VCHpresents Chamber: From My Life

FROM MY LIFE 16 & 17 OCT 2021, 7PM & 4PM VICTORIA CONCERT HALL

PROGRAMME BEETHOVEN Obligato for Viola and Cello

10 mins

Guan Qi, viola Ng Pei-Sian, cello (The HEAD Foundation Chair)

MAX BRUCH Nos. 1, 2, 6 and 7 from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op. 83

17 mins

Ma Yue, clarinet Guan Qi, viola Liu Jia, piano

SMETANA String Quartet No. 1, Op. 116, "From My Life"

30 mins

Chan Yoong-Han, violin Zhao Tian, violin Guan Qi, viola Ng Pei-Sian, cello (The HEAD Foundation Chair)

CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hour 20 mins (with no intermission)

PROGRAMME NOTES LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 - 1827) Obligato for viola and cello Beethoven played much viola in his youth and this duet was probably written for performance with his friend the amateur violoncellist Nikolaus Zmeskall. Both Beethoven and Zmeskall had poor eyesight and wore eyeglasses, leading to the nickname ‘With Two Eyeglasses’ given

by Beethoven himself. The music is light, witty, and good humoured, as befits a work intended for private sharing rather than publication.

We see Beethoven’s signature energy as the viola starts the theme of the first movement while the cello supports it with an Albertistyle bass. A conversation between the two friends follows – snatches of melody in alternation followed by brief moments of chordal agreement, with a brief journey into the minor as the conversation takes a short detour. Pizzicato plucked sections and bowed sections give additional contrast, and Beethoven’s youthfulness comes to the foreground with a short ‘false ending’, after which the music starts again taking us to the actual ending. The Minuetto gives us a lighter and gentler mood to balance the energy of the first movement. Again the theme is introduced by the viola, while the cello plays arpeggios in accompaniment, but Beethoven gives us both counterpoint and canon.

Never published during his lifetime, this early duet, as with much of his earlier music, only came to light

in the 20th century – the opening unmarked Allegro was published in 1912 and the concluding Minuetto was not discovered until the 1940s – both had been hiding in the pages of one of Beethoven’s notebooks.

MAX BRUCH (1838 - 1920) Selections from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op. 83 The German composer Max Bruch, possibly best known for his Kol Nidrei and his Violin Concerto No. 1, also spent much of his life teaching and conducting.

His reputation suffered under the Nazi regime, as he was considered a ‘possible Jew’ and as a result his music was unjustly neglected.

Music written for unusual forces is often the result of having specific players in mind, and in this case, it was Bruch’s son, a clarinettist named Max Felix. In 1910, the time of composition, Bruch Sr was 72. The autograph manuscript is no longer extant, but an engraver’s copy is preserved at the University of Cologne (where Bruch Sr was born), in the Max-Bruch Archive. Though often published together, Smetana never intended them to be performed together as an integrated cycle, preferring that players mix and match.

Deeply personal, the pieces seem far more than short miniatures for salon evenings. They are intimate, passionate, and deep, written in a conservative Romantic style, entirely unlike the work of Bruch’s contemporaries such as Stravinsky and Schönberg. The musical conversation of the mellow viola and subdued clarinet makes for rich harmonies and glowing melodies.

No. 1 in A minor, Andante, begins with the piano establishing an introduction, with the viola joining in and then clarinet. A second melody appears and merges with the first toward the end.

No. 2 in B minor, Allegro con moto, starts the movement with the triplets in the piano which lead to the viola melody. The viola and clarinet continue the conversation while the piano fervently continues the triplets all through.

No. 6 in G minor, Andante con moto, entitled Nachtgesang (‘Night Song’) has the two upper instruments trading and harmonising above a flowing piano accompaniment – almost like a Chopin nocturne.

The piano begins the galloping No. 7 in B major, Allegro vivace ma non troppo, and the other instruments quickly join in the chase, and with only a few quick respites to catch their breath, the dizzying chase continues to the end.

BEDŘICH SMETANA (1824 - 1884) String Quartet No. 1 Op. 116, "From My Life" I. Allegro vivo appassionato II. Allegro moderato a la Polka III. Largo sostenuto IV. Vivace The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana titled this particular string quartet ‘Z mého života’ ('From My Life'), and what a life it was. Born in 1824 near Prague, his lifetime saw rising ethnic consciousness among the ethnicities of the Austrian Empire, and he himself became one of the leading figures of the movement for Czech national revival.

There can be no better description of the work and its meaning than Smetana’s own words to his friend, the musicologist Josef Srb-Debrnov: My intention was to paint a tone picture of my life.

The first movement depicts my youthful leanings towards art, a Romantic atmosphere, the inexpressible yearning for something I could neither express nor define, and also a kind of warning of my future misfortune. The long persistent note in the finale owes its origin to this.

It is the fateful ringing of the highpitched tones in my ears, which, in 1874, announced the beginning of my deafness. I allow myself this small joke, though [my loss of hearing] was ultimately disastrous.

The second movement, a quasipolka, recalls the joyful days of my youth when I composed dance tunes and was widely known as a passionate lover of dancing.

The third movement (the one which, in the opinion of the gentlemen who play this quartet, is unperformable) reminds me of the happiness of my first love, the girl who later became my first wife [and whom Smetana later lost to tuberculosis].

The fourth movement describes my discovery that I could incorporate national elements in my music, and my joy in following this path until it was terminated by the onset of my deafness, the outlook into a sad future, the tiny rays of hope of recovery; but remembering the promise of my early career, a feeling of painful regret.

The lively finale suddenly interrupted by a melancholic lullaby is an eloquent depiction of creativity cut down, while the lullaby tells of his painful resignation to fate - toward the end of his life, he contracted syphilis and tragically went deaf just as he was lauded as the father of Czech music.

Notes by Edward Yong

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Founded in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state. Our Chief Conductor is Hans Graf. While the SSO performs frequently at the Esplanade Concert Hall, for a more intimate experience, we return to the place of our beginnings, the Victoria Concert Hall (VCH) – the home of the SSO. The VCH is host to our popular Children’s, Family and biannual free Lunchtime Concerts as well as our VCHpresents chamber series.

HANS GRAF Chief Conductor

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