Modigliani String Quartet
Programme Notes
Joseph Haydn's music was wildly popular during his lifetime, and he acquired the tag Papa Haydn as much for his status as an elder statesman to the younger generation of Viennese composers (chiefly Mozart and Beethoven) as for his jovial, sophisticated and generous persona. However, this sobriquet conceals as much as it reveals: perhaps no other composer in the canon is as little understood, as little explored, and as little respected as Haydn. Mozart has his prodigious childhood and his tragic early death, Beethoven has his Dionysian power and tragic deafness; Haydn has his disarming nickname and unremarkable ubiquitousness.
Oddly enough, given this supposed ubiquity, Haydn's music—apart from the late symphonies and the last few string quartets—almost never makes it onto the concert platform. The innovator of the modern symphony, and string quartet, and piano trio (and indeed, piano sonata) is overlooked because of the masterpieces that came after him, which were made possible only by his creative developments. Beethoven could truly not have triumphed without Haydn blazing the trail. Musical history as we know it from the classical period to the present depends on Haydn as much as anybody.
Haydn's life is relatively well known. Born into a middle-class, provincial family, Haydn's pure sweet singing voice propelled him into the choir school of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. There he received instruction in all matters musical until his voice broke (he escaped the fate of becoming a castrato thanks to his father's intervention). Thereafter he spent eight self-described wretched years eking out an existence teaching music lessons in Vienna. Connections led to an appointment with Count Morzin, which in turn led to the position of Kapellmeister to the court of Prince Paul Anton of Esterházy, one of Europe's most powerful men and a man of great culture. Haydn spent much of the rest of his life in the service of the Prince and his successors, composing reams of music in all genres. By the last years of his life, with his court obligations mostly behind him, Haydn travelled to England, where he was immensely popular. He died in Vienna in 1809.
The Quartet in G major, Op.77, no.1 is Haydn's 66th composition in the form, and the third last from his pen. Together with no.2 of the opus, this quartet was the result of a commission from Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowitz, who also commissioned the young Beethoven for a set of quartets (the six quartets of Op.18). Haydn's health and stamina were failing; in a letter to the publisher Pleyel, Haydn lamented I only wish that I could have back 10 years of my advanced age, so that I could provide you with something new of my composition—perhaps—despite everything—it can still happen. Yet the Op.77 quartets are perhaps Haydn's most accomplished compositions in the genre. (In another letter, Haydn wrote, It is almost as if with the decline in my mental powers, my desire and compulsion to work increase. O God! How much remains to be done in this glorious art, even by such a man as I have been! ). The quartet was written in 1799 and published in 1802.
Maurice Ravel was born to a Swiss father and a Basque mother in France in 1875. His father, an amateur musician, encouraged the young Ravel to study piano at the Paris Conservatoire, but a lack of success in competitions caused him to concentrate on composition instead, which he studied under Gabriel Fauré. Attempts to win the coveted Prix de Rome for composition proved equally futile, due to Ravel's tendency to break musical conventions; he was especially criticized for employing parallel fifths (a rule Beethoven also ran up against).
Although Claude Debussy is most often credited with being in the forefront of Impressionism in music, Ravel was as least as innovative. In a 1906 letter to Eduard Lalo, Ravel protested that he, not Debussy, should be seen as the innovator of a new piano style, beginning in 1901 with Jeux d'eau. Unlike Debussy, Ravel placed a strong emphasis on traditional forms, including the classical sonata and the minuet; yet his harmonic language is a fascinating extension of traditional tonality into uncharted waters. His use of extended chords and unresolved passing-tones creates a tonal ambiguity, even bitonality, in many of his works, and he often blurs the boundaries between harmony and melody to the point that the two function as one.
Ravel's Quartet in F major was begun in 1902 as part of his submission to the Prix de Rome, which was rejected. Indeed, Ravel was ruled ineligible' in 1904; no doubt the jury was tiring of his continuing futility in pursuing the award, as he applied five times. Fauré, to whom the quartet was dedicated, was unimpressed, but Debussy, whose own string quartet had been written ten years earlier, loved the work. He wrote Ravel in 1905: In the name of the gods of music and in my own, do not touch a single note you have written in your Quartet. The whole situation became known as l'affaire Ravel, and it drove him to leave the Paris Conservatoire. No matter; Ravel went on to become one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. With a few small revisions, the Quartet in F major was published in 1910. It has become one of the most-performed works in the quartet repertoire.
Felix Mendelssohn had a few unfair strikes against him: prodigiously talented, and from a privileged background, he produced music with uncommon fluency and disarming transparency. Adjectives such as elfin lightness contribute to the general impression of Mendelssohn as a musical lightweight, a dilettante among serious men. One of history's true composer prodigies, he produced masterpieces such as the scherzo to A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Octet while still in his teens. Much of his mature work gets comparatively short shrift, as if the promise of youth was somehow lost to an indolent adulthood. In fact Mendelssohn was one of Europe's busiest musicians in the 1830s and 40s, both as a virtuoso pianist and as prominent conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Schumann, always quick to credit the talent of others, adored Mendelssohn; upon hearing Mendelssohn's first piano trio, Schumann dubbed him the Mozart of the 19th century.
Mendelssohn played violin as a child and wrote several early chamber works for strings, including 12 fugues for string quartet (at the age of twelve) and an early, complete string quartet in 1823. Of his six complete and mature string quartets, the String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op.80 is the darkest and most striking. It was written after the sudden death of Mendelssohn's beloved sister Fanny (herself a gifted composer), who suffered a stroke during a rehearsal of her brother's music. For a short time Mendelssohn was unable to write, but in the summer of 1847 he began to compose again, writing this string quartet in a style altogether different to the other quartets. Gone are the Song without Words slow movements, and the use of organic motivic structure. Instead, rhythm and texture are emphasized, and harmonic implications provide the impetus for contrapuntal development. Contrasting sections are sometimes juxtaposed without any transitional material. It is as if the profound emotion Mendelssohn was feeling could no longer be expressed in the carefully balanced structures he had hitherto relied upon. This requiem for Fanny became one of Mendelssohn's own last testaments; he survived his sister by only a few months.
©2009 by Brian Mix, cellist of the Vancouver-based Pacific Rim String Quartet
Oddly enough, given this supposed ubiquity, Haydn's music—apart from the late symphonies and the last few string quartets—almost never makes it onto the concert platform. The innovator of the modern symphony, and string quartet, and piano trio (and indeed, piano sonata) is overlooked because of the masterpieces that came after him, which were made possible only by his creative developments. Beethoven could truly not have triumphed without Haydn blazing the trail. Musical history as we know it from the classical period to the present depends on Haydn as much as anybody.
Haydn's life is relatively well known. Born into a middle-class, provincial family, Haydn's pure sweet singing voice propelled him into the choir school of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. There he received instruction in all matters musical until his voice broke (he escaped the fate of becoming a castrato thanks to his father's intervention). Thereafter he spent eight self-described wretched years eking out an existence teaching music lessons in Vienna. Connections led to an appointment with Count Morzin, which in turn led to the position of Kapellmeister to the court of Prince Paul Anton of Esterházy, one of Europe's most powerful men and a man of great culture. Haydn spent much of the rest of his life in the service of the Prince and his successors, composing reams of music in all genres. By the last years of his life, with his court obligations mostly behind him, Haydn travelled to England, where he was immensely popular. He died in Vienna in 1809.
The Quartet in G major, Op.77, no.1 is Haydn's 66th composition in the form, and the third last from his pen. Together with no.2 of the opus, this quartet was the result of a commission from Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowitz, who also commissioned the young Beethoven for a set of quartets (the six quartets of Op.18). Haydn's health and stamina were failing; in a letter to the publisher Pleyel, Haydn lamented I only wish that I could have back 10 years of my advanced age, so that I could provide you with something new of my composition—perhaps—despite everything—it can still happen. Yet the Op.77 quartets are perhaps Haydn's most accomplished compositions in the genre. (In another letter, Haydn wrote, It is almost as if with the decline in my mental powers, my desire and compulsion to work increase. O God! How much remains to be done in this glorious art, even by such a man as I have been! ). The quartet was written in 1799 and published in 1802.
Maurice Ravel was born to a Swiss father and a Basque mother in France in 1875. His father, an amateur musician, encouraged the young Ravel to study piano at the Paris Conservatoire, but a lack of success in competitions caused him to concentrate on composition instead, which he studied under Gabriel Fauré. Attempts to win the coveted Prix de Rome for composition proved equally futile, due to Ravel's tendency to break musical conventions; he was especially criticized for employing parallel fifths (a rule Beethoven also ran up against).
Although Claude Debussy is most often credited with being in the forefront of Impressionism in music, Ravel was as least as innovative. In a 1906 letter to Eduard Lalo, Ravel protested that he, not Debussy, should be seen as the innovator of a new piano style, beginning in 1901 with Jeux d'eau. Unlike Debussy, Ravel placed a strong emphasis on traditional forms, including the classical sonata and the minuet; yet his harmonic language is a fascinating extension of traditional tonality into uncharted waters. His use of extended chords and unresolved passing-tones creates a tonal ambiguity, even bitonality, in many of his works, and he often blurs the boundaries between harmony and melody to the point that the two function as one.
Ravel's Quartet in F major was begun in 1902 as part of his submission to the Prix de Rome, which was rejected. Indeed, Ravel was ruled ineligible' in 1904; no doubt the jury was tiring of his continuing futility in pursuing the award, as he applied five times. Fauré, to whom the quartet was dedicated, was unimpressed, but Debussy, whose own string quartet had been written ten years earlier, loved the work. He wrote Ravel in 1905: In the name of the gods of music and in my own, do not touch a single note you have written in your Quartet. The whole situation became known as l'affaire Ravel, and it drove him to leave the Paris Conservatoire. No matter; Ravel went on to become one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. With a few small revisions, the Quartet in F major was published in 1910. It has become one of the most-performed works in the quartet repertoire.
Felix Mendelssohn had a few unfair strikes against him: prodigiously talented, and from a privileged background, he produced music with uncommon fluency and disarming transparency. Adjectives such as elfin lightness contribute to the general impression of Mendelssohn as a musical lightweight, a dilettante among serious men. One of history's true composer prodigies, he produced masterpieces such as the scherzo to A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Octet while still in his teens. Much of his mature work gets comparatively short shrift, as if the promise of youth was somehow lost to an indolent adulthood. In fact Mendelssohn was one of Europe's busiest musicians in the 1830s and 40s, both as a virtuoso pianist and as prominent conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Schumann, always quick to credit the talent of others, adored Mendelssohn; upon hearing Mendelssohn's first piano trio, Schumann dubbed him the Mozart of the 19th century.
Mendelssohn played violin as a child and wrote several early chamber works for strings, including 12 fugues for string quartet (at the age of twelve) and an early, complete string quartet in 1823. Of his six complete and mature string quartets, the String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op.80 is the darkest and most striking. It was written after the sudden death of Mendelssohn's beloved sister Fanny (herself a gifted composer), who suffered a stroke during a rehearsal of her brother's music. For a short time Mendelssohn was unable to write, but in the summer of 1847 he began to compose again, writing this string quartet in a style altogether different to the other quartets. Gone are the Song without Words slow movements, and the use of organic motivic structure. Instead, rhythm and texture are emphasized, and harmonic implications provide the impetus for contrapuntal development. Contrasting sections are sometimes juxtaposed without any transitional material. It is as if the profound emotion Mendelssohn was feeling could no longer be expressed in the carefully balanced structures he had hitherto relied upon. This requiem for Fanny became one of Mendelssohn's own last testaments; he survived his sister by only a few months.
©2009 by Brian Mix, cellist of the Vancouver-based Pacific Rim String Quartet
