competition winners oneppo chamber music series David Shifrin, Artistic Director May 5, 2015 • Morse Recital Hall
Robert Blocker, Dean
Oneppo Chamber Music Series
competition winners Tuesday, May 5, 2015 • 7:30 pm • Morse Recital Hall
Francis Poulenc 1899–1963
Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano, FP 43 I. Presto II. Andante III. Rondo Bixby Kennedy, clarinet Cornelia Sommer, bassoon Feng Bian, piano
Benjamin Britten 1913–1976
String Quartet No. 2 in C major, Op. 36 I. Allegro calmo, senza rigore II. Vivace III. Chacony. Sostenuto Bora Kim, violin Yena Lee, violin David Mason, viola Allan Hon, cello intermission
Henri Dutilleux 1916–2013
Les citations (1990) I. For Aldeburgh 85 II. From Janequin to Jehan Alain Timothy Gocklin, oboe Steven Gamboa-Diaz, harpsichord Samuel Suggs, bass Jeff Stern, percussion
As a courtesy to the performers and audience, please silence all electronic devices. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791
Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478 I. Allegro II. Andante III. Rondo Dae Hee Ahn, violin Hyeree Yu, viola Ji Eun Lee, cello Wenbin Jin, piano
special thanks to the coaches who worked with the ensembles: David Shifrin (Poulenc) • Nina Lee (Britten) Robert Van Sice (Dutilleux) • Ettore Causa (Mozart)
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Notes on the Program
francis poulenc Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano, FP 43 Unlike many composers, particularly those who passed through Paris, Poulenc never attended the Conservatoire. In fact, he never attended any formal institution for music training, save for some private lessons. This largely self-taught development may have something to do with his distinct musical voice as a composer. Poulenc almost always prioritized melody over harmonic or formal invention, noting at one point with some pride that he embraced composing “new music which does not mind using other peoples’ chords.” His music is often somewhat detached, akin to the ironic approach of Stravinsky, whom Poulenc revered and who helped the younger composer in having his music published and performed. His trio for oboe, bassoon, and piano, adapted here for clarinet, bassoon, and piano, was written in 1926 at the height of the young Groupe de Six’s celebrity in Paris. It dates from around the time that Stravinsky’s own neoclassicism was in full influential force. A number of composers were caught up in this multidisciplinary artistic movement that sought to do away with the weight of Romanticism – not coincidentally Germanic by association – and return to the poised, orderly, balanced, clear, and emotionally restrained style of the Classical and Baroque periods. Poulenc’s trio perfectly encapsulates the tenets of neoclassicism. The Presto first movement does not accelerate right out of the gate. Rather, the composer structures it as a baroque French Overture, beginning with a lento introduction. The dotted rhythmic lines of the wind instruments function in the same way that Lully’s oboes and solo bassoons might have at the start
of an opera overture. Poulenc simply marks the piano’s block chords with forte throughout. Mimicking a harpsichord, his keyboard at first does change its dynamic. Duo cadenzas, florid, operatic, and decorated with trills, float freely above the piano’s “continuo,” until Poulenc launches into a rapid-fire presto, interrupted in the middle by another wildly improvisatory cadenza, which then leads to a poignant lyrical duet colored with some menacing noir darkness. Just as quickly, and with his typical sense of humor and detachment, Poulenc dispenses with this gloom, returning to the ebullience of before. The graceful Andante invokes the pastoral countryside, and Poulenc’s gifts for melodic writing are fully on display. A charming tune leads to a more stormy central section in which the composer harmonizes the two wind instruments in octaves, creating a distinct, reedy sonority that pierces through the piano’s thunderous texture. Before long, we realize that the composer has moved away from the lighthearted B-flat major and into a melancholic F minor, yet he makes no attempt at returning to the major mode, thumbing his nose at our expectations. Instead, the movement spills right into a lively rondo: a gigue-like country dance with a lilting rhythm and bright character akin to many of Beethoven’s scherzos, perhaps most closely invoking the Pastoral Symphony. A neoclassical work through and through, Poulenc’s early trio demonstrates the composer’s affinity for “other peoples’ chords,” yet is simultaneously inventive, often surprising, and undeniably well-crafted. — Patrick Campbell Jankowski
Notes on the Program
benjamin britten String Quartet No. 2 in C major, Op. 36 Britten achieved international fame through his operas, which are considered the finest English operas since Purcell’s in the seventeenth century. In 1945, as Britain was honoring the 250 th anniversary of Henry Purcell’s death, Britten chose to write this string quartet in Purcell’s honor. Britten’s String Quartet No. 2 is in three movements, the first of which the British music critic and writer Hans Keller described as the composer’s “most deliberate masterpiece.” It opens with thematic material that is spacious in character. A prominent element is a large leap of a tenth, upward from the tonic to the major third an octave higher. Against this, Britten utilizes a few short melodic fragments using more exotic intervals, which lend a sound both modern and ancient. A vigorous rhythm soon propels the music forward, and the movement develops as a dramatic narrative with a climax in which all of the themes are richly combined. The range of dynamics, textures, and sonorities is vast, as Britten exploits intricate polyphony as well as robust unisons with seemingly orchestral force. The middle movement is a scherzo with an unsettling freneticism that one associates more with Shostakovich, a friend and composer whom Britten greatly admired. Here the music ranges from unisons to delicate contrapuntal textures. The trio section features the first violin boldly playing in loud double-stops over the subdued accompaniment of the other three instruments. The bulk of the quartet is found in the third movement, which lasts approximately 18 minutes. The music critic and historian
James Keller suggests that one can find a miniature four-movement quartet within the Chacony. In this movement one finds Britten’s tribute to Purcell: “Chacony” is Purcell’s term for chaconne. The chaconne, a form that Purcell had mastered, is a set of variations based on a short, recurring harmonic progression over a repeated bass line. Britten’s Chacony comprises 21 variations divided into four sets, which are delineated by solo cadenzas in the cello, viola, and first violin, respectively. Britten’s own program notes for the premiere explained that each of the four sets explores a particular mode of variation: harmonic, rhythmic, melodic, and “formal aspects.” The last variation features 21 C major chords that serve as a drone against which the original theme’s harmonic motion becomes particularly pronounced. – Michael Noble henri dutilleux Les citations (1990) Dutilleux referred to his Les Citations as a diptych. Like a two-part panel of paintings, the two movements complement one another, yet each tells its own very distinct part of a larger story: that of memory. The work was begun in 1985, and was written as a 75 th birthday present to Peter Pears, the lifelong partner and muse of composer Benjamin Britten. He initially called it Aldeburgh 85, after the site of the music festival that Britten and Pears established in the English coastal town in 1948. His later revision, in the composer’s words, came from his desire to “expand it, as well as add a double bass to the three other instruments in order to give more density to this small ensemble rather
Notes on the Program
lacking in ‘true’ basses.” A fragmentary quotation from Britten’s most famous opera, Peter Grimes, makes its way into the first part of the set, which seems suitable for a variety of reasons: Grimes was set in a Suffolk coastal town not unlike Alderburgh, and Pears had originated the title role in 1945. For Aldeburgh 85 begins with a haunting soliloquy in the oboe, which starts simply and grows in complexity, yet returns to its point of origin. Even in its instrumentation, this work straddles epochs: the oboe and harpsichord so synonymous with the Baroque, and the double bass and percussion — in their starring role within chamber music — so rooted in the twentieth century. Dutilleux’s handling of each instrument is far from typical, however: the double bass frequently ventures into its upper register, the harpsichord often punctuates the texture with bone-dry, percussive cluster chords, and the oboe mimics the crass sounds of a boat whistle, invoking the nautical world of Peter Grimes. While revisiting and expanding the work in 1990, Dutilleux was haunted by the memory of the composer and virtuoso organist Jehan Alain (1911–1940), who died tragically fifty years prior while defending France from invading Nazi forces at Saumur. Alain’s own Theme varie supplies the motivic material for the second part of the diptych. This theme was in fact itself derived from the early Renaissance French composer Janequin (ca. 1485–1558). In this sense, Dutilleux’s second part functions as a tribute to a tribute, and links together three generations of French artists. The second part begins with an elaborate flourish in the harpsichord that may have been inspired by Alain’s brilliant and adventurous improvisations at the organ. The double bass, in its
ghostly high register, introduces the theme, and it sounds at first like a phantom echo from centuries past. Later in the work, non-pitched percussion creates a rhythmic drive that the other instruments at times pull against, creating tension. The instruments realign in octaves, descending through fourths and tritones to the low register. From these depths, the chant-like theme re-emerges before Dutilleux disassembles it in imitation. The toll of chimes introduces a bright new section, and the work ends in a burst of white light, as the oboe ascends to the heights of its register, while a cymbal adds a lustrous sheen to the glow. It is difficult to say whether Pears’s own death in 1986 had directly influenced Dutilleux as he readapted the work, but rather than concluding in darkness, Dutilleux casts a bright halo around his two-part tribute: not a mournful tombeau, but a hopeful memorialization. — Patrick Campbell Jankowski wolfgang amadeus mozart Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478 Rarely can the origins of a musical archetype be ascribed with certainty to a specific date or attributed to a single composer. Such creation is generally blurred by numerous components that encouraged its formation, or by various changes that seem inevitable to its course of development. With the piano quartet, however, we can pinpoint a specific time of creation. On October 16, 1785, in response to a commission from Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Mozart essentially produced a new form of chamber music with his Piano Quartet in G minor. In the few quartets with piano
Notes on the Program
and strings that preceded this composition, the piano either acted as a soloist accompanied by strings or had a continuo role. Mozart’s ensemble displays a new balanced partnership and independence. Much chamber music of the time aimed to provide what non-professionals wanted to play (which became what publishers wanted to publish). Tellingly, the technique demanded of the players of this quartet exceeded the demands normally placed on amateurs. Hoffmeister allowed Mozart to retain his advance payment for the work, provided he did not complete the original order for several additional pieces. Nevertheless, Mozart composed another piano quartet the following June. For contemporary players, the difficulty of this quartet may lie as much in the character of the music as in its technical demands. Its G minor key is often associated with Mozart’s most personal and dramatic statements, and this work is no exception. The work opens with a passionate theme played by all instruments in unison. A serious and often melancholy mood recurs throughout the movement and is not totally dispersed in the Andante that follows. Here, after commencing with a cantabile melody by the solo piano, a series of falling scales is introduced as a motif moving through all instruments. The finale, a rondo in G major, at last brightens the mood with a carefree melody. However, the movement is not without its own dramatic moments, most notably a surprising harmonic shift in the coda. – Scott Switzer
upcoming events Lunchtime Chamber Music may 6 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 12:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Music for a variety of chamber ensembles Wendy Sharp, director Free Admission
Guitar Chamber Music may 6 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Music by Assad, de Falla, Tedesco, Tower, and more. Benjamin Verdery, director
Brentano String Quartet may 13 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm Oneppo Chamber Music Series Haydn: String Quartet No. 36, Op. 50, No. 1 MacMillan: String Quartet No. 3 (2007) Brahms: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 67 Tickets start at $26 • Students $13
Commencement Concert may 17 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Featuring student performers selected from the Yale School of Music’s class of 2015 Free Admission
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