Tokyo String Quartet with Ettore Causa, viola
chamber music society at yale David Shifrin, artistic director february 8, 2011 music of Mendelssohn Mozart Szymanowski
Robert Blocker, Dean
february 8, 2011 · 8 pm Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
Tokyo String Quartet martin beaver, violin kikuei ikeda, violin kazuhide isomura, viola clive greensmith, cello with ettore causa, viola
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quartet in B-flat major, K. 458 1756–1791 Allegro vivace assai Menuetto and Trio. Moderato Adagio, in E-flat major Allegro assai Karol Szymanowski 1882–1937
Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 37 Moderato Vivace scherzando Lento intermission
Felix Mendelssohn 1809–1847
Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87 Allegro vivace Andante scherzando Adagio e lento Allegro molto vivace
As a courtesy to the performers and audience members, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not leave the theater during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is not permitted.
(pictured from left to right)
Clive Greensmith, cello · Kazuhide Isomura, viola Kikuei Ikeda, violin · Martin Beaver, violin
The Tokyo String Quartet has captivated audiences and critics alike since it was founded over 40 years ago. Regarded as one of the supreme chamber ensembles of the world, the Tokyo Quartet – Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda (violins), Kazuhide Isomura (viola) and Clive Greensmith (cello) – has collaborated with a remarkable array of artists and composers, built a comprehensive catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings, and established a distinguished teaching record. Performing over a hundred concerts worldwide each season, the Tokyo String Quartet has a devoted international following that includes the major capitals of the world and extends to all four corners, from Australia to Estonia to Scandinavia and the Far East.
The members of the Tokyo String Quartet have served on the faculty of the Yale School of Music as quartet-in-residence since 1976. Deeply committed to coaching young string quartets, they devote much of the summer to teaching and performing at the prestigious Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. They also conduct master classes in North America, Europe, and Asia throughout the year.
The ensemble performs on the “Paganini Quartet,” a group of renowned Stradivarius instruments named for legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who acquired and played them during the nineteenth century. The instruments have been on loan to the ensemble from the Nippon Music Foundation since 1995, Officially formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School when they were purchased from the Corcoran of Music, the quartet traces its origins to the Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Toho School of Music in Tokyo, where the founding members were profoundly influenced by Professor Hideo Saito. Soon after its formation, the quartet won First Prize at the Coleman Competition, the Munich Competition, and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. An exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon firmly established it as one of the world's leading quartets, and it has since released more than forty landmark recordings. The ensemble now records on the Harmonia Mundi label.
ettore causa viola
Italian-born violist Ettore Causa was awarded both the P. Schidlof Prize and the J. Barbirolli Prize for the most beautiful sound at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in England in 2000. He has since made solo and recital appearances in many of the major venues around the world, including Victoria Hall (Geneva), Zurich Tonhalle, Madrid National Auditorium, Barcelona Auditorium, Salle Cortot (Paris), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Tokyo Symphony Hall, Osaka Symphony Hall, and MSM Auditorium (New York). In addition, he has performed at numerous international festivals such as the Menuhin Festival (Gstaad), Festival de Estoril (Portugal), Salzburg Festival, Festival del Pontino (Italy), Tivoli Festival (Copenhagen), Festival of Perth (Australia), Prussia Cove (England), Savonlinna (Finland), Norfolk (Connecticut), and Lanaudiere (Canada). A devoted chamber musician, Mr. Causa was a member of the Aria Quartet from 2004 to 2009 and currently plays in the Poseidon Quartet. He is frequently invited to prestigious chamber music festivals, where he has performed with internationally renowned musicians such as the Tokyo String Quartet, Pascal Rogé, Boris Berman, Thomas Adès, Natalie Clein, Ana Chumachenco, Alberto and Antonio Lysy,
Thomas Demenga, Anthony Marwood, Ulf Wallin, William Bennett, and others. Mr. Causa studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy with Alberto Lysy, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and Johannes Eskar, and later at the Manhattan School of Music with Michael Tree. Upon completing his studies he was appointed first solo viola of the Carl Nielsen Philharmonic in Odense (Denmark) as well as the leader of the Copenhagen Chamber Soloists. His first recording, featuring transcriptions of romantic music for viola and piano, was released in 2006 on the Claves Record label; it garnered overwhelming success and was crowned with the 5 Diapasons. His new recording of the Brahms viola sonatas has been highly praised by critics worldwide. Mr. Causa taught both viola and chamber music for many years at the International Menuhin Music Academy, and was appointed as an associate professor of viola at the Yale School of Music in September 2009. He performs on a viola made for him by Frédéric Chaudiere in 2003.
notes on the program
wolfgang amadeus mozart Quartet in B-flat major, K. 458
movements fit the mold established by Haydn: a minuet and trio of a gentle character, a slow movement tinged with melancholy, and a The string quartet in its modern incarnation finale filled with contrapuntal discourse and descends from the many quartets of Franz virtuosic exuberance. Joseph Haydn, in particular Haydn’s Op. 20 and Op. 33 quartets. In these works, Haydn explored the musical possibilities of writing for four equal karol szymanowski voices with individual personalities. Wolfgang Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 37 Amadeus Mozart, twenty-four years Haydn’s junior, revered the older master and dedicated a The Ukrainian-born Polish composer Karol set of six quartets to him. These “Haydn” quar- Szymanowski’s compositional output in the tets were written between 1783 and 1785, with 1910s was characterized by the influence of a the “Hunt” Quartet, k. 458, falling in the middle variety of composers and musical styles. In the works written from 1911 to 1913, a strongly of the set in 1784. Germanic element can be heard, owing much to The works were played for Haydn by Mozart the late Romanticism of Richard Strauss, as and his father, Leopold, in Vienna on 15 January well as the intensely expressive chromatic and 12 February of 1785. At the latter perfor- palette of the young Arnold Schoenberg. In mance, the “Hunt” Quartet was played, along 1914, Szymanowski traveled to Sicily and North with the A major and C major quartets (k. 464 Africa, and then went north to Paris. There he and 465). Haydn was so impressed he told began to adopt more French and Russian eleLeopold Mozart, “Before God, and as an honest ments into his own music, particularly in such man, I tell you that your son is the greatest com- works as the First Violin Concerto and the poser known to me either in person or by name.” Third Symphony. Mozart’s “Haydn” Quartets are clearly descended from Haydn’s example. Contrapuntal ingenuity, an expanded use of expressive dissonances, and some of Mozart’s finest melodic writing characterize the works. The Quartet in B-flat major contains all of these features, and has long been the most popular of the set. It opens with a theme in 6/8 time that strongly suggests of hunting horns, due largely to its simple triadic character. The first and second themes are both explored in the development of the first movement, and the opening theme is treated in imitation in the extended coda. The remaining
The First Quartet dates from the end of this fertile period. Composed in 1917, the work shows the range of Szymanowski’s musical imagination, as it marries elements of both German Expressionism and French Impressionism into a distinctly personal style. The opening of the first movement is a bold gesture of exquisite loveliness, as the first violin hovers above the other three players, who enter on a C major triad. Only two chords later, the harmony moves to the remote sonority of E major. This shifting parallel harmony becomes characteristic of the slow introduction, which spins into a lyrical
gate with dotted rhythms in the first violin over a bed of measured tremolo. Soon, rapid triplet figures increase the sense of galloping forward. Mendelssohn tended to favor scherzos for his second movements, but after such a whirlwind first movement, he provides a delicate The second movement is in a similar vein, but Andante scherzando instead of the usual fleetthe chromaticism of the New German School footed romp. This leads to the noble sentiment provides a different slant to the impressionistic of the D minor slow movement, which features textures throughout. The final movement was many extended passages for the first violin originally meant to function as a second- that seem to hover over the stateliness of the movement scherzo, but Szymanowski never other instruments. completed a finale; instead, the work ends with a witty and unpredictable movement that seems to The finale, a light-hearted affair in sonata-allegro form, with several imitative contrapuntal sections, tiptoe out the door at its conclusion. was apparently unsatisfying to Mendelssohn. For this reason, he withheld the Quintet from publication during his lifetime. Mendelssohn felix mendelssohn may have intended to rework or perhaps replace Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87 this movement, but he died in the waning Felix Mendelssohn was one of the greatest musi- months of 1847. As such, it is impossible to know cal prodigies in history, surpassing even Mozart if the piece is in the condition that Mendelssohn in precociousness. The compositions written in ultimately imagined for it. It is hard to tell what his early teens show a command of harmonic so displeased the composer in this instance, as and contrapuntal technique approaching mas- the finale is full of the grace, wit, and charm that tery, and his first truly mature masterpiece, the characterize Mendelssohn’s best music. Octet for Strings in E-flat major, Op. 20, was completed when Mendelssohn was only sixteen. —Jordan Kuspa Such unbelievable achievements have often drawn focus away from Mendelssohn’s later works, but the compositions of his final years are imbued with a depth and range of feeling that show Mendelssohn to be the equal of the greatest composers of his generation. section that seamlessly accelerates into the Allegro moderato. The bulk of the movement is texturally and harmonically aligned with the kaleidoscopic sound world of the quartets of Debussy and Ravel.
Written in 1845, in a late but happy and productive part of Mendelssohn’s life, the Quintet in B-flat major brims with exuberance and good cheer. The first movement bolts out of the
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February 11 ask the sky and the earth Woolsey Hall | Fri | 7:30 pm | Free Ask the Sky and the Earth: A Cantata for the Sent-down Youth. The Yale Concert Band, with a Chinese chorus and soloists, premieres the wind band version of Tony Fok’s musical commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of China’s Cultural Revolution. Chen Yi’s Dragon Rhyme is also on the program. This program will be repeated at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 pm.
February 11–13 don giovanni Shubert Theater | Fri & Sat, 8 pm | Sun, 2 pm Yale Opera presents a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, conducted by Giuseppe Grazioli and directed by Sam Helfrich. Performed in Italian with English translations. Tickets $19–$41 • students $13, available at www.shubert.com or 203 562-5666.
February 15 boris berman & ettore causa Sprague Hall | Tue | 8 pm | Free The Faculty Artist Series presents Ettore Causa, viola, and Boris Berman, piano. Schumann: Drei Romanzen, Op. 94; Drei Phantasiestücke, Op. 73; Brahms: Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, no. 1; Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 120, no. 2.