By: Michael Lebovitch
String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3 (1801) Beethoven (1770-1827)
Between 1798 and 1800, Beethoven decided to tackle the quartet genre and created a series of quartets which were published in 1801 as Opus 18 and dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz, an important patron of both Beethoven and Haydn. In 1799 Prince Lobkowitz also commissioned a series of quartets from Haydn, but, as the story goes, when Haydn heard Beethoven’s quartets, he abandoned the genre never to return to it. It is believed that the 3rd Quartet in D major was first to be composed, before any of its Opus 18 companions. However, Beethoven, ever a clever businessman, well attuned to public expectations, ceded the first position of this series of quartets to a more muscular and substantial F major quartet to make a strong first impression.
Here we already hear the first steps that ushered in the transformation of the art of quartet, so central to Beethoven’s compositions in this genre. The quartet starts with an extraordinary delicate and ethereal opening: the first violin plays a slow, two-note rising figure, leaving us briefly in doubt as to what key we are in, and even what tempo, before the other voices enter with smoothly supporting harmonies and we are steered into the main flow of the music. The First movement is a full-fledged sonata movement, well balanced and proportioned in all of its parts; however, like the slight and subtle opening gesture, it feels weightless and elusive as a whole. Even the most unified, forceful passages are lean and athletic.
The Second movement, opening in the instruments’ low registers, with a new reliance on chromatic language, is all about different kinds of closeness. The low and whispered intimacy of the opening gives way to a coy, dancing arabesque, before returning to the opening idea. The development of thematic material becomes deeper and more passionate as we are transported to darker keys and ever more twisted chromatic motion, ending with a dramatic, declarative coda by all four instruments.
The Third movement is a scherzo in an A-B-A structure. It is brief and ingenious with somewhat gentleness in its music. The contrasting middle section is over almost before it starts, consisting of a few brief and sinister scampers up and down the scale, before it evaporates, and the welcoming main section returns.
The Finale is a brilliant Presto. Like the first movement, it starts delicately in one voice, without fanfare; but unlike the first movement, there is no sweetness intended here. It is all energy, fun and games. Here, Beethoven shows off his contrapuntal agility brilliantly, and invites the performers to show off their technical dexterity as best as they can. Between its virtuosity and its scope, this last movement becomes a culmination of sorts for the piece, seemingly outweighing the more delicate opening movement, foretelling his future masterpieces by preserving the most dramatic effects for the final movement of a composition. Still, here Beethoven subverts expectations one final time at the end, as the quartet closes with a teasing, quiet whisper.
String Quartet No. 3 (1926) Bartok (1881-1945)
At the time Béla Bartók composed his Third String Quartet, mid-1920’s, he was widely recognized not only as an important composer of his time, but also as one of the earliest serious ethno-musicologists: he collected and catalogued folk music from all over Eastern Europe, as well as from North Africa. To Bartók, folk music was the foundation upon which his musical creativity was built.
One might contrast him with late Romantic composers such as Brahms, for whom writing a Hungarian Rhapsody meant to flavor this essentially Brahmsian-type of composition with a light perfume of Hungarian rhythms or harmonies, as a kind of exotic touch. For Bartók, it meant to completely absorb the rhythms and contours of the folk melodies he collected, which are readily reflected in his own works. Where Brahms, or Liszt for that matter, wrote wonderful character pieces with folk elements as a sort of garnish on top, for Bartók it was the nucleus, the central thing around which he formed his own music, both in style and structure.
Bartók’s Third Quartet, the shortest of his 6 quartets, is in one continuous movement, consisting of 4 easily distinguishable sections: First Part (slow music), a Second Part (quick), a Recapitulation (Repeat) of the First Part and a Coda. The First Part has the quality of an artist contemplating his materials, turning over in his hands this motif, that rhythm. In writing music of this kind, Bartók seems to hearken back to Beethoven in his late quartets, writing music whose “self-analysis” quality seems to invite the listener into the composer’s workshop to watch him at work in the act of creation. Such music might run the risk of being overly abstruse, fragmentary, disorienting; but Bartók couches his exercise in such a dazzling array of textures, colors and intensities that the theory behind the writing is utterly transformed. Late in the First Part, after many halting forays, some brilliant, some desolate, some ghostly, the composer finally launches a sustained song in the second violin and viola, lyrical and warm, with gentle droning accompaniment from the outer voices — a first polished attempt out of the scraps and shreds of his laboratory.
The sense of completeness quickly dissolves, and we are hurled into the Second Part, which is in every way different: quick rather than measured, continuous rather than fragmented, moving along scales instead of leaps, confident and single-minded rather than halting or slacking. The Second Part also sounds, at least on the surface, closer to folk roots, particularly in its rhythm and its evocation of a stamping dance. Starting teasingly with plucked chords in the cello and viola, the music slowly gathers strength, moving to a terse, dancing melody, passed among the instruments, then repeated more forcefully, inverted, and finally exploding in the second main idea, strongly rhythmic, played fortissimo by the lower voices. These two melodies move through several transformations; at one point the first melody is transformed into a tense, pianissimo chase, a whispered fugue, and then, finally punctuated by wailing slides.
The return of the First Part is introduced by a short but intense cello passage. In this “Recapitulation”, the slow First Part is transformed almost beyond recognition. The material is the same, but the energy and the pacing are quite different. Then, when we reach a point of utter stillness, we are swept by some invisible source of energy into the whirling, ghostly music of the Coda. This final, brief section is a return to the vitality of the Second Part, recapping its materials in a yet more intense and sparkling manner, punctuated by angry refrains and seismic slides, and culminating in a final salvo of brusque unison gestures, an energetic affirmation of life.
String Quartet in F major, Op. 96, "American" (1893) Dvorak (1841-1904)
Dvorak, ever a man of his native Bohemia, was suffering a period of homesickness which was somewhat alleviated by his stay in Spillville, Iowa in the summer of 1983, a town dominated by Czech expatriates. Dvorak was brought to New York to be the Director of the National Conservatory. It is in Spillville that Dvorak found the environment, the forests and fields so conductive to solitude and musing, that it spurred great creative energy.
In the last decade of the 19th century, the quartet loving public were looking for a neo-classical messiah, someone who adhered to classical form while using new, romantic musical language. Dvorak fits the bill perfectly. The “American” Quartet, Op. 96 observes the classic sonata form, but what makes the quartet so attractive to audiences is its timeless beauty, captivating richness of melodic invention, and breathtaking rhythmic qualities. In this work, as in most works of this period, Dvorak combines elements of many cultures: Slavonic intonations, music of American Indians and African-Americans (Dvorak shocked middle-class sensitivities by proclaiming his interest in musical heritage of the dislodged Indian tribes as well as of black plantation music).
Dvorák's “American” Quartet, the chamber counterpart to his “New World” Symphony is among the sunniest and most endearing creations in the instrumental repertory. A shimmering halo of string sound opens the work and serves as the foundation for the viola's presentation of the folk-like main subject, which, like several of the other themes of the work, a “gapped pentatonic” (i.e., five-note) scale common to much indigenous music of the world, from the Orient to Bohemia and Scotland to the Indian and Afro-American songs of the New World. The second theme is a bit darker, but the mood brightens again for the closing theme, a delightful melody, as sweet as a lullaby, entrusted to the first violin. In the development section both the main theme and then the secondary are presented in imitative variants. The full recapitulation (repeat) of the earlier themes brings balance, formal closure and complete fulfillment to this most satisfying First movement.
The Second movement, Lento, distinguished by the lyrical beauty of its melodic line; the movement's beautiful main theme, first sung by the violin above a sad, undulating accompaniment, is both calm and melancholy, touched perhaps in equal amounts by the composer's own homesickness and by the poignant expressions of heartache that he admired in the Negro spirituals. The song soars higher and the mood becomes brighter as the movement progresses, but the plaintive tone of the opening again settles upon the music as it reaches its closing measures.
The vivacious Third movement can be somewhat misleading in its rhythmic implications. It is built from two contrasting strains of music. One is lively and dance-like, the other is more lyrical and mysterious, and their juxtaposition yields the movement's structural organization: a straightforward A-B-A-B-A structure. A delightful Spillville anecdote is attached to the high violin phrase that is heard about twenty measures after the beginning. It seems that a bird had settled in the tree just outside the window of Dvorák's study, and persistently filled the composer's room with its songs. Dvorák compensated for these interruptions to his creative process by borrowing the song of what he called “this damned bird - red, with black wings” (possibly, a scarlet tanager) for the theme of this passage.
The Finale is a rondo built on a dashing folk-dance melody announced by the violin. The second section of the movement's is chorale-like passage in the style of a Czech hymn, is a touching souvenir of the composer's idyllic summer in Iowa. This masterwork, a strongest example of Dvorák's mature genius, recalls the main theme one last time to close the work in a spirit of joyous optimism. |
JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET
Areta Zhulla, Violin
Ronald Copes, Violin
Roger Tapping, Viola
Astrid Schween, Cello
With unparalleled artistry and enduring vigor, the Juilliard String Quartet continues to inspire audiences around the world. Founded in 1946, and widely known as “the quintessential American string quartet,” the Juilliard draws on a deep and vital engagement to the classics, while embracing the mission of championing new works, a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. Each performance of the Juilliard Quartet is a unique experience, bringing together the four members’ profound understanding, total commitment, and unceasing curiosity in sharing the wonders of the string quartet literature.
Having recently celebrated its 70th anniversary, the Juilliard String Quartet marked the 2017-18 season with return appearances in Seattle, Santa Barbara, Pasadena, Memphis, Raleigh, Houston, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen. It continued its acclaimed annual performances in Detroit and Philadelphia, along with numerous concerts at home in New York City, including appearances at Lincoln Center and Town Hall. Adding to its celebrated discography, the JSQ released a new album featuring the world premiere recording of Mario Davidovsky’s Fragments (2016), together with Beethoven Quartet Op. 95 and Bartók Quartet No. 1, which will shortly be issued on the SONY label. Highlights of concert programming throughout the 2017-18 season included other visionary works by Beethoven, Bartók, and Dvořák, as well as James MacMillan’s haunting and evocative Quartet No. 2, Why Is This Night Different? (1998).
The 2018-19 season will include concerts in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, London, Oslo, Athens, Vancouver, Toronto and New York, with many return engagements all over the USA. The season will also introduce a newly commissioned String Quartet by the wonderful young composer, Lembit Beecher, and some piano quintet collaborations with the celebrated pianist Marc-André Hamelin.
The Juilliard String Quartet’s groundbreaking interactive app on Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, was released in 2015 by the innovative app developer Touchpress jointly with Juilliard. Both the app and the JSQ’s 2014 recording of the Death and the Maiden are available on iTunes. Celebrating one of the great collaborative relationships in American music, Sony Classical’s reissue of the Juilliard Quartet’s landmark recordings of the first four Elliott Carter String Quartets together with the 2013 recording of the Carter Quartet No. 5 traces a remarkable period in the evolution of both the composer and the ensemble. The quartet’s recordings of the Bartók and Schoenberg Quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel and Beethoven, have won Grammy Awards, and in 2011 the JSQ became the first classical music ensemble to receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Devoted master teachers, the members of the Juilliard String Quartet offer classes and open rehearsals when on tour. The JSQ is string quartet in residence at Juilliard and its members are all sought-after teachers on the string and chamber music faculties. Each May, they host the five-day internationally recognized Juilliard String Quartet Seminar. During the summer, the JSQ works closely on string quartet repertoire with students at the Tanglewood Music Center.
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