré – très mouvementé et avec passion

Debussy’s forays into chamber music were limited to the quartet, dating from 1893 at the start of his musical career, and three sonatas from the last years of his life.  The quartet is unusual in that it is the only work to which he gave an opus number.  It is also one of the few to lay claim to a key, although this may be stretching a point as much of the music is closer to the ancient church mode known as the Phrygian than to strict G minor.  The quartet shows the variety of influences which Debussy was beginning to mould to his mature ‘impressionistic’ style – the Russian school including Borodin, the French school of Franck, and the music of the Orient, particularly that of the Javanese gamelan orchestras which he had heard at the Paris Exhibition of 1889.

Throughout the quartet there is a cyclical treatment of themes, with the opening bars containing the fundamental subject, which reappears in various guises in all but the slow movement.  The first movement shows a remarkable proliferation of tempo changes, with accelerations, decelerations, and sudden shifts, which together with the somewhat fragmentary nature of the musical ideas were to give a new direction to the quartet form.  In the second movement the main theme appears as a scherzo, and is given first to the viola, with pizzicato accompaniment.  The lyrical slow movement is more conventionally ‘romantic’, with soliloquies for viola and cello, though it also contains some unusual sonorities.  The last movement begins with an introduction (très modéré), which again develops the generating theme, before driving impetuously to its conclusion.

Last ACMC Performance: the Contempo Quartet – February 2003

Five Pieces                                                                                  Szymanski

                                                                                                                                              (1954 – )

Pawel Szymanski is one of the foremost Polish contemporary composers, whose many works are performed throughout the world.  He has won numerous competitions, including in 1989 the Britten Composing Competition in Aldeburgh with a concerto for amplified harpsichord and orchestra.  His music draws on tradition, often that of the music of the baroque – when a student at the Frederick Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw he took part in the International Summer Academy of Ancient Music in Innsbruck – while bringing it into a modern context.  He has written: “Tradition, in the sense of music from the past .. is a raw matter for composing.  But something that has become raw matter of this kind is already dead.  I take from this matter what I can dissemble, take apart into pieces, and then put together in a different whole.”  The Five Pieces for String Quartet (all quite short) were written in response to a BBC commission for the Brodsky Quartet in 1993, and clearly exemplify this approach.  Thus the first piece sounds at the outset almost like Handel or Haydn, but then begins to disintegrate into fragments, and soon slides (literally with Doppler-effect glissandi) into something very different.  The opening clockwork rhythm of the second piece becomes rapidly more complex, and is interrupted by brief declamatory statements.  In the moving third piece the use of instrumental harmonics gives a glassy, ghostly effect.  Its still intensity reminds us that the Five Pieces were dedicated to the memory of Symanski’s friend Jerry Stajuda, one of Poland’s most outstanding artists, who had recently died at the age of 55.  The fourth piece is intense in a different way, a wall of sound, in rapid arpeggios, becoming increasingly decorated with rapid runs.  The final piece, the strangest, has a squawking, angry first violin set against grieving chords from the other instruments.              First ACMC Performance

INTERVAL

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Quartet in D major op. 11                                                       Tchaikovsky

(1840-1893)

Moderato ma semplice                                                                                            

Andante cantabile

Scherzo: Allegro non tanto e con fuoco

Finale: Allegro giusto

In 1863 Tchaikovsky gave up his employment as a clerk in the Ministry of Justice to devote himself to becoming a musician, enlisting in what was soon to become the St Petersburg Conservatoire, and then in 1865 becoming a poorly-paid professor at the Moscow Conservatory.  His first quartet of 1871 was written for an all-Tchaikovsky concert intended to supplement his income, which also included piano pieces and a group of songs.  In contrast to his other works of the period (Romeo and Juliet written in 1869 was a flop in Paris, and hissed in Vienna), the quartet was success from the start.  A great deal of its appeal lies in its feeling of Russian folk-music, although only the andante is based directly on a folk-song.  In 1868 Tchaikovsky had met his near-contemporaries Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov, and been impressed by their enthusiasm for nationalism in art.  Years later, writing to his patron Madame von Meck, he commented that the affinity of his melody with folksongs, sometimes intentional sometimes subliminal, came from “having spent my childhood in the country, and having … been filled with the characteristic beauty of our Russian folk-music”.

The opening movement, in sonata form, begins with a rocking series of syncopated chords that leads through running figures to a simple but impassioned melody, before accelerating into a spiky little rising phrase, which permeates the development section.  The famous andante is built on two ideas, the first a working out of a folk-song, which has been translated as “Vanya one night sat sadly on the divan, a glass of rum in his hand, to drown his sorrow and forget tomorrow”.  Whatever its mundane words, the poignant melody, alternating between bars of 2/4 and 3/4, becomes almost sublime.  The second idea is a more straightforward tune over a persistent pizzicato bass line.  It is said that this movement moved Tolstoy to tears when performed at a concert in his honour in 1876.  The energetic scherzo, afoot-stamping dance, has a gentler trio, followed by the repeat of the scherzo music, this time dying away to its finish.  The finale, also in sonata form, has an invigorating, bright first subject, and a second subject that spotlights the viola, with an abrupt little accompaniment, which reappears, slowed down, before the rip-roaring final allegro vivace.

                Last ACMC Performance:  the Prague Quartet – November 1938

Trio op. 38                                                                                     

Adagio – Allegro con brio                                                       

 Beethoven’s septet for wind and strings, op. 20, was written in 1799, and was a run-away success.  This popularity led to several arrangements appearing from the hands of others.  To keep up with the game, Beethoven sanctioned a transcription for string quintet, and in 1803 himself published this version for clarinet or violin, bassoon or cello, and piano.  Tonight we hear the first movement, where a slow introduction leads to the sonata form allegro.  The brilliant first subject, which forms the basis for much of the development, is contrasted with a gentler second subject, and there is an extended coda.

First ACMC Performance

Last ACMC Performance of op. 20: January 2009, the London Concertante 

Britten   (1913 – 1976)

Three Character Pieces for Piano                                                      

Moderato                                                                                                 

The Three Character Pieces were written in 1930, when Britten was only 17, but were not published until 1989, when Sarah Beth Brigs gave their world première performance.

First ACMC Performance 

William Hurlstone  (1876 – 1906)

Trio in G minor                                                                

Allegro moderato                                                                

Andante

Scherzo:  Allegretto con moto                                                                                                       

Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace

Although not from a musical background, the Englishman William Hurlstone was considered by his Professors at the RoyalAcademy, including Charles Villiers Stanford, as one of their most brilliant students, both as pianist and composer.  However, his poor health – he was a bronchial asthmatic – precluded a solo piano career, and caused his early death.  Hurlstone was drawn very much to chamber music, and his best known works are for this genre.  Indeed his Fantasy Quartet of 1905 won the first of the Cobbett Chamber Music Prizes (2^nd prize Haydn Wood; 3^rd Prize Frank Bridge).  The Trio for clarinet, bassoon and piano was probably written in 1896, but there are no records of any performance in his lifetime.  However, it was played frequently in the 1930s, although almost 100 years and much musical detective work were required to reconstruct Hurlstone’s intentions, with the discovery of the scherzo movement, and a reordering of the other movements.  The writing for the two winds is beautifully done, making the most of each instrument’s warm timbres, and the piano part reflects Hurlstone’s mastery of his own instrument.  There seem to be echoes of Brahms, and perhaps Elgar, in this delightful, lyrical piece. 

First ACMC Performance

 INTERVAL

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Bernstein  (1918 – 1990)

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano                                                       

Grazioso – un poco piu messo                                                              

Andantino – Vivace e leggiero

 The clarinet sonata dates from the beginning of Bernstein’s multi-talented career – he was conductor, composer of both serious music and musicals, pianist and lecturer.  After studying at Harvard and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the young Bernstein spent two summers at Tanglewood in Massachusetts, the festival set up by Serge Koussevitzky, returning there in 1942 as Koussevitzky’s assistant conductor.  It was there that he met and became a close friend of the clarinettist David Oppenheim, to whom the sonata is dedicated.  The first movement is reminiscent of Hindemith, who was also at Tanglewood, lyrical rather than virtuosic.  The second movement alternates between the reflective andantino, and the spiky 5/8 vivace, which seems not far away from the music of West Side Story.

First ACMC Performance 

David Bedford  (1937 – 2011)

Dreams of Stac Pollaidh                                                         

David Bedford began composing at the age of seven and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley.  He wrote many orchestral works, including four BBC Proms commissions, and he also orchestrated the scores for several films.  Dreams of Stac Pollaidh was written for Laurence Perkins in 1999, and it originally formed part of a music-and-words concert presentation As far as the eye can see….  It was inspired by the composer’s holiday visit to the north-west of Scotland some years ago when he climbed this famous mountain.  Sadly, David Bedford died in October this year.

First ACMC Performance 

Three Hebridean Melodies                                      Traditional arr. Perkins

 Glinka  (1804 – 1857)

Trio Pathétique                                                                                    

Allegro moderato                                                                              

Scherzo: vivacissimo

Largo

Allegro con spirito

 Glinka is recognised as the father of Russian music, and best known for his two operas, the Life of the Tsar, and Ruslan and Ludmilla.  A cosseted childhood was followed by four years in Milan, where he met and was influenced by Donizetti and Bellini, and where this trio was composed in 1832.  Although an accomplished pianist, Glinka had at that time received little formal musical training, and had yet to develop a style to reflect his native music.  Although written for piano with clarinet and bassoon, it is often performed by piano with violin and cello.  Why Pathétique?  Glinka wrote on the score “I know love only by the sorrows which it causes”, but at the time he was also racked by physical illness, which led to a deep despair.  The first three movements are played without a break, and have inter-related themes.  The yearning allegro leads to a more playful scherzo.  The largo is a heartfelt lament, first from the clarinet, then the bassoon, and then both together, after which the brief finale rushes past.

 Last ACMC Performance: January 1979, the Scottish Virtuoso Wind Quintet

Quartet no. 3 Reed Stanzas                                                        Sally Beamish (1956 – )                                                                                                                                                

Donald Grant, the second violinist in the Elias, is well known as a traditional Scottish fiddle player.  I have incorporated this skill into a quartet work, drawing on Donald’s Gaelic roots.  The ‘second violin range’ of a quartet is similar to that used by traditional fiddle, inhabiting the throaty, rich sound world of the lower strings, and the distinctive clarity of the upper strings in their lower positions.  This leaves the first violin to explore the heights of the E string, so that the two violins are almost like different instruments.

I wrote part of the quartet in a cottage overlooking the machair of the Isle of Harris, in theOuter Hebrides, listening to Britten’s quartets in between working.  These works always remind me of my former life as a viola player, and the wind blowing through the reed beds at Snape; a very different, but equally windswept, salt-scented wilderness.

The reed has many different associations. ‘The Reed of God’: a Christian metaphor for Mary, the channel through which the spirit is breathed.  The ‘accursed’ reed of Celtic belief: the reed through which Jesus was given vinegar to drink, on the cross.  And the reeds used in the making of wind instruments, including the bagpipe and accordion.  The Sufi poet Rumi describes the reed flute as a symbol of longing and separation: the reed, separated from its home, utters a heart-breaking lament.

Reed Stanzas takes the form of variations on a Celtic-inspired theme announced by the second violin, which opens and closes the work in the manner of Pibroch (the classical music of theHighland bagpipe).  I have explored the intricate ornamentation used in Pibroch, highlighting its similarities to birdsong, and to Arabic reed flute (ney) playing.  The piece also refers to the multiple reeds of the accordion (these days made of metal) – an instrument used in traditional music of many cultures.  The idea of the loneliness and vastness of landscape underpins the quartet, while each variation, or ‘stanza’, has its own metre and mood.

Reed Stanzas was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and first performed on July 25^th, 2011 in Cadogan Hall, London, by the Elias String Quartet, as part of the BBC Proms Chamber Music Series.         Sally Beamish 2011

Quartet in C major op. 20 no. 2                                                    Haydn   (1732 – 1809)

Moderato                                                                                                                

Adagio                                                                                                                                               

Menuetto: Allegretto

Fuga a quattro soggetti: Allegro

The six quartets op. 20, composed in 1771, are known collectively as the Sun Quartets, from the sunburst engraved on their cover page, but were indeed the sunrise of Haydn’s unique and great development of the string quartet.  They also foreshadow many of the effects which Beethoven was later to use: the contrasts between unison and polyphonic passages; free-form, deeply expressive slow movements; and even fugal last movements.  One brilliant innovation, right at the start of the first movement of the second quartet, is the liberation of the cello from a basso continuo role, as it states the theme in a singing tenor, and throughout the quartet enriches the texture.  The darkly imaginative “operatic-scene-without-words” of the adagio in C minor leads directly to the hesitant, syncopated minuet, whose wistful trio is also in the minor.  The final fugue with four subjects is a masterpiece of concentrated discussion between the instruments, marked sempre sotto voce, until the triumphant forte conclusion.

Last ACMC Performance: October 1946 – the Blech Quartet

Quartet in B flat op. 130                                                          Beethoven  (1770 – 1827)

Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro                                                                           

Presto

Andante con moto ma non troppo

Alla danza tedesca: Allgreo assai

Cavatina: Adagio molto espressivo

Finale: Grosse Fuge op. 133

In the last three years of his life, Beethoven concentrated almost exclusively on the string quartet, with an intense experimentation and creativity, that stretched the form to its limits.  Always there are fascinating extremes: sudden outbursts and moments of deep contemplation, unexpected key relationships between movements, the breaking-down of the music into melodic fragments.

The first movement of op. 130 is in essence in sonata form with a slow introduction.  However, the gently imploring adagio, with its semi-tone intervals, is intertwined both temporally and thematically with the more violent allegro, with its sharp little fanfare, surrounded by agitated semi-quavers.  The presto is a breathless scherzo with a stomping trio – listen for the humour of the skidding scales that make the transition back to the scherzo.  The andante, not too slow, not too fast, is marked poco scherzoso, a bit of a joke, but it is also a marvel of rich texture, with moments of great tenderness.  The German Dance is similar in form to a minuet and trio, but the simple theme is transformed by squeeze-box dynamic hairpins.  The cavatina – a brief, operatic song – is an intensely expressive sotto voce, with a remarkable episode where the violin stammers and hesitates over agitated pianissimo triplets.

The “great fugue”, almost as long as a whole Haydn quartet, was the original last movementof op. 130, although Beethoven was persuaded by his publisher to replace it by a more conventional finale, and the fugue was published separately as op. 133.  The title page describes it as a “Grande Fugue, tantôt libre, tantôt recherchée”, i.e. in part free, in part studied.  The opening thirty bars, marked Overtura, present the thematic material in brief fragments, varying in mood, speed and dynamic, but in all cases characterised by semi-tone intervals.  A “studied” double fugue then follows, the main theme at first on the viola, with a jagged second theme on the first violin, the whole worked out with incredible raw energy and inventiveness.  A slower, quieter section builds on the semi-quaver motif heard in the Overtura, and then the jagged theme returns in 6/8 time, with a jaunty trilling transformation of the semi-tone idea.  The elements combine and recombine, and the music breaks into fragments again before the final crescendo.  No wonder that these late quartets are considered by many to be the most compelling of the whole repertoire.

Last ACMC Performance:   of op. 130, the Vertavo Quartet – February 2001

of op. 133, the Contempo Quartet – February 2003

Adagio                                                                              

Allegro                                                                                                                                               

Adagio ma non tanto

Allegro

From 1717 to 1723, Bach was Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, a keen musician who played both the harpsichord and the violin.  From this happy period in his career date both the sublime works for unaccompanied violin, and the less well-known but equally masterly set of six sonatas for violin and harpsichord.  Bach himself described these as “trios for harpsichord with violin”, the violin and the right hand of the harpsichord providing the two melodic lines, the left hand the accompanying bass.  Thus, in contrast to what had gone before, the keyboard part was written out in full, rather than as a figured bass, and is of prime importance.  The third sonata in E major follows the form of the Italian sonata da chiesa, or church sonata, where slow and quick movements alternate.  In the opening adagio, the long singing line of the violin, elaborately decorated, dominates, but in the remaining movements the material is shared much more equally between the two melodic lines, as is perhaps most easily heard in the second adagio.  The first allegro has a jolly catchy little theme (that you will probably be singing as you leave!) and the second bowls along in a moto perpetuo of semiquavers to its optimistic conclusion.

Sonata in C minor op. 30 no. 2                                              Beethoven  (1770 – 1827)

Allegro con brio                                                                   

Adagio cantabile

Scherzo: Allegro

Finale: Allegro

The three sonatas op. 30 date from 1802, being composed between the second and third symphonies.  This was a difficult period for Beethoven, with a failed romance, ill health and increasing deafness.  The dark nature of the C minor sonata, however, is shot through with what seems to be a determination not to submit to fate, and some have seen in it, and in its dedication to Tsar Alexander the First, a vision of heroic victories, with bugle calls and the beating of drums.  Certainly it takes the violin sonata into new realms.

The taut opening theme is stated first on the piano and then taken up by the violin, and leads to a march-like second subject.  The urgency of the music is such that Beethoven deliberate dispenses with the usual repeat of the exposition.  A further innovation is the introduction of a sighing new theme at the start of the development (Cobbett suggests this is the groans of the wounded).  The adagio strikes a different mood, of “sweet sadness”, with the piano part illustrating the singing qualities for which Beethoven’s own playing was admired.  The simple two-part theme is treated with a variety of accompanying figures, with in the closing sections quiet triplet drum-rolls and loud militaristic flourishes.  The lively Haydnesque scherzo has a trio in which the instruments play in canon.  The opening theme of the finale, again something of a drum-roll deep on the piano, comes to dominate the movement, as it races to its dramatic conclusion in a presto coda.

Scherzo in C minor                                                                         Brahms (1833 – 1897)

Brahms was notorious for destroying his early forays into particular musical genres – for example, several early attempts at string quartets were suppressed before the first published work appeared in 1863.  The same fate befell several piano and violin sonatas, but by a lucky chance this one example of his youthful work survives.  In 1853, the 20-year-old Brahms was in Düsseldorf, with his patrons Robert and Clara Schumann.  The violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim (to whom Brahms would in 1878 dedicate the violin concerto) was due to visit, and at Schumann’s suggestion a “Committee Sonata” was composed, with one of his pupils Dietrich providing the first movement, Schumann himself the second and fourth, and Brahms the third.  Joachim gladly played the sonata, with Clara at the piano, and presumably retained the manuscript, as the Scherzo (sometimes known as Sonatensatz) was published by him in 1906 after Brahms’ death.

The movement, which lasts only a brief five minutes, consists of the scherzo, in C minor and 6/8 time, pulsing with virile energy and passion, contrasted with a trio section in G major and 2/4 time, which recalls somewhat Schumann’s own style, before the scherzo is repeated with a grandiose coda in C major.

Sonata no. 2 in A op. 100                                                               Brahms (1833 – 1897)

Allegro amabile                                                                        

Andante tranquillo – vivace

Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante)

The first violin sonata that Brahms was happy to publish, op. 78, did not appear until he was 46.  There was then a gap of seven years before this second sonata, which was written in 1886 during an idyllic summer holiday on LakeThunin Switzerland.  The generally tender nature of the work may have been inspired by the presence of the soprano Hermine Spies – certainly it quotes from some of the songs he wrote there for her, and is one of his most melodious works.  The opening notes of the first movement, reminiscent of Wagner’s Prize Song theme, explain the sonata’s nickname the Meistersinger.  The second subject group includes the theme of Brahm’s new song Wie Melodien, which compares the wafting scent of flowers to melody.  The second movement serves as both slow movement andscherzo, the gentle lyricism of the andante exactly balancing the gay dance rhythms of thevivace.  The opening theme of the finale – a real air on the G string – is contrasted with episodes of mystery, misty piano arpeggios and questioning phrases on the violin.  Elizabeth von Herzenberg, Brahm’s close friend, summarised the work thus: “the whole sonata is one caress”.

The meaning of the title will become clear at the concert!