VCHpresents Chamber: Remembering Schubert

REMEMBERING SCHUBERT 30 Apr Winterreise and Rosamunde 1 May Music for Piano and Strings 15 May Death and the Maiden VICTORIA CONCERT HALL

Schubert

30 APRIL 2022: REMEMBERING SCHUBERT I – WINTERREISE AND ROSAMUNDE PROGRAMME SCHUBERT String Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 471

11 mins

Foo Say Ming, violin Gu Bing Jie, viola Wang Yan, cello

SCHUBERT Selections from Winterreise for Baritone and String Quartet

22 mins

Martin Ng, baritone Foo Say Ming, violin Cindy Lee, violin Gu Bing Jie, viola Wang Yan, cello

SCHUBERT String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde”

35 mins

Xu Jueyi, violin Chikako Sasaki, violin Manchin Zhang, viola Guo Hao, cello

CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hr 15 mins (with no intermission)

PROGRAMME NOTES FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828) String Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 471 I. Allegro II. Andante sostenuto In 1815, Schubert turned 18 and had recently quit his day job of being a schoolteacher, one he loathed, and moved in with his good friend Schober in the autumn. Much like the students who enrol in a university and move into dorm life with other young people, away from a stifling and crowded home environment, Schubert’s mood improved with the newfound freedom. The result was a flurry of inspiration and new compositions, starting that September, including the String Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 471. The string trio (violin, viola, and violoncello) is, by necessity, a tighter and leaner genre than the more popular string quartet, and some scholars have thought that these restrictions may have caused Schubert to stop composing after he had finished the first movement and 39 bars of the slow second movement.

Was the 18-year-old Schubert channelling Mozart and Haydn in this work? It certainly does seem possible, as the work is suffused with the winking grace and sparkle of Viennese Classicism. The complete first movement is an Allegro in Classical sonata form, with both the first and second themes being passed back and forth, with much smiling wit.

Selections from Winterreise for Baritone and String Quartet I. Gute Nacht II. Erstarrung III. Der Lindenbaum IV. Frühlingstraum V. Der Leiermann Winterreise (Winter Journey) was Schubert’s second song-cycle on poems by the German poet Wilhelm Müller, the first being Die schöne Müllerin. Winterreise was published in 1828, shortly after his death at the age of 31 – indeed, he was correcting the proofs up to a few days he passed – and consists of 24 haunting songs, mostly in minor keys. The period of its composition saw Schubert in a depressed and deeply melancholic state, for he was dying of syphilis and considered his life’s winter to have arrived. Schubert described the work as ‘truly terrible, songs which have affected me more than any others’, and he takes the listener on a gloomy walk, with texts from Müller telling the story of a lonely traveller walking in the snow to try and forget a lost love, with all the attendant emotions and turmoil that emerge along the way.

Gute Nacht (Good Night) sets the scene, with unrequited love at the foreground. The singer writes ‘good night’ on the gate of his lover, for his thoughts are still with her, despite the fact that he is the one leaving.

Erstarrung (Numbness) speaks of his heart as frozen, for his love is not just missing, but dead and gone, and a few bars of a major key bring us back to happier times past. Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree) builds on these memories – how happy and safe they felt dreaming while lying under the branches of the Linden tree.

In Frühlingstraum (Dream of Spring), he dreams of brightly coloured flowers and green fields, of happy springs before heartbreak, but he is awakened to reality where he is surrounded by cold, dark, loneliness.

Die Leiermann (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man) has the piano give a languishing repetitive melody and an open fifth chord, imitating the dronelike sound of a hurdy-gurdy. Despair is here in abundance, and the singer’s mine is almost gone, driven to distraction and near-madness.

String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde” I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Andante III. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio IV. Allegro moderato In March 1824, Schubert considered himself ‘the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world’ – a melancholic mood pervades his work of the period, and this may have been the result of initial stages of the syphilis showing itself. Despite the disease entering a latent stage, he was depressive and fearful of the disease, self-medicating with nicotine and excessive alcoholism. The normally mild-mannered Schubert became a different man when tipsy - vulgar, abusive, and physically destructive, and his tendency to smash glassware and crockery while drunk ensured he was less than welcome in homes, restaurants, and bars.

Composed in 1824, four years before his untimely death, the “Rosamunde” quartet contains pre-existing material taken from the incidental music (what we might now call the ‘soundtrack’) Schubert recently wrote for the eponymous stage play. All the movements begin pianissimo, unusual for string quartets. The first movement is intense, wistful, but with a sense of urgency – Schubert yearns amidst despair and quotes a melancholic theme from one of his early songs. The Andante starts with a theme from the play, gentle and delicate, but Schubert flavours it with tension and even a moment of anguish. In place of the usual scherzo, we find a Menuetto that begins hesitantly, only growing into itself, like a duckling learning to walk. The Trio finally shows the kinder, gentler side of Schubert – there is light at the end of the dark tunnel! This hopeful mood carries into the finale with its countrydance feel, but Schubert, ever the artist, sprinkles his magic by varying the textures and subtle modulations, and taking us into Magyar territory with ‘Hungarian’ grace-notes that add an exotic touch.

Notes by Edward C. Yong

1 MAY 2022: REMEMBERING SCHUBERT II – MUSIC FOR PIANO AND STRINGS PROGRAMME SCHUBERT Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F major for Piano Quartet, D. 487

15 mins

Hai-Won Kwok, violin Marietta Ku, viola Song Woon Teng, cello Timothy Ku, piano

SCHUBERT Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 898

40 mins

Ye Lin, violin Li-Wei Qin, cello Albert Tiu, piano

CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hr 10 mins (with no intermission)

PROGRAMME NOTES FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828) Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F major for Piano Quartet, D. 487 I. Adagio II. Rondo: Allegro vivace In 1816, the nineteen-year-old Schubert was living with his friend Schober and enjoying his new-found freedom away from home. Intense composing activity was his daily routine, and while manuscripts and copies circulated among his circle, most of this work was not published during his lifetime. In this period, he experimented with genres he had not hitherto explored – the Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F major for Piano Quartet, D. 487 was one such work, his first for piano and ensemble, but this home cook was never content following a recipe book.

In two movements played without a break between, the work is almost a miniature piano concerto, given the amount of solo exposure the piano receives, displaying his trademark lyricism and skill at crafting melodies – classic early Schubert, ‘before life got to him’ as one might say. The Adagio is but an amuse-bouche, as it builds tension with fanfares and chords, hinting at excitement to come. The real entrée comes with the Rondo, fast and furious, but never losing the Mozartean poise and elegance of the young Schubert at his best. Rather than alternating themes and weaving between them, Schubert divides them into a series of contrasting themes that each receive a brief development.

Unusual for sure, and the young Schubert shows us he knew about deconstructed gastronomy long before we did.

Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 898 I. Allegro moderato II. Andante un poco mosso III. Scherzo. Allegro IV. Rondo. Allegro vivace On his 30th birthday in January 1827, Schubert could hardly have known he was only a year away from death.

Vienna was in love with Beethoven and Rossini, while Schubert was considered not quite in their league, as most of his output was light and chamber music, as far as the public was aware – just a ‘song and dance’ man. Schubert knew the only way he could achieve recognition as a ‘serious’ composer was to produce a long-form instrumental work.

Beethoven’s death in March that year left a vacancy in Vienna’s pantheon, and Schubert saw a chance to step into shoes filled by one of his heroes – Schubert was a great fan of Beethoven and literally carried a torch at the funeral procession. His fragile health and knowledge that his latent syphilis could emerge to kill him at any time could have discouraged him but knowing he did not have much time left to make his mark seems to have driven him to an unparalleled surge of creativity. That last year saw a flood of instrumental works including three late piano sonatas, two piano trios, a string quartet, and the start of a tenth symphony.

The Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major was not published until nearly a decade later, in 1836, and is one of Schubert’s ‘bright’ works (as opposed to ‘dark’). Elegant luminosity marks all four of the movements. The first movement, about a quarter of an hour, is grand and expansive, never losing its sense of forward movement even as we stroll through remoter keys. The violoncello presents the principal melody in the slow movement, in E-flat major, taken up by the violin and piano. Gently inward looking, the expressive mood is interrupted by darker clouds in the middle section, but serenity returns soon enough. The Scherzo is notably more angular and playful, with its swaying dance rhythms and close imitations. Schubert reminds us we are in Vienna during the trio, bringing us a ländler, the Austrian folk dance that birthed the waltz. The final Rondo turns the dance into a chase, with the violin leading, and variations of the themes are smoothly woven into developments that the movement flows without a break. With this work, Schubert established himself as a ‘serious’ composer, but without ever giving up the melodiousness of ‘song and dance’.

Notes by Edward C. Yong

15 MAY 2022: REMEMBERING SCHUBERT III – DEATH AND THE MAIDEN PROGRAMME SCHUBERT String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden”

36 mins

Zhang Si Jing, violin Marietta Ku, violin Janice Tsai, viola Yu Jing, cello

R. STRAUSS Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13

37 mins

Ye Lin, violin Manchin Zhang, viola Jamshid Saydikarimov, cello Albert Tiu, piano

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

PROGRAMME NOTES FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828) String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden” I. Allegro II. Andante con moto III. Scherzo: Allegro molto IV. Presto During his happier younger days, Schubert in 1817 wrote a lied ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ (Death and the Maiden) D. 531, a setting of the eponymous poem by Matthias Claudius. The TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) version of the poem is basically: Death: ‘Come with me!’

Maiden: ‘Nuhhhh!’

That sums up Schubert’s life in 1824 when this quartet was written – on top of his longstanding depression, the past two years had been disastrous for his finances and health, and he had spent time in the hospital due to his tertiary stage syphilis. Did he see himself in the maiden pleading with Death? Amazingly, he continued to churn out the light melodies that cemented his reputation as a ‘song and dance’ man, but all those dark emotions and inner struggles needed an outlet, and Schubert found this in the string quartet form.

The first movement with its terrifying opening clearly depicts the conversation between a stern, forbidding Death and a fearful, trembling maiden. It is the second movement, a set of theme and variations on Schubert’s earlier lied, that is the heart of the work. In the song, Death says ‘Give me your hand, you lovely, tender creature. I am a friend and come not to punish.

Be of good courage, I am not cruel; you shall sleep softly in my arms’, displaying the ambiguity of death in Schubert’s mind, both a terror and a consolation. The Scherzo restores the intensity and power of the idea of death, building tension by stabbing offbeat accents, until the trio arrives to present soft blissful repose, but the stabbing Scherzo comes back – life is a joke that dashes our dreams on the rocks. In the final Presto movement, Death has taken the maiden onto his skeletal steed and they ride through the night sky in a tarantella dance, ironically originally thought to be a medicine against fatal spider bites.

As abruptly as Death arrived, he disappears leaving us with only the final stark chords.

RICHARD STRAUSS (1864 – 1949) Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13 I. Allegro II. Scherzo: Presto III. Andante IV. Finale: Vivace Richard Strauss’ Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13, was composed when he was 21 and first performed at Weimar on 8 December 1885 by the Halír Quartet with Strauss himself on the piano. If early Schubert shows the strong influence of Mozart and Haydn, early Richard Strauss shows that of Brahms, and how could it have been otherwise, for Brahms was then at the height of his powers and the young Strauss idolized him. Nevertheless, the work is not a pastiche, for the grandeur and seriousness of Brahms’ style is married to Strauss’ drive and fire.

Starting slowly and softly, Strauss surprises us when the music explodes with energy. In this first movement, Strauss contrasts tranquil passages with agitated ones, sprinkling the dark intensity with drama and movement.

Unusually, a Scherzo follows, flowing without respite, as if doing an endless slalom down a ski slope with no end in sight. Calm comes in the Andante, full of rich melodies, tender textures, and fading afternoon sun. The work concludes with a fiery Vivace that returns us to the dramatic sharp edges of the first movement. Jagged ensemble rhythms struggle with the expressive violoncello’s calm second theme, and the development consists of this interaction between the two themes, before ending definitely in C-minor.

Considered by some as more ‘Brahmsian than Brahms’, in some ways, this work was a graduation snapshot of Richard Strauss, for it was soon after that he chose an independent path to find his own voice, establishing himself as a great composer in his own right.

Notes by Edward C. 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

SUPPORTED BY

PATRON SPONSOR