GOLDMUND QUARTET
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2025 | 7:30 PM
SHANNON HALL AT MEMORIAL UNION
Florian Schötz, violin
Pinchas Adt, violin
Christoph Vandory, viola
Raphael Paratore, cello
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PROGRAM
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
Erlkönig, Op. 1, D. 328 (1815, arr. Jakob Enke)
Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2 (1799)
Allegro moderato
Minuet: Presto—Trio
Andante
Finale: Vivace assai
INTERMISSION
Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 27 (1877–1878)
Un poco Andante—Allegro molto ed agitato
Romanze: Andantino
Intermezzo: Allegro molto marcato—Più vivo e scherzando
Finale: Lento—Presto al saltarello
PROGRAM NOTES
FRANZ SCHUBERT
“Erlkönig,” Op. 1, D. 328 (arr. Jakob Enke)
Few composers rival the reputation of Franz Schubert in string quartets, and none compare in the genre of lieder. His String Quartet in D Minor (nicknamed “Death and the Maiden” because it borrows a melody from the composer’s lied of the same name) played a pivotal role in the early development of the Goldmund Quartet, when the musicians were still teenagers. It also inspired their recent Schubert album, which presents the quartet alongside arrangements by Jakob Enke of some of Schubert’s best-loved lieder, including “Erlkönig,” heard at this evening’s concert.
One of Schubert’s most famous works, “Erlkönig” sets a poem by Goethe about a father and son on a late-night carriage ride home. The boy sees and hears the titular Erlking—an evil elf that lures children into the woods to kill them—and calls out to his father (his shout of “Mein Vater, mein Vater” becomes a refrain in the music and poem). The father sees and hears nothing, denying and ignoring the boy’s pleas. When they finally arrive home, the boy is found dead. As a vocal work, the song poses a unique artistic challenge for singers,who must bring to life four characters: the narrator, son, father, and Erlking. All the while, the piano adds additional atmospheric effects and moods.
In this arrangement, the absence of the voice throws into greater relief the storytelling elements of Schubert’s composition. As a song, “Erlkönig” walks a delicate line between a through-composed narrative ballad (where each musical section is original and depicts some element of the words) and a more traditional strophic song form (a song with verses, refrains, or choruses). The accompaniment, written for piano originally, is through-composed and tends to set the mood and inject atmospheric effects—notably the galloping horse at the beginning—while the voice follows a more conventional song form. Yet in this arrangement, that division breaks down entirely as different instruments
take turns leading the voice or piano parts: The first violin performs the narrator’s melody, and then later, the sweet, tempting voice of the Erlkönig speaking to the young boy. The second violin leads the dialogue between the father and son. This more orchestral approach to the string quartet— which Schubert helped pioneer in his own string quartets, which notably were composed after this lied—turns the revolutionary aspects of the original lied into a deeply satisfying tone poem in miniature.
JOSEPH HAYDN Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No 2
Born in a diverse region of Lower Austria, Haydn made his way to Vienna when he was in his late teens to start his career, where he worked during the day and composed at night. Although he made important connections in the imperial capital with the composer Nicola Porpora and the librettist Pietro Metastasio, his success was limited, and soon he left for a position in the court of Prince Esterházy, the richest of the Hungarian courts. From there, he famously went on to London where he found fabulous success composing symphonies and string quartets for the emerging public concert scene supported by middle- and upper-class audiences (in contrast to the nobility of the court system he formerly worked in). Finally, in 1795, when he was in his 60s, Haydn returned to Vienna as a triumphing national hero made good. By his own account, he believed he owed his fame in central Europe to his success in London.
Upon returning to Vienna, Haydn worked with the prominent social, cultural, and political figures and institutions, receiving commissions for works intended as significant, the performances of which were marketed (so to speak) as important events. It is in this period that he wrote his oratorio The Creation—which received immediate acclaim, and unlike his other vocal works, has remained consistently performed after his death—as well as his “Nelson Mass.” While composing such weighty works, he also wrote and published the six string quartets of Op. 76 and the two of Op. 77, bringing music in his “public style” developed in London to the exclusive, courtly audience of the imperial
capital. With these final two collections of string quartets, he continued to experiment with genre, allowing the works to be less controlled and more extroverted, all the while maintaining the formal clarity and lighter mood of the genre that he almost single-handedly popularized.
Characteristic of string quartets, the first movement is the most weighty, intellectual, and significant, and here Haydn features dramatic music and turbulent chromatic modulations—but he contrasts these impulses with some of his most lyrical melodies, keeping the formal proportions of the movement shorter and forward moving. In the Minuet and Trio, Haydn starts with a folk-like dance that is metrically ambiguous and harmonically stagnant (perhaps evoking a peasant drone). The Trio throws these experimental aspects of the Minuet into sharp relief by featuring smooth a triplemeter melody and guided harmonic progressions. In the slow third movement, Haydn begins in the style of an opera aria as the first violin solos in the low range against sparse accompaniment, but as the movement progresses to the development, the other instruments come into dialogue and the inner voices ultimately take over the main tune while the first violin adds ornamentation and complexity. In the final movement, the excitement and energy of the first movement returns; yet in comparison, the finale is emotionally more contained, without the dramatic harmonic modulations or impulsive interjections, remaining celebratory and enthusiastic throughout.
EDVARD GRIEG
Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 27
Only one complete string quartet by Edvard Grieg survives (his first, part of his juvenilia, is lost, and his last was never finished). But the Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27, nonetheless, has found a place in the central repertoire as an artistic triumph, a breakthrough composition for the composer, and a forward-looking work that inspired Debussy’s own G-minor quartet a decade later. The work was quite a challenge for Grieg, who struggled to compose in the genre. By this time, the string quartet had become something of the elevated, weighty genre as we know it today, carrying expectations
of sophisticated, innovative, and significant music. For Grieg, whose “genius was for lyric pieces—songs and piano miniatures—in which he drew on both folk tunes and the Romantic tradition,” according to scholars John Horton and Nils Grinde, his natural talent for beautiful melodies and rustic charm did not always lend itself easily to more erudite compositional procedures. He was forced to push himself in a new direction, striking out from his recent string of nationalistic works intended to promote Norwegian music and culture. “I have recently finished a string quartet,” he wrote to a friend. “[It] is not intended to bring trivialities to market. It strives towards breadth, soaring flight, and above all resonance for the instruments for which it is written.” While in some ways he was intentionally trying to move beyond his nationalist-school, folk-inspired idiom with the work, he found success not by abandoning his folk-music inspiration but rather harnessing it.
In his String Quartet, Grieg borrows the opening melody from his own song “Spillemænd” (“Fiddlers”). In the song, a setting of a poem by Henrik Ibsen inspired by a Norwegian folktale, the hero is drawn to a water spirit who promises to teach him to master the fiddle, which he, in turn, hopes will win over his beloved. The spirit’s promises become a Faustian bargain as ambition keeps the hero away from his beloved and he eventually discovers she has married his brother. Grieg uses the opening of the song where the hero declares, “My thoughts were with her every summerlight night” as a cyclical musical element—that is, a musical idea that recurs across different movements creating formal unity on the grandest scale possible. (The most famous example of this is Berlioz’s idée fixe in Symphonie fantastique, but by the middle of the 19th century, Liszt and Schumann, among others, were introducing cyclical elements in their works as well.) It is first heard at the very beginning of the first movement, appearing in different iterations as the movement develops. In the second movement, a slow, disguised interjection of the “Fiddlers” motive sounds two-thirds of the way through, signaling the start of the movement’s denouement. A simplified version starts the third movement, whereas an almost exact quotation begins the final movement. With this device, the String Quartet reiterates the hero’s initial promise to be steadfast only to find itself lured away into new styles as the work plays out.
Grieg’s dual ambition for both simple charm and elevated sophistication continues throughout the work. In terms of harmony, he contrasts the cosmopolitan Romantic taste for complex yet seamless harmonic progressions to distant keys with sections of almost drone-like harmonic stagnancy inspired by folk music. He also deviates, at times, from the conventions of “correct” voice-leading and counterpoint rules in favor of parallel block chords common to Norwegian folk music—a technique later called “planing” that Debussy would exploit in his search for “modern” sounds. Ultimately, the string quartet proved to be a water spirit for Grieg himself, promising to help him improve his musical techniques but requiring him to negotiate what parts of his folk-inspired style he could sustain and which parts he might have to abandon.
ARTIST BIO
Goldmund Quartet is known to feature “exquisite playing” and such “multi-layered homogeneity”(Süddeutsche Zeitung) in its interpretations of the great classical and modern works of the quartet literature. Its inwardness, unbelievably fine intonation, and phrases worked out down to the smallest detail inspire audiences worldwide.
The quartet is counted among the leading string quartets of the younger generation worldwide, which was reflected in their 2023/24 season calendar. Highlights included the quartet’s debut at prestigious festivals such as Sounds of the Dolomites, Settimane Musicali di Ascona, and Viotti Festival in Vercelli, Italy. The ensemble has recently returned to important halls, such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in a recital with pianist Fazil Say, and Tokyo Opera City as part of a tour of Japan. The quartet also traveled to the United States for a substantial tour, performing in Boston among other cities. Further return visits led the quartet to the renowned Hörtnagel series in Munich, Haus der Musik Innsbruck, and Schwetzingen Festival.
Winners of the renowned 2018 International Wigmore Hall String Competition and the 2018 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the Goldmund Quartet was selected by the European Concert Hall Organisation as Rising Stars of the 2019/20 season. Since 2019, they have been performing on Antonio Stradivari's Paganini Quartet of instruments, provided by the Nippon Music Foundation. In addition, the quartet was awarded the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Music Prize in March 2020 and the Freiherr von Waltershausen Prize in December 2020. In 2016, Goldmund Quartet was already a winner of the Bavarian Arts Promotion Prize and the Karl Klinger Prize of the ARD Competition.
Following the 2020 release on Berlin Classics of Travel Diaries—the quartet’s third album with works by Wolfgang Rihm, Ana Sokolovic, Fazil Say, and Dobrinka Tabakova—2023 marked the release of two new
important recordings. Enigma, published on Berlin Classic’s Neue Meister series as a limited vinyl release, features contemporary works by Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, and Uno Helmersson, alongside two newly commissioned pieces by Pascal Schumacher and Sophia Jani. Death and the Maiden is a recording of works by Schubert; in the quartet’s own words: “The eternal wanderer has fascinated and accompanied us since the beginning of our quartet life, his chamber music was among the first works we performed.”
Chamber music partners include Jörg Widmann, Ksenija Sidorova, Alexander Krichel, Alexey Stadler, Wies de Boevé, Nino Gvetadze, Noa Wildschut, Elisabeth Brauss, Maximilian Hornung, Frank Dupree, and Simon Höfele.
In addition to studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, the quartet has learned important musical impulses from members of Alban Berg Quartet (including Günter Pichler at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia) and Artemis Quartet master classes and studies with members of the Hagen, Borodin, Belcea, Ysaÿe and Cherubini quartets; and Ferenc Rados, Eberhard Feltz, and Alfred Brendel.
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