THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
Housewright
Virtuoso
Guest Artists
Arianna String Quartet
John McGrosso, Violin
Jane Price, Violin
Joanna Mendoza, Viola
Kurt Baldwin, Cello
Thursday, October 10, 2024
7:30 p.m. | Opperman Music Hall
Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4
PROGRAM
Franz Joseph Haydn
Allegro di molto (1732–1809)
Un poco adagio e affetuoso
Allegretto alla zingarese
Presto scherzando
Quartet No. 3, H. 183 (1929)
Bohuslav Martinů
Allegro (1890–1959)
Andante
Vivo
Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2
INTERMISSION
Ludwig van Beethoven
Allegro (1770–1827)
Molto Adagio. Si tratta questo pezzo con molto di sentimento
Allegretto
Finale. Presto
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Hailed for their outstanding musicianship, the Arianna String Quartet has established itself as one of America’s finest chamber ensembles. Their performances have been praised for “tonal warmth, fastidious balance and expressive vitality” (Chicago Tribune) and “emotional commitment and fluent virtuosity,” (Pretoria News, South Africa). Formed in 1992, the ASQ garnered national attention by winning the Grand Prize in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, First Prize in both the Coleman and Carmel Chamber Music Competitions, and were Laureates in the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition.
The Arianna Quartet has appeared throughout North America, in South America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. They have collaborated with many of the world’s most celebrated musicians, including members of the Vermeer, Tokyo, Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets, and their live performances have been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and “Live from Music Mountain”, which broadcasts to 125 stations in the U.S. and to 35 countries. The ASQ has recorded for Albany Records and Urtext Digital Classics, and extensively with Centaur Records. In addition to their critically acclaimed recording of the two string quartets of Janácek (“These performances of the Arianna String Quartet demonstrate how technical excellence, in alliance with imagination and the human heart, can come to create something truly transcendent.” –Fanfare), the ASQ has also recently completed their recordings of the Complete String Quartets of Beethoven (“I can’t stop listening to these performances. They thrill me, enthrall me, and arouse emotional responses in me of an intensity that can’t be described.” –Fanfare).
The members of the Arianna String Quartet serve on the faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis as professors of violin, viola, and cello. On the UMSL campus, the Arianna Quartet presents their own concert series, and also enriches the academic experience of students outside of the Music Department by visiting classes in
physics, business, history, philosophy, art, and language to actively demonstrate the interdisciplinary connections between music and these seemingly disparate disciplines. The ASQ also presents an interdisciplinary performance and lecture series “First Mondays with the ASQ”, at KWMU, St. Louis Public Radio. The Arianna Quartet were recipients of the 2022 University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Collaborative Research and Creativity.
For over ten years, the Arianna Quartet has directed the Intensive Quartet Program at the Festival of Music in Santa Catarina, Brazil, working with young professional quartets from throughout South America. In addition to returning to Brazil again this year, 2024-25 also includes concerts and residencies throughout the United States, returns to Madeline Island Chamber Music (WI), the Music Mountain Concert Series (CT), the Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival (IA), and performances at the Jazz and Classics Music Festival in Juneau, as well as concerts in Anchorage and at the Sitka Music Festival (AK).
The Arianna String Quartet also hosts their own summer chamber music festival in St. Louis each June featuring young quartets and students from the US and abroad. More information about the Arianna Chamber Music Festival can be found at ariannacmf.org
For more information, please visit ariannaquartet.com.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4
Haydn’s place in the history of western music is unparalleled, as he is known not only as the “father of the symphony”, but also as the principal innovator of the string quartet. He was the most famous living composer in 1760, and by 1790 he had achieved near hero status throughout Europe. In the genre of the string quartet, no composer in history comes close to his level of productivity. Due to his innovations of style, form, and expression, Haydn’s 68 string quartets are timeless gems that inspired the work of both Mozart and Beethoven, and helped to usher in the expressive styles of the 19th and 20th century’s greatest composers.
The set of six Op. 20 “Sun” quartets, nicknamed for the picture of the rising sun that appeared on an early edition, were written in 1772, when Haydn was 40 years old and was living and working as the Kapellmeister at the palace of Prince Esterhazy. The composition of the Op. 20s, in particular, represents one of the most important moments in the history of western classical music because Haydn establishes a new benchmark for the art and craft of quartet writing. Throughout the six quartets, Haydn’s augmentation of expressive elements (his creation of equality of voices, expanded and asymmetrical phase lengths, development and perfection of sonata form, refinement of counterpoint, and enhanced depth of expression) generates a new kind of expressive potential for the string quartet, and lays the groundwork for the work of composers for the next 150 years.
The triple meter sonata form first movement of Op. 20, No. 4 is sublime and simple, as Haydn presents a hymn-like opening theme shared by all four instruments of the quartet. The steady pulsation of the opening music gives the music a sense of grounded stability and earthy expressiveness. Virtuosic arpeggios played by the first violin dash the solemnity of the opening music, and then get tossed in conversation between the instruments of the quartet, creating a rush of unforeseen ebullience. Lilting duo pairings between the two violins, and then viola and cello, offer moments of warmth and charm, and serve to offset the surrounding textures. In the development, Haydn
guides the music through unexpected harmonic shifts, and punctuates the texture with sudden accents. The arrival at the recapitulation is handled deftly, as Haydn, after disguising the arrival with several false attempts, delivers the return of the now familiar music of the opening, glistening with sunny optimism. The movement ends as it began, in pianissimo, and with simple rhythmic quarter notes.
The second movement is an entrancing set of theme and variations, in which Haydn seemingly combines qualities of baroque, classical and romantic writing (an incredible feat considering the classical style was still evolving and the romantic era hadn’t occurred yet). The first violin presents the movement’s ravishing yet plaintive primary theme, an operatic sounding melody in D minor. The first variation features a concertante-like dialogue between the second violin and viola, with the first violin and cello providing orchestral underpinning. The second variation is led by vocal meanderings of the cello, and in a way, forecasts the future of the cello as a valid solo instrument. The third variation is taken up by the first violin playing rolling and varied arpeggiations that give the music a light brilliance while preserving the poignant mood that the movement has established.
The incredibly brief (90 seconds!) third movement, marked Allegretto alla zingarese, is one of the first places we find Haydn’s interest in the gypsy folk idioms of Eastern Europe revealed. Haydn would go on to feature this style of music much more in his later compositions, as he was drawn to the unabashed energy, rhythmic complexity, and unusual modes. In this movement, Haydn juxtaposes cross rhythms between the violins and the lower two voices that all but obliterate the listener’s ability to feel a downbeat. The simplistic trio, a little march played by the cello, acts as a clarifying agent before the da capo of the menuetto. Enjoy the ride!
The last movement continues the gypsy style of the third movement, using unusual chromatic melodies, unexpected intervallic leaps, and a virtuosic style of writing for the first violin that must have been inspired by the great gypsyfolk fiddle players Haydn admired. The music is intoxicatingly exuberant, and at times, seemingly mock serious, almost comedic. The first violin led romp is interrupted briefly a couple of times by unexpected moments of silence, but enthusiastically resumes the torrent of notes before the movement fades to a close.
Martinů: String Quartet No. 3
Born in the small town of Polička, not far from the Moravian border, the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů began his life in music as a violinist. After a brief stint as a student at the Prague Conservatory at the age of 16, where he was expelled for “incorrigible negligence”, Martinů remained in Prague for the next ten years to study on his own and to compose. From 1920-23 Martinů became a member of the Czech Philharmonic (as a violinist) under the esteemed conductor, Václav Talich, who would remain a mentor and life-long advocate of Martinů and his work.
Martinů’s appetite for new sounds and avant-garde experimentation inspired him to move to Paris in 1923 to study with Albert Roussel, where he would remain until the Nazi occupation in 1940. With this move to Paris, Martinů looked to break away from the trending Czech romantic style in Prague, and instead looked to forge an altogether new path for himself. In Paris, he was steeped in concerts of the neoclassicist work of composers that included Poulenc, Milhaud, and Honegger (members of a group known as “Les Six”), the ripple effect of the impressionist movement, the revolutionary new style of Stravinsky, and the explosive evolution of jazz. These powerful influences, along with Martinů’s experience with Eastern European folk music, became the blended source for his material for the next seventeen years.
Martinů’s third string quartet (of seven) was composed in 1929 in Paris, and captures the eclectic combination of elements that were swirling in and around Paris, and through Martinů’s sensational creative imagination. The piece is a miniature (only about 13 minutes), almost a snapshot, where flavors, gestures and moods change quickly and precisely.
The influence of jazz is heard from the outset, as a lightly percussive ostinato in the cello and viola (featuring strummed chords and tapping of the stick of the bow) and trilling in the second violin lay down a groove for a chattering line in the first violin. The music quickly gathers energy and direction as the jagged elements in the four instruments coalesce and drive to a unified outburst. The combination of split melodic lines, syncopation and cross-rhythms, and trills and pizzicato give the music a feeling of twittering unpredictability that is mesmerizing. The Czech folk influence is also readily heard, with irrepressible dance rhythms infusing the texture with a sense of strength and confidence that offsets the uncertainty of the opening.
The second movement is a bluesy lament that features a soulful viola solo that is colored by dark chords in the other instruments of the quartet. Each statement by the viola becomes more heated and animated, and as the movement progresses, the music gathers strength, culminating in statement led by the first violin. A closing utterance by the cello brings the movement to a hushed end, with a surprisingly stable resolution in C Major.
The virtuosic finale sounds a bit like a macabre dance, with the four instruments of the quartet working both as a single unified entity, and independently of one another. The music is wild and unrelenting, with driving separate notes, overlapping smooth scalar lines and chordal punctuations permeating the texture. A slower center section with a limping dance gives way to a lyrical statement in the cello that eventually finds its way back to the music of the opening, and ultimately a superheated coda that drives the quartet to its decisive final chords.
Beethoven: Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2
Count Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna, commissioned the three quartets of Op. 59. His only request of Beethoven was that Russian folk tunes be used in the quartets in some capacity. The Op. 59 set was completed in 1806, after the “Eroica” Symphony of 1803, and immediately following the “Waldstein” and “Appassionata” Piano Sonatas. In the three-year period of 1803-06, Beethoven had mastered the genres of symphony, sonata, concerto, opera and quartet with the completion of his fourth piano concerto, Piano Sonata in F, Op. 54, the Triple Concerto, 3 Leonore Overtures, and his opera, Fidelio.
With the publication of the Op. 59 quartets, Beethoven moved the genre of the string quartet out of the small “chamber” setting and onto a larger stage. Each of the Op. 59 quartets stands as a substantial individual work, both in terms of literal size and dramatic range.
The Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2 is a work wrought with tension and emotional depth, and one has the sense that this is “big music” from the outset. Beethoven’s symphonic approach to the use of the instruments of the quartet creates a canvas that feels emotionally limitless.
The pathos-laden first movement opens with two declamatory chords covering the interval of a fifth. Following a bar of silence, the first violin and cello introduce the first motivic figure. This opening motive quivers with quiet energy, full of dramatic promise. The unique opening phrase structure of 3 bars+3 bars+4 bars (including bars of silence) helps to create a sense of spaciousness and of uncertainty. The concise sonata form first movement
bustles with energy, and eventually finds its way to sure-footed emotional ground. The arrival of the second theme brings a sense of relief, but as with many of Beethoven’s most dramatic works, it doesn’t last long. A rising tide of syncopation, shared by the quartet, ushers back the tolling chords from the opening. Spurred by accents and rhythmic energy, the movement covers a huge emotional range. Relatively simple melodic material is countered by a harmonic complexity that to this point had not been explored in the writing of quartets. Beethoven moves the quartet through a myriad of harmonic sequences in the development, heightening the listener’s sense of ebbing emotions and never allowing us to settle comfortably on one central key. The movement closes with a forte statement of the melodic motive that opened the movement, and then fades to a close.
According to Beethoven’s friend and student Carl Czerny, “the Adagio in E Major occurred to him when contemplating the starry sky and thinking of the music of the spheres.” To help us grasp the transporting beauty of this music, Beethoven clearly marks in the score that “this piece is to be played with great feeling.” An opening eight-bar hymn conjures a “heavenly” feeling, and immediately contrasts the feelings left in the wake of the first movement. The texture is dappled with triplets, dotted rhythms, and the ever-present hymn, giving us a feeling expansiveness and intimacy. The hymn appears one final time in the coda of the movement in fortissimo, with strong sforzandii pushing us toward the conclusion of the movement.
The E minor Allegretto offers us a landscape of simplicity and clarity after the Adagio. The simple tune is accompanied with a sparse rhythm, keeping the texture uncluttered. At the trio, marked Maggiore, Beethoven finally introduces the six-bar folk tune, “Theme Russe”, in an unexpected fugue. The unique feature of this movement, besides its emotional effect within the scope of the whole quartet, is Beethoven’s double repetition of the allegretto and trio sections. The movement unfolds as follows: allegretto-trio-allegretto-trio-allegretto.
The presto Finale begins in C major, although the key signature denotes E minor. The symphonic physicality of this music is punctuated by driving rhythm and the energy of the running melodic lines. The return to the rondo theme is achieved through a playful passing of the first three notes of the melody between all four instruments. The closing prestissimo brings the piece to its impassioned final chords.