Ariel Quartet - Beethoven Cycle, Final Concert

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Chamber /Israel

Program

ArtPower presents

Ariel Quartet

April 1, 2022 at 8 pm Dept. of Music's Conrad Prebys Concert Hall Alexandra Kazovsky, violin Gershon Gerchikov, violin Jan Grüning, viola Amit Even-Tov, cello

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) String Quartet in C Minor, Opus 18, No. 4 Allegro ma non tanto Scherzo: Andante scherzoso quasi Allegretto Menuetto: Allegretto Allegro String Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 74 “Harp” Poco adagio; Allegro Adagio, ma non troppo Presto Allegretto con Variazioni INTERMISSION String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132 Assai sostenuto; Allegro Allegro ma non tanto Molto adagio; Andante Alla marcia, assai vivace Allegro appassionato

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Sponsors: Eric Lasley and Judith Bachner Student Engagement Sponsor: Jennifer Dennis Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation Chamber Music

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About the Program String Quartet in C Minor, Opus 18, No. 4 Ludwig Van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770, Bonn Died March 26, 1827, Vienna Brahms may have been haunted by the Beethoven symphonies, but Beethoven had a few ghosts of his own to confront. He was all too aware of what Haydn and Mozart had achieved with the string quartet, and—while still a young man—he copied out movements of their quartets as a way of studying them. It was not until 1798, when he was in his late twenties, that Beethoven finally came to grips with the problems of the form and began writing the group of six quartets that he would eventually publish as his Opus 18. He worked on this set of quartets through the fall of 1798 and completed them the next year; after much revision, he published the six quartets in 1801, certainly conscious that Haydn and Mozart had often published their quartets in groups of six.

But Beethoven’s first set of quartets is not simply an imitation of the work of those earlier masters, and in these first quartets we see the young composer sometimes experimenting with the form and edging toward a voice distinctly his own. Of the six quartets of Opus 18, only the fourth is in a minor key. By itself, this is not remarkable, but what is noteworthy here is Beethoven’s choice of C minor, the key he already reserved for his stormiest music. From this same period came his “Pathetique” Sonata, also in C minor, and that piano sonata and the first movement of the string quartet are driven by the same spirit (it may be worth noting that Mozart wrote no quartets in C minor, and of Haydn’s 83 quartets, only one is in that key). Beethoven’s first movement, marked Allegro non tanto, is full of dark and surging energy, and its second theme—far from providing relief—takes some of the shape and character of the opening subject. The development, punctuated by chords that feel almost orchestral in texture, is dominated by that turbulent opening theme.

If the other three movements do not match the character of the opening, they show some distinctive features of their own. In Haydn and Mozart’s quartets, the second movement was usually slow, but Beethoven drops the slow movement from this quartet altogether and substitutes a scherzo, a bubbling and good-spirited movement full of fugal and canonic writing. The third movement is nominally in minuet-and-trio form, but its pace and animated character more readily suggest another scherzo. Beethoven catches the listener off-guard by placing accents off the beat throughout the minuet; the trio section is based on exchanges between the lower voices as, high overhead, the first violin accompanies with chains of triplets. The last movement, marked simply Allegro, is the expected rondo, built here on a quick-paced opening theme. Along the way come more lyric interludes, and the second violin’s busy accompaniment to one of these near the end is among the quartet’s most felicitous moments. Beethoven rounds the movement off with a Prestissimo coda based on the rondo tune.

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String Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 74 “Harp” Beethoven’s middle-period quartets proved difficult for audiences from the very beginning. The exception is the lovely Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 74, long nicknamed the “Harp.” In contrast to the other middle quartets, this one is full of graceful music executed with consummate technical skill. No battles are fought and won here–instead one savors the calm pleasures of what is perhaps Beethoven’s most relaxed string quartet.

Yet this music was composed during a difficult time for Beethoven, the year 1809. That year, French armies under Napoleon bombarded and occupied Vienna, forcing most of the city’s nobility and many of Beethoven’s friends to flee (the composer himself hid in his brother’s basement during the bombardment with a pillow held tightly around his head). And it was during the French occupation that Beethoven’s old teacher Haydn died. Anguished, Beethoven wrote to his publishers: “We are enjoying a little peace after violent destruction, after suffering every hardship that one could conceivably endure. I worked for a few weeks in success, but it seemed to me more for death than for immortality.” Beethoven’s music from 1809, however, shows little trace of his anxieties: from early in that year came the noble “Emperor” Concerto, and after completing the quartet (probably in September 1809) Beethoven set to work on the incidental music to Goethe’s Egmont.

The first movement of the quartet opens with a slow introduction whose chromaticism creates an uncertain tonality; from this tonal blur, the main theme of the Allegro establishes the unequivocal key of E-flat major.Very quickly come the pizzicatos that have earned this quartet the (not particularly appropriate) nickname “Harp.” The development is quite active, and the recapitulation features a near-virtuoso first violin part that goes swirling across all four strings before the movement’s vigorous close. The Adagio ma non troppo can be described simply—this is lovely music. It is built on one of Beethoven’s most attractive lyric ideas, which develops across three repetitions, each elaborated differently. Throughout, Beethoven constantly reminds all four performers: cantabile and espressivo.

By contrast, the Presto bristles with energy. It bears a strong resemblance to the scherzo movement of the Fifth Symphony, composed two years earlier: both are in C minor, both are built on the same characteristic rhythm, and both feature fugal writing in the trio section. Yet where the third movement of the symphony builds through a huge crescendo to a triumphant finale, Beethoven winds this movement in the quartet down very carefully, and the finale that follows seems intentionally anti-climactic. It is a variation movement consisting of an almost innocent theme, six variations, and a coda; the odd-numbered variations tend to be vigorous and fast, the even-numbered lyric and gentle. The sixth variation gives way to a coda that extends the theme and leads to a wonderful—and very appropriate—conclusion: a great rush of sixteenth-notes powers the coda fortissimo to the very close where instead of hammering out a cadence, Beethoven concludes with two tiny and gentle chords. It is a conclusion brilliant in its understatement.

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String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132 Russian Prince Nikolas Galitzin commissioned three string quartets from Beethoven in the fall of 1822 and in the process set in motion the final phase of the composer’s creative life. Beethoven completed the first (Opus 127) in the winter of 1825 and began the Quartet in A Minor, but in April 1825—while composing this music—Beethoven became so ill with an intestinal disorder that his doctor put him on a strict diet and suggested a move to the country. Only gradually did the composer resume his strength, moving to the resort town of Baden where he completed the quartet that July; it was first performed in September.

Each of the late quartets has a unique structure, and the structure of the Quartet in A Minor is one of the most striking of all. Its five movements form an arch. At the center is a stunning slow movement that lasts nearly half the length of the entire quartet. The powerful outer movements evolve out of classical forms (sonata-form and rondo), while the even-numbered movements, lighter in mood, also show some relation to earlier forms (minuet and march). This is a massive quartet—it lasts three-quarters of an hour—but the effect is of a powerful and expressive unity.

The opening movement is in a kind of sonata form, but this is the sonata form that Beethoven had evolved late in his career. Long gone is the clear structural progression of the Haydn-Mozart opening movement; instead Beethoven builds this movement around the contrast of two distinctly different themes. His marking for the movement—Assai sostenuto; Allegro—makes plain the contrast between themes at different tempos, and at the opening Beethoven alternates two principal themes: a slow cantus firmus opening and a steady march-like melody announced by the first violin.

The second movement, in ABA form, conforms outwardly to the classical minuet and trio.

The opening of this movement bears a strong resemblance to the opening of the second movement of Mozart’s Quartet in A Major, K.464: both make use of a rising unison answered by a dancing figure in the first violin. Beethoven treats this theme canonically, drawing a great deal from these limited means. The trio section brings a drone: the first violinist not only plays the theme high on the E-string but accompanies the melody with the open A. The third movement (Molto adagio) has a remarkable heading: in the score Beethoven titles it “Hymn of Thanksgiving to the Godhead from an Invalid in the Lydian Mode,” a clear reflection of the serious illness he had just come through and of his gratitude for his recovery. This is a variation movement, and Beethoven lays out a long, slow opening section, full of heartfelt music. But suddenly the music switches to D major and leaps ahead brightly; Beethoven marks this section “Feeling New Strength.” These two sections alternate through this movement (the form is ABABA), and the opening section is so varied on each reappearance that it seems to take on an entirely different character each time: each section is distinct, and each is moving in its own way (Beethoven marks the third “With the greatest feeling”). This movement has seemed to some listeners the greatest music Beethoven ever wrote, and perhaps the problem of all who try to write about this music is precisely that it cannot be described in words and should be experienced simply as music.

After such a movement, some relief is necessary, and Beethoven provides an energetic little march, much in the manner of Haydn. But this suddenly breaks off, and the first violin soars into a recitative that leads directly into the last movement. There is a close kinship between this recitative and the recitative that launches the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, completed the year before. This connection is strengthened when one learns that Beethoven had originally intended to use the finale of this quartet as the last movement of the Ninth Symphony when that symphony was still planned as an all-instrumental composition. The finale of the quartet, a buoyant rondo, seems full of the same mood of transcendence and triumph that marks the Ninth Symphony, and Beethoven rounds off this most remarkable quartet with a Presto coda that drives this music to the ringing, final A-major chords.

—Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Notes from Ariel Quartet Ludwig van Beethoven’s string quartet oeuvre arguably belongs to the pinnacle of the numerous important works written for the supreme discipline of chamber music, and we are excited to have been presented the opportunity to perform this canon in its entirety here at UC San Diego for ArtPower.

Music history views Beethoven’s work as subdivided into three creative periods: early, middle and late. Each of these periods has its own peculiarities and characteristic features, so it seemed natural to include a work of each in every one of our concerts: it was our intention to provide our listeners with the possibility to develop a personal sense for each stage of the composer’s output.

The only representatives of his early compositional style, Beethoven’s set of op. 18 quartets was composed relatively late in the composer’s life: aged around 28, after having made a name for himself predominantly as a spectacular, one-of-a-kind improviser and composer for piano works, Beethoven finally dedicated himself to the string quartet.

Deeply rooted in the classical tradition of his forefathers Haydn and Mozart, the set of six quartets is brimming with their influence, all the while displaying Beethoven’s distinctive compositional language, humor and vigor. Op. 18/4 stands out as the only one conceived in a minor key signature, custom for any set of six quartets written in the 18th century. Cast in C minor, generally regarded a fitting choice for particularly turbulent works, such as Mozart’s twenty-fourth piano concerto or his Great Mass in C minor, we experience Beethoven ‘in his most extrovert form, where he seems to be most impatient of any compromise’ (Charles Rosen). The absence of a slow, Adagio-style movement and a ravishing coda in major hint at Beethoven’s love for surprises early on, and the turbulence seems to be over as quickly and as suddenly as it began. Representing the middle period in this program is Op. 74, a formidable example for this musical chapter’s qualities: expanded in length, gravitating around the slow movement—typically the emotional ‘heart’ of the work—and featuring that distinctive heroic flavor we have come to inseparably associate with Beethoven’s persona. A slow introduction obscures the true DNA of the piece, which reveals itself before long in the most life-affirming, positive spirit imaginable. Those of our listeners familiar with the aforementioned significance of key signatures will immediately recognize the positively human qualities E-flat major awards the music; inevitably, the immortal quote from the composer himself comes to Chamber Music

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mind: "I shall seize Fate by its throat; it shall not bend or crush me completely."

Together with Op. 127 and Op. 130, Op. 132 belongs to a trilogy of works dedicated to Beethoven’s important supporter and friend, Count Nikolai Galitzin. The works share a common musical motif consisting of the second tetrachord of the harmonic minor scale; in Op. 132, this motif appears right at the opening of the slow introduction to the first movement in the cello part and remains a vital part of this work’s musical DNA. Just as in Op. 74, the slow movement is the most extensive part of the piece and constitutes the emotional epicenter of the whole work. Conceived after a long and serious illness Beethoven at times doubted he would survive, it bears the meaningfully spiritual title ‘Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart’ (‘A cpnvalescent’s holy song of thanksgiving to the Deity, in the Lydian mode’).

About the Artists Distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned, fiery performances, the Ariel Quartet has garnered critical praise worldwide over the span of nearly two decades. Formed when the members were only just teenagers studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel, the Ariel—celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2020–21—was named a recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, granted by Chamber Music America in recognition of artistic achievement and career support. The ensemble serves as the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where they direct the chamber-music program and present a concert series in addition to maintaining a busy touring schedule in the United States and abroad.

During the 2019–20 season, the Ariel Quartet will perform in New York, San Antonio, and La Jolla, where they will continue their multi-season Beethoven cycle. The Quartet will spend a week each at the Northwest Bach Festival in Spokane and at the Sitka Music Festival in Alaska, and will close out the season with a performance at the National Gallery of Art with Alexander Fiterstein, with whom they also premiered a major new work by Christopher Theofanidis at the Manchester Music Festival in the summer of 2019. Other recent engagements include concerts for Calgary Pro Musica, at the Mannes School of Music in New York, for Music Toronto, and at the Shriver Hall Concert Series at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. At the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati the Ariel gave the U.S. premiere of the Quintet for Piano and Strings by Daniil Trifonov, with the composer as pianist.

The ensemble has dedicated much of its artistic energy and musical prowess to the groundbreaking Beethoven quartets, and has performed the complete Beethoven cycle on five occasions throughout the United States and Europe. The Quartet has written a powerful and comprehensive series of program notes on the sixteen quartets, open to the public on their website. The Ariel Quartet regularly collaborates with today’s eminent and rising young musicians and ensembles, including pianist Orion Weiss, violist Roger Tapping, cellist Paul Katz, and the American, Pacifica, and Jerusalem String Quartets.

The Quartet has toured with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and performed frequently with pianists Jeremy Denk and Menahem Pressler. In addition, the Ariel served as Quartet-inResidence for the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program, as well as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in8

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Residence at the Caramoor Festival.

Formerly the resident ensemble of the Professional String Quartet Training Program at the New England Conservatory, from which the players obtained their undergraduate and graduate degrees, the Ariel was mentored extensively by acclaimed string quartet giants Walter Levin and Paul Katz.

It has won numerous international prizes in addition to the Cleveland Quartet Award: Grand Prize at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Székely Prize for the performance of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and Third Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. About its performances at the Banff competition, the American Record Guide described the group as “a consummate ensemble gifted with utter musicality and remarkable interpretive power” and noted, in particular, their playing of Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, as “the pinnacle of the competition.”

The Ariel Quartet has received significant support for its studies in the United States from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, Dov and Rachel Gottesman, and the Legacy Heritage Fund. Most recently, they were awarded a grant from the A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation.

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