Quatuor Van Kuijk & Sean Shibe
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Chamber Music/France and Scotland
ArtPower presents
Quatuor Van Kuijk and Sean Shibe
February 17, 2023 at 8 pm
Department of Music's
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
Nicolas Van Kuijk , violin
Sylvain Favre-Bulle, violin
Emmanuel François, viola
Anthony Kondo, cello
Sean Shibe, guitar
Program
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 (1847)
Allegro vivace assai
Allegro assai
Adagio
Finale: Allegro molto
Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805)
String Quintet No. 4 in D major, “Fandango” (1798)
Pastorale
Allegro maestoso
Grave assai; Fandango
Intermission
Thomas Adès (b. 1971)
Habanera from The Exterminating Angel (2015)
Manuel de Falla (1876–1946)
Homenaje: Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy for Guitar (1920)
Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Sarabande (1960)
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895–1968)
Quintet for guitar and strings, Op.143 (1950)
Allegro, vivo e schietto
Andante mesto
Scherzo: Allegro on spirito, alla Marcia
Finale: Allegro con fuoco
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About the Program
String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 (1847)
Felix Mendelssohn
Born February 3, 1809, Hamburg
Died November 4, 1847, Leipzig
Mendelssohn’s life was short, and its ending was particularly painful. Always a driven man, he was showing signs of exhaustion during the 1846–7 season, which included trips to London and conducting engagements on the continent. In May 1847 came the catastrophe: his sister Fanny, only 41, suffered a stroke and died within hours. She and her younger brother had always been exceptionally close—Mendelssohn collapsed upon learning of her death, and he never recovered. Worried family members took him on vacation to Switzerland, where they hoped he could regain his strength and composure.
At Interlaken, Mendelssohn painted, composed the String Quartet in F Minor, and tried to escape his sorrow, but with little success. An English visitor described his last view of the composer that summer: “I thought even then, as I followed his figure, looking none the younger for the loose dark coat and the wide brimmed straw hat bound with black crape, which he wore, that he was too much depressed and worn, and walked too heavily.” Back in Leipzig, Mendelssohn canceled his engagements, suffered severe headaches, and was confined to bed. After several days in which he slipped in and out of consciousness, the composer died on the evening of November 4. He was 38 years old.
Given the circumstances of its creation, one might expect Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F Minor to be somber music, and in fact it is. It is the last of Mendelssohn’s quartets (and his last major completed work), but it has never achieved the popularity of his earlier quartets—the pianist Ignaz Moscheles found it the product of “an agitated state of mind.” Yet this quartet’s driven quality is also the source of its distinction and strength. One feels this from the first instant of the Allegro vivace assai (it is worth noting that three of the four movements are extremely fast): the double-stroked writing, even at a very quiet dynamic, pushes the music forward nervously, and out of this ominous rustle leaps the dotted figure that will be a part of so much of this movement. A more flowing second subject nevertheless maintains the same dark cast, and after a long development this movement drives to its close on a Presto coda.
The second movement, marked Allegro assai, is in ABA form: the driving outer sections keep the dotted rhythm of the opening movement, while the trio rocks along more gently. The Adagio, the only movement not in a minor key, is built on the first violin’s lyric opening idea. The music rises to a somewhat frantic climax full of dotted rhythms before subsiding to close peacefully. The finale, marked Allegro molto, pushes ahead on the vigor of its syncopated rhythms, which are set off by quick exchanges between groups of instruments. As in the first movement, there is more relaxed secondary material, but the principal impression here is of nervous energy, and at the close the music hurtles along triplet rhythms to an almost superheated close in which the F-minor tonality is affirmed with vengeance. It is not a conclusion that brings much relief, and it speaks directly from the agonized consciousness of its creator.
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Quintet in D Major for Guitar and Strings, G.448 “Fandango”
Luigi Boccherini
Born February 19, 1743, Lucca
Died May 28, 1805, Madrid
During his forty-year tenure as court composer in Madrid, Boccherini appears to have been charmed by the exotic life of his adopted country, and in his compositions he sometimes included “non-musical” sounds he heard around him in Spain. One of his quintets, full of the sound of hunting horns and bird-calls, is nicknamed the “Aviary,” and another work—subtitled “Nocturnal Music of the Streets of Madrid”—makes use of church bells and bugle calls from the military garrison. This attention to the native sounds of Spain appears as well in the series of guitar quintets that Boccherini composed during the 1790s, late in his life. In the Guitar Quintet in D Major, he expands the range of Spanish sounds in his music by including two of the most “Spanish” instruments of all, guitar and castanets. These late guitar quintets were not new compositions, but rather arrangements—for guitar and string quartet—of music Boccherini had originally composed some years earlier for string quintet. In the present case, Boccherini borrowed the first two movements from a quintet composed in 1771, the final two from another composed in 1788.
Boccherini was not so much concerned in this music with sonata form and developing his materials rigorously as he was with writing pleasing melodies and agreeable harmonies, and this guitar quintet is full of enjoyable tunes and bright rhythms. In the relaxed Pastorale, Boccherini mutes the strings and has the guitar provide a rippling accompaniment to their flowing, silken melodies; several times he reminds the performers to play dolcissimo. In the vigorous Allegro maestoso, Boccherini lets the strings take the lead, with the guitar content to repeat their themes or provide chordal accompaniment; this movement makes striking use of cello harmonics. The final movement is in two parts: it opens with a slow introduction marked Grave assai, but then leaps ahead at the Fandango. A fandango is an old dance of Latin origin in which the tempo gradually accelerates; the accompaniment is usually by castanets or guitar. Boccherini achieves a rather full sonority from his players in this movement, and the writing—sometimes featuring long cello glissandi—is imaginative. He brings all these elements together in the exciting and colorful conclusion to this quintet, where the tempo gradually eases ahead and then rushes to the close, pushed ahead by explosive interjections from the castanets.
Habanera from The Exterminating Angel
Thomas Adès
Born March 1, 1971, London
Thomas Adès’ third opera, The Exterminating Angel, was premiered at the 2016 Salzburg Festival. Based on the surreal 1962 film of the same name by Luis Buñuel, the opera has proven quite successful, with subsequent performances in London, New York, and Copenhagen. Adès has drawn music from the opera for concert performance, including a four-movement Exterminating Angel Symphony, and he has also made another—much smaller—arrangement of music from the opera. During a brief interlude in the third act, a mezzo-soprano is accompanied only by guitar and ondes Martenot. Adès arranged
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the guitar part for this interlude as an independent composition and published it under the title Habanera. This brief work, which makes virtuoso demands on its performer, preserves some of the unsettling atmosphere of the opera. Sean Shibe gave the premiere at Wigmore Hall in London on February 11, 2021.
Homenaje pour “Le tombeau de Claude Debussy”
Manuel de Falla
Born November 23, 1876, Cadiz
Died November 14, 1846, Alta Grazia, Argentina
Manuel de Falla composed only one work for guitar, the Homenaje pour “Le tombeau de Claude Debussy.” Written in 1920, it was conceived as a memorial piece for Debussy, who had died only two years before, and Falla doubtless drew the inspiration for his title from Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin, which had been composed only three years earlier. Falla’s brief memorial piece is unusually somber and dark music, and along the way the composer makes a specific connection to Debussy by quoting from his Soirée dans Granade, from Estampes. Some listeners may know this music in its orchestral form: Falla orchestrated it as the middle movement of his Homenajes, a set of three orchestral movements honoring Arbos, Debussy, and Dukas.
Sarabande
Francis Poulenc
Born January 7, 1899, Paris
Died January 30, 1963, Paris
The Sarabande is Poulenc’s only composition for solo guitar, was written in New York City in March 1960, while Poulenc was on a concert tour of the United States. He wrote the Sarabande for the great French guitarist Ida Presti and dedicated it to her. Presti was a virtuoso guitarist, but the Sarabande is by no means a virtuoso piece. A sarabande had originally been a lively dance, but in this music Poulenc evokes the stately, slow dance that it became. Poulenc’s Sarabande is extremely concise music: it is only 29 measures long, and performances span only a couple of minutes. Poulenc borrowed its main theme from one of his own works, the Improvisation No. 13 in A Minor, which he had composed two years earlier. Marked Molto calmo e melancolico, the Sarabande proceeds over shifting meters to an extremely quiet conclusion: the last two measures consist of the slow arpeggiation of the guitar’s six open strings.
Quintet for Guitar and Strings, Opus 143
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Born April 3, 1895, Florence
Died March 17, 1968, Los Angeles
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco trained in Italy and made his early career there. But in the years before World War II Castelnuovo-Tedesco—who was Jewish–was able (with the assistance of Toscanini and other prominent musicians) to get out of Europe and come to the United States, and thereafter he lived in this country. Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a vastly prolific composer (his list of opus number runs to well above 200), and he had prominent champions—Jascha Heifetz recorded his Violin Concerto No. 2, and
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Piatigorsky and Toscanini premiered his Cello Concerto. But Castelnuovo-Tedesco may have found his most successful role as a film composer. His lyric gift and fluid ability to compose quickly made him an ideal Hollywood composer, and he worked on hundreds of pictures, including And Then There Were None, Picture of Dorian Gray, and Hellcats of the Navy. He was also an influential teacher of film composers: among his students were Henry Mancini, Andre Previn, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco met the great guitar virtuoso Andrés Segovia in Venice in 1932, and the two developed a close artistic relationship. Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote many pieces for specifically for Segovia, including his Guitar Concerto No. 1 of 1939, and by the end of his life he had written nearly a hundred pieces for guitar, including other concertos and works in a variety of forms.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed his Quintet for Guitar and Strings during the winter of 1950 at the request of Segovia, who needed a piece to play for the Music Guild of Los Angeles. Segovia gave the premiere in Los Angeles later that year with the Paganini Quartet. At that time, the composer provided a brief introduction to the character of the work: “This was composed in less than a month (between February 7 and March 5, 1950). It is a melodious and serene work, partly neo-Classic and partly neo-Romantic (like most of my works). I would say it is written almost in a Schubertian vein–Schubert has always been one of my favorite composers.”
The composer also offered a brief description of the four movements: “The first of the four movements, Allegro vivo e schietto, is in the regular sonata-allegro form. The second movement, Andante mesto, is of a lyrical character, with Spanish undertones (the second theme is marked “Souvenir d’Espagne”). The third movement, Allegro con spirito, alla Marcia, is a Scherzo with two Trios.The last movement, Allegro con fuoco, is in rondo form, very brilliant and contrapuntal—again the second theme is in a Spanish mood—what could be more appropriate for Andrés Segovia?”
Program notes by Eric Bromberger
About the Artists
Quatuor Van Kuijk
Quatuor Van Kuijk’s international accolades boast First, Best Beethoven, and Best Haydn Prizes at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition; First Prize, and an Audience Award at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition; as well as becoming laureates of the Aix-enProvence Festival Academy. They were BBC New Generation Artists from 2015–17, as well as ECHO Rising Stars for the 2017–18 season.
Following such high success early in their career, the ensemble is an established international presence and has been invited to perform at the Wigmore Hall, London; Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and Salle Gaveau, Paris; Tonhalle, Zurich; Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Vienna; Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Berliner Philharmonie; Kölner Philharmonie;
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Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Tivoli Concert Series, Denmark; Konserthuset Stockholm; and at festivals including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International, Cheltenham, Heidelberg, Lockenhaus, Davos, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier/Radio France, Evian, Auvers-surOise, Stavanger and Trondheim (Norway), Concentus Moraviae (Czech Republic), Haydn/Esterházy (Hungary), and Eilat (Israel).
2022 marked Quatuor Van Kuijk’s 10-year anniversary, with a number of special projects centering around Mendelssohn’s string quartet cycle—which they will release for Alpha Classics across the current season. Further highlights of the current season include a number of international tours hosting debuts at venues including the Library of Congress, DC; Sydney Opera House; Melbourne Recital Centre; and UKARIA, Adelaide. They will also make their debut visit to Colombia and return to several prestigious European halls including London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus and Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ
Quatuor Van Kuijk records exclusively for Alpha Classics. Their debut recording, Mozart, was released to outstanding critical acclaim—CHOC de Classica, DIAPASON D'OR DECOUVERTE. Following celebrated discs of Debussy and Ravel, and Schubert, they return their exploration of Mozart with two further releases this season. The first features the String Quartets K421 and K387, and the second presents the Viola Quintets K515 and K516 with Adrien La Marca.
Quatuor Van Kuijk was resident at ProQuartet, Paris, where they studied with members of the Alban Berg, Artemis, and Hagen quartets. Originally students of the Ysaye Quartet, they went on to work with Günter Pichler at the Escuela Superior de Mùsica
Reina Sofia in Madrid, supported generously by the International Institute of Chamber Music, Madrid. The Quartet is supported by Pirastro and SPEDIDAM and is grateful to Mécénat Musical Société Générale for their sponsorship.
Sean Shibe
One of the most versatile guitarists performing today, Sean Shibe’s innovative approach to his instrument has enhanced his reputation for having “one of the most discriminating ears in the business” (Gramophone). He was the first guitarist ever to be selected for BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme, to be awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and, in 2018, to receive the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Young Artists. Accolades for his recordings include two Gramophone Awards and an Opus Klassik. He is also the 2022 recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award.
Following very successful performances at various summer festivals, this season Shibe gives his New York City solo recital debut at the 92nd Street Y which is followed by a tour in the US with Quatuor Van Kuijk. During the concert season he performs at Wigmore Hall four times and in solo recitals in Germany at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Mozartfest
Wurzburg, and returns to the Schleswig-Holstein Music festival sharing the stage with tenor Karim Sulayman. He performs with Hallé Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and tours with Manchester Collective in the UK and Europe.
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A great admirer of the masterful composers of the past, Shibe is equally committed to new music. Alongside his own transcriptions of Bach’s lute suites and seventeenth century Scottish lute manuscripts, he continues to explore, experiment, and expand the repertoire for his instrument with recent works by Daniel Kidane, David Fennessy, Shiva Feshareki, David Lang, Julia Wolfe and Freya Waley-Cohen. New commissions include a solo works by Thomas Adès, Helen Grime and a new collaboration with Cassandra Miller and Dunedin Consort.
Highlights of the past seasons include two appearances at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Summer 2022 working with Krzysztof Urbanski and Christoph Eschenbach and receiving the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Award, a special concert with LUDWIG at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, performances at the East Neuk, Aldeburgh, Norfolk and Norwich Festivals, Southbank Centre in London, Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Heidelberger-Frühling, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Musashino Hall in Tokyo, and Marlboro Summer Music Festival—the latter at the invitation of Mitsuko Uchida. Recent collaborators include the BBC Singers, Quatuor Van Kuijk, flautist Adam Walker, singers Karim Sulayman, Allan Clayton, Ben Johnson, Robert Murray and Robin Tritschler, and performance artist and art filmmaker Marina Abramović. Shibe was one of the first artists to return to the Wigmore Hall following the Covid-19 lockdown, receiving a five-star review from The Guardian
His most recent release is a second album for Pentatone titled Lost & Found, recorded on electric guitar and featuring repertoire by Hildegard von Bingen, Olivier Messiaen, Moondog, Julius Eastman, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Meredith Monk, Shiva Feshareki, Oliver Leith and Daniel Kidane. His Pentatone debut album Camino (2021) featured an introspective programme of French and Iberian music. The album was named Recording of the Month by BBC Music Magazine as well the Recording of the Week by The Guardian, Presto Classical, and The Times describing it as “one of the most compelling and touching recitals for the instrument I can recall”. The recent releases on Pentatone follow a string of successes on Delphian Records receiving many prestigious awards. With the laconically titled Bach (2020), a chart-topping recording of Bach lute suites arranged for guitar, Shibe received the Gramophone Award in the Instrumental Category and became the cover star of Gramophone Magazine’s June 2020 issue in which the disc was named Editor’s Choice.
Born in Edinburgh in 1992 of English and Japanese heritage, Shibe studied under Allan Neave at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Paolo Pegoraro in Italy. Shibe currently holds a teaching position at University of the Arts Bremen.
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