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Emerson String Quartet
Wednesday
APR 27
7:30 pm
This performance is supported, in part, by the Raymond Stuhl Chamber Music Fund and the Eugene A. and C. Florence Stephenson Chamber Music Fund.
Sponsored by
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APR 27 | Emerson String Quartet
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EMERSON STRING QUARTET Eugene Drucker, violin Philip Setzer, violin Lawrence Dutton, viola Paul Watkins, cello
Program Franz Schubert: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 29, D. 804 Rosamunde Allegro ma non troppo Andante Menuetto: Allegretto - Trio Allegro moderato (Philip Setzer, First Violin) Johannes Brahms: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2 Allegro non troppo Andante moderato Quasi Minuetto, moderato Finale: Allegro non assai (Philip Setzer, First Violin)
Intermission: 20 Minutes Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat minor, Op. 30 Andante sostenuto – Allegro moderato Allegretto vivo e scherzando Andante funebre e doloroso, ma con moto Finale: Allegro non troppo e risoluto (Eugene Drucker, First Violin)
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APR 27 | Emerson String Quartet
Emerson String Quartet The Emerson String Quartet stands apart in the history of string quartets with an unparalleled list of achievements over three decades: more than thirty acclaimed recordings, nine Grammys (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year”, and collaborations with the greatest artists of our time. The arrival of Paul Watkins in 2013 had a profound effect on the Emerson Quartet. Watkins, a distinguished soloist, award-winning conductor, and devoted chamber musician, joined the ensemble in its 37th season, and his dedication and enthusiasm have infused the Quartet with a warm, rich tone and palpable joy in the collaborative process. Formed in 1976 and based in New York City, the quartet took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. In January 2015, the quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America’s highest honor, in recognition of its significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field. The Emerson String Quartet appears by arrangement with IMG Artists. www.emersonquartet.com
Program Notes Program notes are not available for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat minor, Op. 30. Franz Schubert: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 29, D. 804 Rosamunde Abreviated from program notes by Melvin Berger from Guide to Chamber Music/ Published by Anchor/Doubleday. Schubert began composing string quartets for his own family when he was fourteen years old. By the beginning of 1824 he had completed twelve such quartets, but had only performed them inside the home. But then, discouraged by the poor reception his operas were getting and inspired by the professional quartet playing of Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Schubert turned once more to quartet writing, this time producing the A minor, his first truly mature, “public” work in the form. Schubert began work on the quartet during February or March of 1824, following a long hospitalization. Soon after completing the composition, he wrote to his friend Leopold Kupelwieser. “I feel myself the most unfortunate, the most miserable being in the world. Think of a man whose health will never be right again, and who from despair over the fact makes it worse instead of better; think of a man, I say, whose splendid hopes have come to naught, to whom the happiness of love and friendship offer nothing but the most
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acute pain, whose enthusiasm (at least, the inspiring kind) for the Beautiful, threatens to disappear, and ask yourself whether he isn’t a miserable unfortunate fellow?” Surely some of the unrest, despair, and despondency that Schubert expresses in his letter is reflected in the achingly beautiful music of the quartet. Johannes Brahms: String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 51, No. 2 Abreviated from program notes by Melvin Berger from Guide to Chamber Music/ Published by Anchor/Doubleday. The Brahms second string quartet has a history similar to that of his first essay in this form. Begun in the 1850s, it was subjected to countless revisions over the following decades before he finally submitted it for publication in 1873. It was given its premiere in Berlin by the Joachim Quartet on October 18, 1873, some two months before the C minor. If it can be said that the first quartet was written under the specter of Beethoven, the spirit that informs the second belongs to Bach. The music abounds in polyphonic devices that were favored by the older composer. Brahms made particular use of canons, in which one instrument imitates a fine first played by another, starting a little after the first. (A round, such as “Frere Jacques,” is an example of a canon.) Although polyphony requires a keen intellectual grasp, Brahms, like his forebear, puts the craft to expressive purpose, successfully concealing the technical concerns behind the musical effect. The quartet also pays homage to Brahms’s good friend, Joseph Joachim, the outstanding violinist, composer, and organizer of the Joachim Quartet. Joachim’s personal motto was the notes F-A-E, standing for Frei, aber Einsam (“Free, but lonely”). Brahms made these notes the second, third, and fourth notes of the first movement’s main theme. Inspired by Joachim, Brahsm chose as his motto, F-A-F, Frei, aber froh (“Free, but glad”), and also wove these notes into the musical texture. Brahms probably would have dedicated the two Op. 51 quartets to Joachim, but a petty dispute at the time of publication led him to inscribe them instead to Dr. Theodor Billroth, a wellknown physician and avid chamber music player.