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B OR ODIN QU A R T E T For more than 70 years, the Borodin Quartet has been celebrated for its insight and authority in the chamber music repertoire. Revered for its searching performances of Beethoven and Shostakovich, the Quartet is equally at home in music ranging from Mozart to Stravinsky. Described by the Daily Telegraph Australia as “the Russian grand masters”, the Borodin Quartet’s particular affinity with Russian repertoire is based on constant promotion, performances and recording of the pillars of Russian string quartet music – Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, as well as Glinka, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Schnittke. The Quartet generates critical acclaim all over the world: the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes about them “here we have not four individual players, but a single sixteen-stringed instrument of great virtuosity”. The Quartet’s connection with Shostakovich’s chamber music is intensely personal, since it was stimulated by a close relationship with the composer, who personally supervised its study of each of his quartets. Widely regarded as definitive interpretations, the Quartet’s cycles of the complete Shostakovich’s quartets have been performed all over the world. The idea of performing complete cycles of Shostakovich’s quartets originated with the Borodin Quartet. In recent seasons the ensemble has returned to a broader repertoire, including works by Schubert, Prokofiev, Borodin and Tchaikovsky. The Borodin Quartet was formed in 1945 by four students from the Moscow Conservatory. Calling itself the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet, the group changed its name to Borodin Quartet
ten years later and remains one of the very few existing established chamber ensembles with uninterrupted longevity. The world has changed beyond recognition since 1945; the Borodin Quartet, meanwhile, has retained its commitment to tonal beauty, technical excellence and penetrating musicianship. The ensemble’s cohesion and vision have survived successive changes in personnel, thanks not least to the common legacy shared by its members from their training at the Moscow Conservatory. The current members of the Quartet are Ruben Aharonian, Sergei Lomovsky, Igor Naidin and Vladimir Balshin. The Borodin Quartet regularly joins forces with other distinguished musicians. Their partners have included Sviatoslav Richter, Yuri Bashmet, Michael Collins, Mario Brunello, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Christoph Eschenbach, Boris Berezovsky, Denis Matsuev and Nikolai Lugansky. The Quartet also regularly receives invitations to give masterclasses, and to serve as jury members at major international competitions. The Quartet’s first release on the Onyx label, featuring Borodin, Schubert, Webern and Rachmaninov, was nominated for a Grammy in 2005 in the “Best Chamber Performance” category. The Borodin Quartet has produced a rich heritage of recordings over several decades, for labels including EMI, RCA and Teldec, including the Complete Beethoven quartets for CHANDOS. The Quartet’s recording of the complete Shostakovich String Quartet Cycle for Decca was released in September 2018.
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13 October 2018
SSO CHAMBER SERIES BORODIN QUARTET - ELEGY Yang Zheng Yi, artistic administrator Borodin Quartet Musicians of the SSO*
FRANZ SCHUBERT
String Quintet in C major, D. 956 53’
Chan Yoong-Han, violin I* Chikako Sasaki, violin II* Igor Naidin, viola Vladimir Balshin, cello I Ng Pei-Sian, cello II*
Intermission 20’
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 35’
Margit Saur, violin I* Sergei Lomovsky, violin II Igor Naidin, viola Wang Yan, cello* Lim Yan, piano
Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg. Scan the QR code in the foyer to view a copy.
13 Oct
13 Oct Elegy
F ran z S c h ubert (1797–18 28) String Quintet in C Major, D. 956, Op. 163 I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Adagio III. Scherzo. Presto. Trio. Andante sostenuto IV. Allegretto - Più allegro Sunny and sublime, Schubert’s masterly and beautiful String Quintet in C Major is one of the greatest works of string and chamber music in all of the classical canon. It is filled with surprises and contrasts, and offers many quietly progressive and revolutionary alterations to existing chamber music possibilities and forms. Approximately 50 minutes in length, the Quintet was written in 1828 - the year of Schubert’s death. Postdating some of his most famous chamber music works like Death and the Maiden quartet and the Trout Quintet, the C major String Quintet marks the culmination of Schubert’s compositional vision, gestalt, and style. Unusually, Schubert gifts to the standard string quartet the reinforcement of an extra cello, bypassing the more conventional choice of second viola for string quintets. Here, the single viola functions as an axis against which two pairs of violins and cellos alternate in harmony. Contrasts in melody and harmony pivot in acoustic interplay, while a choir-like equalising creates sonorous balance. These characterise the work’s many moments of glorious instrumental singing. The first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, is stirring yet refreshingly light, and breathtakingly moving. With a strong sense of movement, concord and melodic linearity, the music soars with pristine harmony, and features exquisite use of countermelody as well as exchange in both violin and cello duos parts respectively. Look out for moments of vivid beauty and warmth -- outstretched lines in the music burst with rays of sunlight and life.
The haunting second movement, Adagio, offers a riveting vision of extraordinary stillness. Here, the inner voices, unusually enough, offer much of the main melody, with the first violin embellishing with high and soaring lines, against a touching and delightfully moving cello backdrop. Look out also for the moment of sudden agitation midway through the movement – a tempest-tossed sturm und drang which is quickly resolved. The third movement Scherzo offers the listener a glimpse of both peaceful idyll and the hunt. It is filled with balanced extremes of volume, articulation and contrast. Glittering szforzandos in the first half (‘Presto’), with lively, winsome and dance-like bravura; and hushed pianissimos in the second half, a sombre and languid Trio. The fourth movement finale takes the form of a Hungarian-inflected Allegretto in sonata-rondo form. Note its many moments of light in contrast to deep moments of darkness, with intervals of calm. Glistening triplets give it an undulating sense of momentum while powerful unison passages showcase white-knuckled virtuosity and co-ordination, leading to a blazing finish.
DMI T R I S HO S TA KOV ICH (19 0 6 –1975) Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57
I. Prelude: Lento – Poco più mosso - Lento II. Fugue: Adagio III. Scherzo: Allegretto IV. Intermezzo: Lento V. Finale: Allegretto Winner of the 1941 Stalin Prize, Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G Minor is one of the most outstanding chamber music masterpieces in music history. Written for his friends in the Beethoven Quartet, it was a work that Shostakovich himself observed he had written himself into – by way of the piano part – so that he might eventually be able to travel with them, performing his own music.
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Composed in 1940 and premiered in November that year with Shostakovich on the keyboard, this is a work he also performed with members of the Borodin Quartet, in a historical concert circa 1947. Ethereal, dissonant and riveting, it is filled with exulted melodic lines as well as moments of hope despite many moments of penumbral shadow. The piano adds an almost symphonic dimension and a broad spectrum of colour to the music, often taking the lead in the introduction of melodic and thematic material. In reference to J.S. Bach, a composer whom Shostakovich greatly admired, much of the work is intertextual, and bears the hallmarks of both the neo-Classical as well as Baroque eras. By way of its balance, symmetry and careful decorum of music lines, it is Classical; and in the liveliness of its fugal, and contrapuntal techniques, idioms and zeitgeist, it is Baroque. The first movement (Prelude: Lento) plunges us headfirst into blocky and towering chords. A series of fragmented figurations follow in the pianist’s right hand, which leads to a second melodic counterpoint in the left. A three-note melodic cell features prominently across the movement, which the quartet extemporises upon. Here, the cello takes an unusually prominent introductory part. A prelude in every sense of the word, this is a musical curtain raiser with a theatrical, or recitative-like quality. The contrapuntal second movement, Fugue: Adagio, is slow and stately. Establishing a pattern of linear, rising lines, the music sings like the arcs of a cathedral, despite its many subtly plangent dissonances. As a fugue, it is slow and graceful, in almost gray hues. The music is hushed and searching, offering mysteries.
Bursting suddenly into song, the third movement takes the form of a plucky and buoyant Scherzo: Allegretto, like a timepiece gone quite mad. It is rollickingly joyous given all the sombreness that came before. Observe also the mad ‘cuckoo clock’-like belting in the second half of the movement. Plucky and frenetic, with typical Russian verve, this is quite a musical sight to behold. The fourth movement, Intermezzo-Lento, is searching and exploratory. The first violin enters hauntingly against a backdrop of ‘walking bass’-cello and pizzicato accompaniment. A picture of serene stillness and repose, observe the beauty of the strings when set harmonically as a duo and in concord with each other, and the pristine cleanness of the musical lines. The fifth movement, Allegretto, is lively and spirited, requiring formidably precise co-ordination on the part of the pianist and quartet. The ending is one of quiet, drifting off with grace. Programme notes by Duana Chan
23 Oct 2018 | 7:30PM VICTORIA CONCERT HALL Canadian violinist James Ehnes makes his Singapore debut together with pianist Andrew Armstrong in an intimate recital. BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12 RAVEL Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major BRAHMS Scherzo from F.A.E. Sonata (Sonatensatz) CORIGLIANO Sonata for Violin and Piano
"Ehnes and Armstrong are stunningly responsive... with a sense of propulsion, yet without overlooking its moments of delicacy." - Gramophone PRESENTED BY
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14 October 2018
VCH PRESENTS BORODIN QUARTET – EPILOGUE Ruben Aharonian, violin Sergei Lomovsky, violin Igor Naidin, viola Vladimir Balshin, cello
PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY
String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11 29’
HUGO WOLF
Italian Serenade 7’
Intermission 20’
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144 36’
Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg. Scan the QR code in the foyer to view a copy.
14 Oct
14 Oct Epilogue
P YO T R ILY ICH Tc h aikovsky (18 4 0 –18 93)
Hu g o Wolf (18 6 0 –19 0 3)
String Quartet No. 1 Op. 11
Besides the lieder he is closely associated with, Hugo Wolf wrote two operas, two string quartets, and a symphonic poem. The Italian Serenade was written just two days in May 1887, later orchestrated in 1892.
I. Moderato e semplice II. Andante cantabile III. Scherzo. Allegro non tanto e con fuoco IV. Finale. Allegro giusto In 1871, while surviving on a meagre salary from the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky wrote his String Quartet No. 1 as part of a personal fund-raising effort. The first movement quietly begins with a hesitant, stuttering rhythm, written in traditional sonata form, featuring two song-like main themes. Muted strings take us into the magic of the second movement, which contains some of his most recognised and loved melodies. Tolstoy admired this movement when he first heard it, and Tchaikovsky confessed that he “never felt so flattered in my life, or proud of my creative power, as when L. Tolstoy, sitting beside me, listened to my Andante while tears streamed from his eyes.” Two themes make up the second movement, a Ukrainian folk tune, and a salon-like melody that musicologist Roland John Wiley describes as “the highest intensity of Tchaikovsky’s spiritual pain - the primeval outcry of the suffering soul”. The robust Scherzo that follows is in the style and spirit of Beethoven, a folk dance complete with “drones” and offbeat accents. A distinctive three-note motif permeates the entire Allegro gusto Finale, which comprises two themes. The first is bright, cheery and sunny in the key of D major, and the second in the key of B-flat, starkly contrasting, lyrical, mellow and unmistakably Russian. Though Tchaikovsky would go on to write other string quartets, the First still remains a favourite among music lovers.
Italian Serenade
The writing in it is light, almost comical. It opens with repeated strumming on open fifths, as if to check that all are in tune. We hear an interruption of seemingly wrong notes - E-flats, in the key of G major! The second violin and viola then right the ‘wrong’, bringing the music back to G major for the main jolly tune. The movement is set in rondo form, with each episode like an act in a wordless comedy. A dance-like melody in the first violin marks the recurring motif, which occasionally breaks out into passion. The music works its way through several keys before restating the opening material. The cello makes a declaration (of love, perhaps?), and further development builds into a frenzy. A quiet motif enters, creeping between the instruments, and leads to a light-hearted conclusion.
Dimitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) String Quartet No. 15, Op. 144 I. Elegy: Adagio, attacca II. Serenade: Adagio, attacca III. Intermezzo: Adagio, attacca IV. Nocturne: Adagio, attacca V. Funeral March: Adagio molto, attacca VI. Epilogue: Adagio “Play the first movement so that flies drop dead in mid-air and the audience leaves the hall out of sheer boredom.” This was Shostakovich’s instructions for this quartet. The date was May 1974, and the quartet was completed in a hospital in Moscow. It was as if he knew that this quartet would be his last; that his time was coming, and he was resigned to fate.
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Just as Beethoven’s last quartet sought the answer to the perennial question “Muss es sein?” and found it to be so -“Es muss so sein!”, Shostakovich has searched for himself and came to the same conclusion, that things were the way they are; there was no alternative.
The viola sings out the melody, as the second violin and cello weave webs of arpeggiac accompaniment in the Nocturne. Finally a sense of calm, but yet an underlying tension exists, as though sleepless and restless instead of sweet dreams and restful nights.
Approximately 35 minutes in length and the longest of his quartets, the Fifteenth Quartet was written in six movements, and in the key furthest away from his first quartet in C major - E-flat minor. This is perhaps the bleakest, darkest key in the music, in which Shostakovich writes his resignation and pain. All movements are played continuously without a break, and marked “Adagio”.
A heavy, dotted rhythm played by all four instruments signal the start of the Funeral March, the first time all instruments enter together for a movement. This lasts for a mere two bars before the viola delivers a tribute, followed by the cello, then violin; the solo interludes leaving eulogies as the pallbearers progress.
The Elegy is unhurried, sombre and opens with a quasi-fugue. The second violin plays the opening theme, as though music for a funeral procession. Once all four voices enter, the fugue is quickly discontinued, and the music modulates to C major for the second theme, as if recalling the innocence of the first quartet. The music is static, not seeming to progress towards any direction. The Serenade begins with throat-tearing screams from the viola and violins, taking their turn to play a sustained note each, beginning from the quietest of sounds and ending bold, brash and loud. This leads into an ironic waltz - cold, mechanical and harsh. If a serenade is supposed to be light and serene, what type of serenade is this? The Intermezzo is a short wisp of a movement, yet powerful in expressing the dichotomy between a call and response - a turbulent, wild cadenza by the first violin, met by a cold, indifferent response by the cello. Was Shostakovich writing about himself, perhaps, a lone person fighting the system who could not care less? Or was it that he had to hide his raging emotions to give a bland response in the politically charged climate he lived in?
Beginning with an E-flat minor chord and the first violin breaking out into a trill, the Epilogue is said to be based on the last eight bars of the Elegy. This trill pervades the entire movement, passed between the instruments and concealing the flashback references to the Funeral March and Elegy. Musicologist Richard Burke suggests that the quartet was constructed as a chronological narrative that begins from the second movement, where the passage of life is recorded, the Serenade representing youth and hope, and after the Intermezzo, the Nocturne of old age is followed by death and the Funeral March. An Epilogue remains as what the life would be remembered as, and the Elegy at the beginning is the narrator or protagonist’s discourse and flashback to his memories. After all is said and done, the audience is left with a sense of emptiness and resignation; fate deals the cards of life, whatever will be, will be. Programme notes by Natalie Ng
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