Program - Johannes String Quartet (Sunday, November 6, 2005 - 2 p.m.)
Contents
Introduction
This performance supported by Richard and Judith Hurtig.
The 2005-2006 Hancher Auditorium season is supported by CRST International.
Johannes String Quartet
- Soovin Kim: Violin
- Catherine Cho: Violin
- Choong-Jin (C.J.) Chang: Viola
- Peter Stumpf: Cello
Management
Frank Salomon Associates, Managing Associate: Ms. Barrie Steinberg, 201 West 54th Street, Suite 1C New York, NY 10019.
Program
Anton Webern, Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5
- Heftig bewegt
- Sehr langsam
- Sehr bewegt
- Sehr langsam
- In zarter Bewegung
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Quartet in B-flat Major, K. 458, "Hunt"
- Allegro vivace assai
- Menuetto: Moderato
- Adagio
- Allegro assai
Franz Schubert, Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden"
- Allegro vivace
- Andante con moto
- Scherzo: Allegro molto
- Presto
About the Artists
The Johannes String Quartet consists of four outstanding musicians who take time away from their busy careers to pursue their love of the string quartet literature. This quartet brings together the principal cello of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the associate principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first American to win the Paganini Violin Competition in 24 years, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, and has been praised by listeners and critics alike for its special combination of passion, warmth, elegance and poetry. Each member has spent numerous summers at the celebrated Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, birthplace of many of the world's renowned ensembles. New York appearances include their recent Carnegie Hall debut as well as frequent performances on the Schneider Series at the New School and the Peoples' Symphony Concerts at Town Hall.
Since the Johannes made its acclaimed debut there in 1998, the Chamber Music Society of Philadelphia has played a major role in launching the Johannes, presenting them regularly each season, including a two-concert series of the complete Beethoven opus 18 quartets. Their debut was described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as having "accurate intonation, vigorous interaction and careful regard for the details in the score...the passion and attack that characterize the best of quartet playing." The 2004-05 season included their Kennedy Center debut as well as appearances in New York, Philadelphia, Schenectady (NY), Norfolk (VA) and Storrs (CT). Recent highlights include performances in Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, the Santa Fe Chamber Music and Brightstar festivals, and other performances throughout the mid-Atlantic states supported by the Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour program. The Johannes has also been heard around the country through broadcasts on NPR's "Performance Today" and MPR's "St. Paul Sunday."
Soovin Kim (violin) is a violinist who performs around the world, in demand as a soloist and chamber musician. He captured first prize at the 1996 Paganini International Violin Competition and was also awarded the Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award in 1997, leading to performance and recording engagements across Europe. He has also been honored with the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Mr. Kim's various activities display his wide range of musical interests. He has appeared in recent seasons with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, among many others. He has performed the 24 Paganini Caprices to critical acclaim in both the U.S. and Europe, and next season will perform the six Bach sonatas and partitas for solo violin. He also received critical praise on his first CD, performing duo works by Schubert, Bartók and Strauss with pianist Jeremy Denk. Upcoming highlights include performances with the San Francisco Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic, and a debut recital tour of Korea.
Catherine Cho (violin) is recognized for her remarkable virtuosity, combining technical mastery of her instrument with an extraordinary and distinctive musicality. Praised by The New York Times for her "sublime tone," she has appeared worldwide as soloist and performing chamber music. Catherine Cho's orchestral engagements have included performances with the Detroit, Montréal and National Symphony orchestras, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, and throughout Europe and Asia. Ms. Cho's concert performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons was broadcast nationwide on PBS Television and a live recording of The Four Seasons will be released this year. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Catherine Cho has performed on the prestigious stages of Alice Tully Hall, the Salzburg Mozarteum, Tokyo's Casals Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Ms. Cho has been a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival since 1993. She is a founding member of the newly formed chamber ensemble, La Fenice. Ms. Cho is a member of the violin faculty at the Juilliard School and teaches master classes worldwide. Ms. Cho is represented as a soloist by Columbia Artists Management, Inc. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Choong-Jin (C.J.) Chang (viola) joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as associate principal viola in 1994. He was a double major in violin and viola at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with the late Jascha Brodsky and Joseph dePasquale. C.J. was born in Korea, and immigrated with his family to the Philadelphia area when he was 13. His solo appearances have included those with the Curtis Symphony and with the KBS Symphony Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center. An avid chamber musician, he has participated in the festivals of Caramoor, Evian, Las Vegas, Marlboro, Moritzburg (Germany) and Mostly Mozart. He has toured throughout the U.S. with the Musicians from Marlboro program. C.J. devotes much of his time to teaching younger violinists and violists as a faculty member of the Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music and Preparatory Division. Recently married, he resides in Philadelphia with his wife, Jeweon, and their children Jakob and Abigail.
Peter Stumpf (cello) has enjoyed a multi-faceted musical life incorporating several different kinds of careers into one. He was the First Prize winner of the 1991 Washington International Competition and has appeared as soloist with the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Virginia Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival orchestra. In recital he has appeared at the Philips Collection in Washington D.C. and Jordan Hall in Boston. In 1999, he performed the complete works of Beethoven for cello and piano on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society series where he is often featured. He is often a chamber music partner of such eminent musicians as Emanuel Ax, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Mitsuko Uchida and the Emerson String Quartet. He has had a long-standing relationship with the Marlboro Music Festival and is also a trustee of the Yellow Barn Festival. Formerly the associate principal cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and professor of cello at New England Conservatory of Music, Peter has recently been appointed
Program Notes
Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5, Anton (Friedrich Wilhelm von) Webern (1883-1945)
The Austrian composer, Anton Webern, once called "the mad scientist of music," has been more recently described as "the least loved of all great composers and the one held most to blame for alienating audiences from contemporary music" (Norman Lebrecht). Such views merely reflect the reactions to "serialism" and Webern's role in its development while giving him back-of-the hand recognition as a great composer. Recently, under the direction of Pierre Boulez, a long-time champion of Webern's works, DGM recorded the complete works of Anton Webern, including pieces that the composer himself had not listed among his published works. Considering the brevity of the works, it is not surprising that the "Complete Webern" fits on only six CDs! However, the variety is truly astonishing, covering orchestral works, chamber pieces, piano and instrumental ensemble pieces, arrangements (of Bach and Schubert), choral works and many songs set to poems. In one of his kinder appraisals of the composer, Lebrecht wrote "No composer has ever achieved so much influence with so little music."
Born in Vienna, Webern received his early instruction from his mother, a pianist, in whose memory most of his works were written. His first compositions at age 16 were two pieces for cello and piano and a song "Vorfrühling." In 1902, after private tutoring, Webern entered Vienna University. There he studied musicology and the compositional practices of the Renaissance period. During his university days he composed several songs. In the summer of 1904 his first major composition was an orchestral idyll Im Sommerwind. In autumn 1905 he began studying advanced contemporary practices with Arnold Schoenberg with whom he had formed a life-long friendship. In 1906 he received the Ph.D. from Vienna for his edition of the Dutch composer Heinrich Isaak's Choralis Constantinus. In 1908, two years after the death of his mother, Webern completed his first published work, Passacaglia for orchestra, Opus 1, a work in the post-Romantic Brahmsian style. This concluded his studies with Schoenberg as he went his own way to explore Schoenberg's concept of atonality based on the following of strict rules in arranging the 12 tones of the chromatic scale. Webern went one step farther. He sought to apply the Schoenbergian concepts to all the elements of music including the harmonic, rhythmic, dynamic and duration as well as the tonal structures. Thus he began to compress his compositions into brief episodes that in many instances seemed to mimic classical techniques of statement, exposition, etc. but never resolving them tonally. While Webern's technical innovations led him to be much admired by the avant-garde, it should be pointed out that the composer came out of the romantic tradition. He was a confirmed admirer of Wagner's operas, and favored the works of Mahler, Richard Strauss and Brahms in his conducting career.
During the period from 1908 to the 1930s, Webern held a variety of conducting posts, including the Vienna Workers' Symphony Concerts. He was active in Schoenberg's Society for Private Performances, acted as musical adviser for Austrian Radio, and in the 1930s visited London five times to conduct for the BBC. During this period he continued to experiment with his compositional styles making his works more and more compact and brief.
Except for the BBC and avant-garde circles, Webern was largely ignored in his lifetime. During the World War II years he lived in obscurity, supporting himself by working as proof-reader for a music publishing firm. His own music was prohibited by the Nazis as "cultural Bolshevism." In September 1945, during the American occupation of Austria, Webern went outside his house apparently for a smoke while the nighttime curfew was in effect and was accidentally shot by an American MP. He died later that evening.
The Five Movements for String Quartet, Opus 5, composed in 1909, was the first work by Webern in which he applied Schoenberg's atonal method. At the request of his publisher, Webern made an arrangement for string orchestra. The entire quartet lasts a little over ten minutes. Its five movements are best listened to as an abstraction of a traditional string quartet with brief samples of the sections that one finds in a standard quartet. The difficulty for the listener may be that it moves from sample to sample too quickly. Despite the atonality, there are discernible tonal effects that just seem to elude one's grasp if not concentrating on the music. The Opus 5 quartet, as is true of much of new music, needs repeated hearings.
The fast first movement is in a compacted sonata form coursing through its elements. The slow second movement has a lyrical melody that is barely discernible. The third movement is in the character of a scherzo with pizzicato notes. The fourth movement, Sehr langsam (very slow), has a funereal character as if one is hearing only a snatch of a solemn procession brought to you by the wind. The final movement offers instances of the preceding movements mixed in with varied melodic elements as the music fades away.
Quartet in B-flat Major, K. 458, "Hunt," Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Mozart may be thought of as the harbinger of the change that was about to take place in music. He was one of the early successful free-lance composers of music. Circumstances had forced him to seek support for his compositions beyond the traditional patronage system. As a professional musician his entire income depended upon compositions, performances, and the giving of private lessons. He was attuned to the demands of a paying public and the forms and styles of music that would attract its support. Mozart actually earned a good income most of the time. However, he was frequently in debt because of the excessive medical expenses of an ailing wife, extravagance in his lifestyle, choices of costly lodgings, poor financial investments and, topping it off, the high tuition for a son (Karl Thomas) whom he had enrolled in an expensive school in Vienna.
The remarkable thing is that despite the health problems and the periodic physical and mental stresses that he endured, Mozart's music was unwaveringly perfect and attractive. It was seemingly unreflective of any feelings of despair which has led some biographers to characterize him as having been alienated from his inner personal life while he was composing music. Others challenge this view. Mahler is said to have felt "Mozart's tragic power" and it is this sense of tragedy that may be hidden in the language of Mozart's music, in particular in his most intimate works, the string quartets written after 1780.
Mozart had established a relationship with Haydn in Vienna that led to their mutual admiration and an interchange of ideas. In 1781 Haydn published a set of six quartets (Opus 33) which markedly impressed Mozart and apparently inspired him to honor the old master by matching what he had done as well as to show off his own abilities. Thus in 1782 he began to work on a set of six quartets of his own, without any commission, nor anticipating any for the works. He devoted himself to the task for its own sake and probably to experiment with the style. He completed one quartet at the end of 1782, two in mid-1783 and then, after a delay, took up the task again in 1784, beginning with the B-flat quartet, completing the group of six by mid-January 1785.
In his dedication of the set to Haydn in the engraved edition, published in October 1785, Mozart expressed admiration for the elderly composer and indicated that the new quartets (later known as the "Haydn Quartets") were "the fruit of a long laborious labor." Even before their publication Mozart anticipated that the new quartets would not be readily accepted by the Viennese. He is noted to have stated that the quartets were "compositions which I keep for myself or for a small circle of music-lovers and connoisseurs." Mozart's judgment was accurate. The new quartets were poorly received by critics who considered them too innovative. By this time Mozart was used to being frequently criticized for violating the classical norms of decorum, coherence, and proportion and proceeded to disregard the critics. On the other hand, Haydn was most favorably impressed by the quartets when he heard the last three of the set performed at a musical soirée in Vienna sometime in February 1785. He is noted to have remarked to Leopold Mozart, the composer's father who was attending the concert: "…before God and as a man of honor I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste and what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition."
The Quartet in B-flat Major, K. 458, dated November 9, 1784, unfortunately bears the nickname "The Hunt" that has no bearing upon the nature of the music. This stems from the fanfare-like quality of the quartet's opening theme that is somewhat reminiscent of the call of a huntsman's horn. However, there is no indication that the composer had any such notion in mind, or that he was familiar with the sport of the hunt. The elaborations of the opening theme have a playful character as they are bandied about by the instruments introducing new motifs. All is brought to a joyful climax by an extended coda that harkens back to the original theme.
The second movement (Menuetto), unlike the boisterous dance (scherzo) used by Haydn in his quartets, offers a more traditional, dignified minuet, full of gracious melodies. The trio section adds some dark shading to its delicate and airy nature.
The third movement (Adagio) has been considered the most poetic of the slow movements of the entire set of quartets. It opens with a slowly-building and floridly melodic line by the first violin. Then the secondary voices blend into the opening melody, sometimes with independent counter-melodies, sometimes trading off the main theme with the leading violin or acting in supporting roles. The movement ends with a short understated coda.
The sonata-form finale (Allegro assai) returns to the lightness and dance-like qualities that characterized the opening of the quartet. It has three distinctive melodies that are changed and blended as the music vigorously spins to its conclusion.
Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden," Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Much has been written about Schubert, his precocious musical aptitude, musical training, youthful career as musician and composer with its trials and tribulations, his tragic illness and early death. As a youth Schubert was the leading violinist in a school orchestra and played the viola in a family quartet for which he wrote his early string quartets. He was a pupil of Antonio Salieri, Mozart's rival. He was the assistant schoolmaster in an elementary school run by his father but hated this position for it was a tedious job and conflicted with his desires to become a composer. Despite this he did manage to compose a flood of works in his spare time.
Early in 1817 the twenty-year old Schubert was persuaded by friends to leave teaching school and devote full time to composition. By this time he had written four symphonies, several Singspiele, dozens of piano pieces, at least nine complete string quartets, a number of sacred choral pieces and hundreds of songs. The surprising thing is that, despite this tremendous output, he did not have any of his works published until 1818 and then only a few of them. This fact has been the subject of much speculation about the composer, his life style, the effects of his having contracted syphilis in the early 1820s, his alcohol abuse, and his premature death from typhoid fever at age 31.
Among the misleading impressions left by superficial biographical sketches of the composer is that Schubert received little recognition during his lifetime. It is true that the extent of his musical genius was not recognized even by his friends, and the majority of his works were not published until after his death. However, Schubert did receive wide attention for his songs and his instrumental works, many of which were given their first performances in Vienna shortly after they were composed. The performances were often given at "Schubertiades," musical and social evenings that Schubert and his friends created as an outlet for their creative efforts. The Schubertiades were held in the homes of influential aristocrats and were well known in Vienna. The fact that Schubert's circle of friends named the events after the composer shows the esteem they held for him.
Beginning in 1823, Schubert, who was prone to cycles of mood swings, began to become depressed as he despaired over his worsening physical condition. The signs and symptoms of the secondary stages of syphilis had developed, and he was well aware of what this meant for his future. Records show that Schubert was admitted to the Vienna General Hospital for a short period in January 1824 for treatment of a severe recurring rash and loss of hair. Whatever treatment he received seemed to improve matters, and he no longer had to wear a wig. In his letters Schubert did complain about the side effects of the treatment possibly mercury but the physicians gave him an optimistic outlook about his illness in that it should not affect his mental capacity, something he feared. As if in response, he immediately set to work completing the Octet in F major (D. 803) in February 1824. By the end of March he completed the String Quartet in A minor (D. 804) and the first draft of the D minor quartet that is on tonight's program. Because of his travels, episodes of illness and attention to other compositions (including the Symphony No. 9) Schubert did not complete the D minor quartet to his satisfaction until January 1826 when it was given its first rehearsal performance. The composer, dissatisfied with the results of this and the subsequent rehearsals that followed shortly, made minor revisions.
The Quartet in D Minor, D. 810 was finally presented in a private performance on February 1, 1826, at the home of Josef Barth, a singer and one of Schubert's friends. Despite his efforts to negotiate its publication, the quartet was not published until July 1831, three years after Schubert's death. It appears that the Vienna publishers at the time, except for Beethoven's works, were interested chiefly in publishing piano pieces that would be played solo or for four hands at home. Such works sold better.
The title "Death and the Maiden" applied to the String Quartet No. 14, in D Minor was not applied to the work by Schubert but comes from the fact that the theme of the second movement is based on the song "Der Tod und das Mädchen" that Schubert had composed in 1817. The borrowing of this theme for the quartet has given rise to speculations about Schubert's possible preoccupation with death. After all, at the time of its composition he was suffering from a pernicious disease and had expressed both positive and negative feelings toward death in letters to friends. There have been various essays written to both support and challenge the view that his health status and related thoughts affected his compositions. Whatever its determinants, it is inarguable that the D minor quartet has become one of Schubert's most popular chamber works.
The first movement (Allegro), in sonata form, may be described as intensely passionate. The opening motif has a triplet rhythmic figure that dominates the music whether in its more frenzied moments or in its quieter lyrical passages as the movement unfolds. The coda, after reaching a furious climax, expends itself quietly while echoing the triplet figures.
The somber second movement (Andante con moto) reaches back to the chilling song of grief of the composer's own setting of the eight-line poem, "Der Tod und das Mädchen" by the 19th century poet, Matthias Claudius. The text is about a girl begging to be let alone by Death who soothes her with a promise of friendship and gentle sleep. Schubert took the melody of the song, changed its tempo from 4/4 time to 2/2, and added five variations and a brief coda as the basis of the movement.
The very brief third movement (Scherzo: Allegro molto) is characterized by insistent syncopated rhythms, punctuated with wild accents that add to a sense of restlessness.
The finale (Presto) is set in a rondo-form. After opening in a seemingly bleak mode, the music jumps out full of energy with a rhythmic pattern and stamping that is likened to a tarantella. The music is brought to a close with a breathlessly paced (Prestissimo!) coda.
Professor emeritus Arthur Canter is a retired clinical psychologist on the faculty of the UI Department of Psychiatry. An amateur music historian, he has been a long-time contributor of program notes for Hancher concerts and participant in the musical life of Iowa City.
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