7july

Thurs

day

8 PM

Benjamin Jacobson, violin

Andrew Bulbrook, violin

Jonathan Moerschel, viola

Eric Byers, cello

the program

35TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 73

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STRING QUARTET IN G MINOR, OP. 10Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Animé et très decideAssez vif et bien rythméAndantino, doucement expressifTrès modéré—En animant peu à peu—Très mouvementé et avec passion

KONGSGAARD VARIATIONSAnders Hillborg (b. 1954)

:: intermission ::

STRING QUARTET NO. 8 IN E MINOR, OP. 59, NO. 2Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

AllegroMolto AdagioAllegretto—Maggiore (Thème russe)Finale: Presto

calder quartet

GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY SUSANNE GUYER AND THAD CARPEN

STRING QUARTET IN G MINOR, OP. 10Claude Debussy (b. St. Germain-en-Laye, August 22, 1862; d. Paris, March 25, 1918)Composed 1893; 24 minutes

At the great Paris International Exposition of 1889-90, the young French composer ClaudeDebussy discovered the music of the Far East through the performances of the gamelan orchestras of Javanese musicians. That encounter not only worked its magic on Debussy,but through him it altered the course of music composition in his time.

Unlike other composers, including Beethoven and Shostakovich, Debussy did not wait untilhis maturity to tackle the writing of a string quartet. By 1893, satisfied that he could expresshis idiosyncratic ideas in this medium, Debussy undertook his String Quartet No.1, which heintended to dedicate to his friend the composer Ernest Chausson. Working simultaneously

on the quartet and his new orchestral work L’Après-midi d’une faun,Debussy explored daring new music territory. Midway through the composition of the string quartet, Debussy wrote to Chausson, whom hecounted on for an understanding ear, “As for the last movement, I can’t getit into the shape I want, and that’s the third time of trying. It’s a hard slog….”

After Chausson had heard the quartet in a trial run, he wrote to Debussywith criticisms and reservations. Debussy replied, “I must tell you that for

some days I have been greatly upset by what you said of my quartet….I felt that in the end itonly resulted in your being attracted to certain aspects of my work to which I attach littleimportance.” And to what did Debussy “attach little importance”?

Studying the eventual form of the String Quartet, as well as the great orchestral works hecomposed later, one can see that Debussy had little regard for the traditional sonata form, withits development sections and thematic manipulations. He ignored the rules of counterpoint,which controlled (or forbade) the use of parallel voices, preferring to set chords upon chords,in fleet waves of motion. Through it all, his ear for his own language dictated a rhythm and a flow of his music that ran counter to the definitive thrust of traditional Germanic rules ofcomposition. He reveled in the pentatonic scales and cross rhythms of the music of the FarEast. No wonder Chausson did not understand.

In the Quartet, Debussy begins with the germ of a theme that appears in all four of themovements. Both Hector Berlioz and César Franck had utilized this approach, using arecurring motif to stitch movements, or parts of movements, together. This motif, togetherwith the sheen and freshness of his harmonic inventions, supply all the “structure” thatDebussy needed to make of this string quartet a unified whole.

In some ways, Debussy clung to tradition in this work. Attempting a string quartet was in itself a vestige of his attachment to the past. In addition, the forms of the first movement (a modified sonata allegro), the second movement (a scherzo with trio), and the third (songform) give the superficial impression of a “regular string quartet.” However, the musicalcontent of the Quartet points the way forward, toward the Debussy of the shimmeringorchestral works to come.

In the end, Debussy dedicated his First String Quartet to the Ysaÿe Quartet (Eugène Ysaÿe,Mathieu Crickboom, Léon van Hout, and Joseph Jacob), who gave the first performance ofthe work on December 29, 1893. Its mixed critical reception revealed that at least some in

Notes on the

programby

Sandra Hyslop

74 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

At the 1889 ExpositionUniverselle in Paris—wherethe newly opened EiffelTower served as the entrygate—Claude Debussy firstheard the music of gamelanensembles from Java. Underthe everlasting spell of thescales, harmonies, and timbres of these ensembles, Debussy composed his String Quartet of 1893.

the audience understood the electrifying vitality, brilliant sonic colors, and sparkling clarityof the young composer’s singular achievement in writing for string quartet.

KONGSGAARD VARIATIONSAnders Hillborg (b. Stockholm, Sweden, May 31, 1954)

Composed 2006; 14minutes

The Swedish composer Anders Hillborg has developed significant ties to the United Statesmusic world, where his works have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic,Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, hewas composer-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival in 2008.

Premiered in 2006 by the Prazak Quartet, the Kongsgaard Variations is dedicated to Johnand Maggy Kongsgaard. John Kongsgaard, a winemaker in Napa Valley, California, is a co-founder of the Arietta winery, whose wine labels include an image of a Beethovenmanuscript excerpt: two measures of the Arietta theme from the composer’s final pianosonata. Mr. Hillborg has written the following about his Kongsgaard Variations:

…So when I was asked to compose a piece in honour of this fabulous wine, this [Arietta] theme would naturally have a key role in the piece. But whereas Beethoven’spiece is a set of rigourously carried out variations with a steadily increasing intensitycurve,… the Kongsgaard Variations are more like meditations, with no directionalprocess.

The music floats aimlessly through the centuries, displaying reminiscences ofBaroque, folk music, Renaissance, and Romanticism, but with Beethoven’s Ariettatheme as the musical epicenter. Although scarcely audible, the piece actually startswith music directly derived from the Arietta theme, leaving out the melody, butmaintaining the same rhythmical flow and harmonic landscape, as if Beethoven’stheme is dreaming about yet another variation on itself.

Arietta means “little song,” and these beginning bars are then cloned and mutatedinto other “little songs” that occur on several occasions in the piece.

After the introductory section the first violin takes on a simple, thoughtful solo motif,and again, this is cloned and mutated and appears later in the piece in differentshapes. Then comes a viola solo, joyful, as in trance, leading into a section where all instruments sing the praise of wine and music.

Shortly after the middle of the piece, we hear the Arietta theme for the first time,but strangely distorted and stretched, in the same way a cubistic painting twists themotif it uses. It’s almost as if the music is being played backwards.

A simple chorale lands us in the music that started out the piece. Then, finally, comesthe first part of the Beethoven theme in C major in its pure, original shape, succeededby the second part of the theme in A minor, but here again distorted, before the musiccompletely vaporizes into a mist of harmonics.

35TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 75

Wine labels from the Ariettavineyard (Napa Valley, California) feature a two-measure excerpt ofBeethoven’s manuscript for the Arietta theme fromthe composer’s final pianosonata.

STRING QUARTET IN E MINOR, OP. 59, NO. 2Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, December 16, 1771; d. Vienna, March 26, 1827)

Composed 1805-06; 35 minutes

Beethoven’s three string quartets, composed in 1805-06 and published in 1808 as Opus 59,were commissioned by and dedicated to Count—and later, Prince—Andrei KirillovichRasumovsky, the Russian Ambassador in Vienna. They immediately became known as “the Rasumovsky quartets.”

This patron and friend of Beethoven, one of the wealthiest men in Europe, was a passionateamateur musician. He maintained a professional string quartet for performances, on call, in his elegant home in Vienna. For several years, that ensemble was the quartet of theBeethoven’s close friend and colleague the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776-1830).Schuppanzigh, six years younger than Beethoven, was a leading figure in Vienna’s communityof musicians and served as the principal violin in the premier performances of many ofBeethoven’s compositions—chamber music as well as orchestral works.

An acquaintance in that social circle said that “[Beethoven] was as much at home inRasumovsky’s palace as a hen in her coop. Everything he wrote was taken warm from thenest and tried out in the frying pan.” Although Beethoven declined Rasumovsky’s request to give him lessons in theory and composition, he did accept his commission for the threestring quartets. At their first performance, in the Rasumovsky palace, Schuppanzigh sat firstviolin and Count Rasumovsky himself, as was his custom, played the second violin part.

Thayer, in his Life of Beethoven, reported that the Vienna correspondent of the Allgemeinemusikalische Zeitung (that important eighteenth- and nineteenth-century journal thatprovides us copious details of musical happenings throughout Europe) wrote the followingremark about the Opus 59 in 1807: “…three new, very long, and difficult Beethoven quartets…are attracting the attention of all connoisseurs. They are profoundly thought through and admirably worked out, but not to be grasped by all.”

Beethoven was aware of the advanced nature of these compositions. An Italian musician,Felix Radicati, asked the composer if he seriously considered these quartets to be music.Beethoven quickly replied, “Oh, they are not for you, but for a later age.”

That “later age” arrived sometime in the twentieth century, when a profound appreciation forBeethoven’s more challenging quartets began to take hold. What to Signore Radicati seemedbizarre, now reaches modern ears as the exciting force that Beethoven breathed naturallyinto the music.

Opus 59, No. 2, begins with two dramatic and incisive chords, in the tonic, E minor, and itsdominant, B major, followed by a silence. This theme—chords and silence—recurs throughoutthe first movement, contrasted by rapidly swirling melodic passages. The music of theslow—molto slow—second movement demands sustained legato expressivity, more prayerfulthan sentimental in tone. It ends serenely. In the Trio of the exuberant Scherzo, marked“Allegretto,” Beethoven employed a Russian theme (no doubt to honor his patron), which hedelineated in energetic canonic passages. The final movement completes the work, inrelatively short order, with ebullient and rapidly paced good humor. The frequently recurringprincipal theme, memorably jaunty, is like an invitation to a roisterous dance.

Notes on the

programby

Sandra Hyslop

76 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

Ignaz Schuppanzigh(1776-1830), violinist,violist, conductor, and close friend of Ludwig vanBeethoven, occupied a central place in Vienna’smusic life for forty years. Ashis handsome countenanceand fit figure metamorphosedinto morbid obesity,Schuppanzigh becameknown for his corpulence,about which his friendBeethoven occasionallycommented. In fact,Beethoven even wrote ashort choral compositionentitled “Lob auf den Dicken,”[In praise of the fat one] “in honor of” his friend. The text reads, in part,

“Schuppanzigh ist einLump.

Wer kennt ihn nicht,dendicken Sauermagen…”

[Schuppanzigh is a lump,who doesn’t know him,the fat sour belly?...]

Beethoven’s humor, if suchit was, apparently had littleeffect on their relationship,as Schuppanzigh was a loyalfriend and colleague forBeethoven’s entire life in Vienna.