Program: Meccore String Quartet

MECCORE STRING QUARTET

at UC San Diego Friday, March 4, 2016, at 8 pm

Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall

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ArtPower presents

MECCORE STRING QUARTET

Friday, March 4, 2016, at 8 pm Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall Wojciech Koprowski, violin Jarosław Nadrzycki, violin Michał Bryła, viola Karol Marianowski, cello

PROGRAM String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 50 (1787)

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)

Vivace Adagio

Menuetto: Allegro

Finale: Vivace assai

String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 37 (1917) Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937)

Lento assai; Allegro moderato

Andantino semplice (In modo d’una canzone)

Vivace; Scherzando alla Burlesca: Vivace ma non troppo

INTERMISSION String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 56, “Voces intimae” (1908–9)

Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)

Andante. Allegro molto moderato

Vivace

Adagio di molto

Allegretto (ma pesante)

Allegro

Running time for this performance is approximately one hour and 30 minutes, including one intermission.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 50 Franz Joseph Haydn Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau Died May 31, 1809, Vienna

Haydn tended to compose his string quartets in groups. He would write and publish a set of quartets (usually six of them) and then would set the form aside, often for some years. He would then return to the form, having developed as a composer in the interval, and write another set of quartets that reflected his growth during those years. We see such a pattern in the 1780s, when Haydn was in his fifties. He published the six quartets of his Opus 33 in 1781 and then, aside from a solitary quartet in 1785, he turned to other things (including the composition of eighteen symphonies). When Haydn returned to the string quartet in the summer of 1787 with the six works that make up his Opus 50, he was writing with unusual concentration. He had become interested in these years in building his opening sonataform movements not on the two separate theme-groups of classical form but instead on one principal theme. He would spin secondary material out of some subordinate feature of the theme—a tiny motif or a rhythmic pattern—and the entire sonata-form structure would grow out of that one seminal theme. It makes for a very concentrated—and imaginative— kind of music-making.

The six string quartets of Opus 50 are sometimes known as the “Prussian” Quartets because Haydn dedicated the set to King Friedrich Wilhelm II, the cello-playing monarch in Berlin (this is the same king for whom Mozart is supposed to have written his “King of Prussia” Quartets). The second quartet of the set, in C major, has been much admired for the disciplined concentration of its writing and for its energy—both outer movements are extremely fast. The opening movement, marked Vivace, is a sonata-form movement based on two different themes rather than on the single theme Haydn often employed in this set.

The first theme, heard immediately, may be in C major, but that theme is under considerable harmonic tension even on its first statement; the agreeable second subject arrives over steadily-ticking accompaniment. Haydn’s development focuses largely on the first theme, and in the recapitulation he continues to develop that theme, treating it in tight canon in the closing measures.

In complete contrast the Adagio, which Haydn specifies should be performed cantabile, feels like a throwback to an earlier era. Though the second violin may make the initial statement, it is the first violin that picks up this melody and the soars with it, the line growing more ornate as it proceeds. There is something elaborate about this melodic line, almost baroque in its many turns, swirls, and 32nd-note runs.

The minuet, with its wide skips and steady energy, takes us back to the world we encountered in the first movement. Its playful trio section—related thematically to the minuet theme— makes deft use of silences.

The finale, marked Vivace assai (Very fast) forms a good bookend to the first movement. It too is in sonata-form, with an energetic first theme and flowing second idea. One of the most distinctive things about this movement is its constant energy—the steady pulse of fast 16thnotes can be heard throughout this movement (the ear seems to supply that pulse even when it is not present). This movement, which sends the first violin up near the top of its range, requires four very accomplished players, and after all the high spirits the very ending—where the music vanishes on a brief swirl of sound from the cello—is particularly effective.

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Program

String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Opus 37 Karol Szymanowski Born October 6, 1882, Tymoszowska Died March 29, 1937, Lausanne

Karol Szymanowski composed very little chamber music—only two string quartets—and the first of these came from one of the intense moments in his life. World War I may have destroyed musical life in Europe, but ironically those years were the most productive in Szymanowski’s life. On the last train out of Berlin before the war, he fled to his family’s estate in Tymoszówka in the Ukraine, and there—far from the war—he composed prolifically.

He had a “composing hut” built beside a lake on the estate, and in the years 1915–16 he composed what have proven to be some of his most famous works, including the First Violin Concerto, Mythes for violin and piano, and a great deal of piano music. Szymanowski’s peaceful retreat was brief, however: in 1917, rampaging Bolshevik mobs destroyed the estate and threw the composer’s piano in the lake.

There was a further reason for Szymanowski’s creativity in these years. Just before the war, in 1909–14, the composer had traveled widely through Italy, Sicily, the Mediterranean, and North Africa, and his imagination had been fired by the color, history, and mythology of these lands. A new concern for instrumental color now made itself apparent in his music, and—coupled with an increasingly chromatic musical language—this produced a sequence of music that is at once exotic, mysterious, and colorful.

Szymanowski’s String Quartet No. 1, composed in 1917, is a compact work—its three movements span only about twenty minutes—and formally it looks normal enough: a sonata-form first movement, a two-part slow movement, and a finale based on its opening fugue. Yet such a description does not get at the essence of this music, which is remarkable for its intensity and its range of color and expression. It is altogether typical of this quartet that Szymanowski will sometimes mark a passage both fortissimo and dolce at the same time: that odd mixture of force and sweetness lies at the heart of this music. And while Szymanowski was a pianist rather than a string-player, he uses the full palette of sounds possible on stringed instruments: passages played entirely in harmonics, passages bowed sul tasto (over the fingerboard), flautando (with a floating, flute–like sound), ponticello (on top of the bridge), as well as left-handed pizzicatos. Much of the writing, particularly for the two violins, is set very high in the instruments’ registers, further contributing to this music’s intensity.

A very brief Lento assai introduction leads to the Allegro moderato, and though the movement is based on the expected two themes, quickly it pitches between extremes, as the marking Subito scherzando alla Burlesca suggests. Moments that might be described as rhapsodic and soaring alternate with episodes when the music is fairly shrieked out; full-throated textures can instantly give way to the most exotic and delicate sounds before the movement ends with a fierce pizzicato chord.

The Andantino semplice begins quietly and beautifully—Szymanowski’s marking is dolcissimo—but soon this same melody turns intense as it develops; the second section, Lento assai molto espressivo, arrives over murmuring accompaniment. Some of the quartet’s most exotic textures and sounds are heard in this movement, which proceeds without pause into the finale, marked Vivace. This begins as a crisp fugue on a very short subject, introduced by the cello. But what is remarkable here is that each of the instruments is in a different key: the cello is in C major, the viola in E-flat major, the second violin in F-sharp major, and the first violin in A major (this quartet may be nominally in C major, but its harmonic language ranges far from that pure key). The polytonal clash continues Chamber Music

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with the second subject, though Szymanowski relaxes harmonic tensions somewhat for the development of these ideas. Szymanowski had planned a fourth movement for this quartet, but finally decided that it was complete in its three-movement form.

The String Quartet No. 1 attracted attention even before it was performed: it was awarded first prize in the Polish Ministry of Education’s chamber music competition in 1922. The premiere performance took place on March 7, 1924, by a quartet drawn from members of the Warsaw Philharmonic.

String Quartet in D Minor, Opus 56 “Voces Intimae” Jean Sibelius Born December 8, 1865, Tavastehus, Finland Died September 20, 1957, Järvenpää, Finland

We automatically think of Sibelius as the composer of orchestral music, and his reputation continues to rest squarely on his symphonies, tone poems, and the Violin Concerto. Yet it is surprising that Sibelius was not drawn more to chamber music. He was an accomplished violinist, and as a very young man he wrote a number of chamber works, including (when he was about 20) three string quartets. But there is only one significant piece of chamber music from his artistic maturity, the String Quartet in D Minor, composed in 1908–9 between the Third and Fourth Symphonies. The quartet shows some unusual features. It is in five movements rather than the expected four, and there are thematic links between the movements. The quartet also has the nickname Voces intimae (Intimate Voices), which originated with the composer himself. That nickname has, however, been a source of uncertainty, for there seems to be no explicit program behind this music. A quartet with a similar nickname, Janáček’s Second Quartet (subtitled “Intimate Pages”), is fired in every measure by that aging composer’s love for a young woman, but there is no such message in this music, which remains abstract throughout. At one point in a copy of the score to the third movement, Sibelius penciled “Voces intimae” over three hushed chords, and this remains our only clue to the meaning of the enigmatic nickname.

Listeners who know Sibelius’ symphonies will recognize many of their trademarks here: murmuring pedals, long crescendos, rhetorical outbursts, and sustained passages of unison writing. But there are many more passages of true chamber music: music of inward character, created by a partnership of equals and of a truly intimate sonority. The quartet is built on an arch structure worthy of mature Bartók: two big outer movements (sonata form and rondo) form the anchors, while the even-numbered movements are both powerful scherzos. These surround a lengthy Adagio di molto that is, musically and emotionally, the capstone of the arch.

The slow introduction to the first movement, for first violin and cello alone, provides a basic theme-shape, and at the Allegro molto moderato the entire quartet takes up this idea, yet at a speed only slightly faster than the introduction. This animated sonata-form movement leads without pause into the second movement, marked Vivace, which is derived from the first movement’s themes. This pulsing, driving scherzo—a superb movement—divides into smaller sections in different keys; so closely related is this movement to the first that Sibelius referred to it as movement “one-and-a-half.” The central Adagio di molto has a yearning, striving quality that grows directly out of its constantly driving upward; along the way the listener will make out the three separate chords—first in E minor and then in C-sharp minor—over which Sibelius inscribed the enigmatic “Voces intimae.” The fourth movement, a firm–ribbed and declarative Allegretto, is followed by the rondo-finale, which has some of the character of a perpetual-motion movement and finally drives to a nearsymphonic close.

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Program

Sibelius himself was quite pleased with this quartet. In a diary entry in July 1909, six months after its completion, he wrote: “Believe me, with the quartet I have left the training ship and gained my master’s certificate. Now I shall set course for the open sea. You’ve achieved something!”

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Praised for its breathtaking performances, flawless technique, and visionary interpretations, the Meccore Quartet won second prize—and three additional special prizes—at the London International String Quartet Competition at Wigmore Hall in April 2012. The quartet also has received top prizes at the Paolo Borciani Competition (2011), the International Chamber Music Competition in Weiden (2010), and the Max Reger International Chamber Music Competition (2009). Formed in 2007 by four of Europe’s most celebrated young string players, Meccore Quartet performs extensively throughout the continent. Since 2009, they have worked closely with the Artemis Quartet at the Berlin University of the Arts, and as postgraduates at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, they worked with pianist Alfred Brendel on the interpretation of Beethoven’s music. Brendel raved that “the Meccore String Quartet has impressed me as an outstanding young ensemble.” Their debut tour in North America took place in November 2013.

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Save the date!

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Big Bangg Co-Chairs Phyllis Epstein, Bobbie Gilbert, and Joan Bernstein A fundraiser in support of Student Engagement at ArtPower Sunday, April 10, at noon Faculty Club at UC San Diego For reservations please contact Carolena Deutsch-Garcia at carolena@ucsd.edu or 858.534.7657.

FOOVIE / GERMANY

MAN FOR A DAY

Thursday, March 31, 2016 7 pm Food; 8 pm Movie Gender activist Diane Torr’s worldwide appearances and workshops are legendary. For the past 30 years, the focus of this performance artist’s work has been an exploration of the theoretical, artistic, and practical aspects of gender identity.

JAZZ / U.S.A.

JOSÉ JAMES

COMING UP NEXT

Saturday, April 2, at 8 pm Singer-songwriter José James is on a constant quest for new musical horizons, evolving and blurring the lines between genres as he does. His latest project, Yesterday I Had The Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday, is a tribute to the legendary singer’s centenary.

INNOVATION / U.S.A.

CHRISTOPHER O’RILEY TRUE LOVE WAITS: THE MUSIC OF RADIOHEAD Wednesday, April 20, 2016, at 8 pm

While most pop fare has strong melodic foundations for the soloist to build from, Christopher O’Riley has challenged himself with the catalog of Radiohead, one of modern rock’s most acclaimed—and texturally complex—bands.

CHAMBER MUSIC / U.S.A.

CHRISTOPHER O’RILEY AND THE NEW YORK CHAMBER SOLOISTS Thursday, April 21, 2016, at 8 pm

Pianist Christopher O’Riley is joined by the New York Chamber Soloists; acclaimed as an outstanding ensemble of distinguished virtuosi, they have maintained a unique niche in the chamber music world for over five decades. Program: Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio in B-flat Major, Op 11, for clarinet, cello, and piano; Igor Stravinsky: L’Histoire du soldat for clarinet, violin, and piano; Béla Bartók: Piano Sonata and Contrasts for violin, clarinet, and piano; Maurice Ravel: Sonata for violin and cello

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