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B'S
YORK
THE NOSSEK
STRING QUARTET
Thursday, 12 January 1995
Programme: 50p
Presented by the British Music Society of York
in association with the Department of Music
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Advance ticket sales
NOTICE BOARD
Throughout the 1994/1995 season single tickets for the next concert will
be available at the Members Desk in the foyer during the interval. This
follows a successful try-out at the end of last season. Tonight tickets
will be available for the concert by Igor Oistrakh and Nataliya Zertslova
on Friday 17 February.
Next Season
The 1995/1996 season will be the 75th of the British Music Society of
York, and by way of celebration we have commissioned a new work which
will receive its world premiere at our concert. Some of the details can be
seen after the Forthcoming Concerts section towards the end of this
programme.
Your views
The BMS is a society run for the benefit of its members by a committee
elected from those members. If there is something you think we should be
doing, or should not be doing, don't keep it to yourself; please tell a
committee member. They should all be wearing their badges and they do
want to hear from you.
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BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY of YORK
74th Season
Thursday, 12 January 1995
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
THE NOSSEK STRING QUARTET
Jane Nossek & Kate Evans violins
Ileather Wallington viola
Jennifer Langridge cello
Quartet in B flat major, K.458 (Hunt)
Quartet No.1 (The Kreutzer Sonata)
Quartet in A minor, D.804
INTERVAL
Mozart
For the sake of others in the audience,
please turn off all alarms on watches, calculators etc.
before the concert starts,
and use a handkerchief when coughing.
Janáček
Schubert
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THE NOSSEK STRING
The Nossek String Quartet was formed in 1988 by four fellow students at
the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. The Quartet has had
regular coaching from Dr. Christopher Rowland, as well as masterclasses
with the Vermeer Quartet, the Franz Schubert Quartet of Vienna and
Alexander Baillie. While at College they won three major quartet prizes
and were prizewinners in the 1991 intercollegiate Beethoven Prize. Over
the last four years they have played throughout Britain, toured the
Channel Islands and appeared in France and Italy.
QUARTET
PROGRAMME NOTES
Quartet in B flat, K.458 (Ilunt)
Allegro vivace assai
Menuetto: Moderato
Adagio
Allegro assai
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
(1756 - 1791)
Joseph Haydn is generally credited with making the string quartet the
powerful musical medium into which so many subsequent composers poured
their best, most intimate, most hard-won music. When his Op.33 Quartets
appeared in 1781, Haydn's preface explained how they had been composed
"in a new and special manner": here, essentially, was music for four equal
partners, music to be taken seriously by composer, performers and
audience alike.
The radical new departure was not lost on Mozart, who composed his
first example of the new type of quartet at the end of 1782, the G major,
K.387. Over the next couple of years, five others were to follow: the B
flat major, K.458, was the fourth in order of composition. Alan Tyson's
researches into the paper and inks used by Mozart suggest that Mozart
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began the first movement at the time of the second and third quartets of
the set (K.421 and K.428) in the spring or summer of 1783: he put it
aside, only taking it up again and completing it in the latter part of 1784.
He entered it under the date 9 November 1784 in his running catalogue of
his main compositions (the Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke) where it is in
heady company:
1784
30 Sept.
14 Oct.
9 Nov.
11 Dec.
1785
10 Jan.
14 Jan.
A Piano Concerto [B flat, K.456]
A Sonata for piano solo [C minor, K.457]
A Quartet [the present work]
A Piano Concerto [F major, K.459]
A Quartet [A major, K.464]
A Quartet [C major, K.465]
10 Feb. A Piano Concerto [D minor, K.466]
The six Quartets were published in September 1785 by Artaria of Vienna
as Mozart's "Op.X" [that is Op.10]. The set was dedicated to Haydn with
a florid Italian dedication which, despite a lengthy and laboured metaphor,
deserves quotation in full for its patent sincerity alone:
To my dear friend Haydn.
A father who had decided to send out his sons into the great world,
thought it his duty to entrust them to the protection and the
guidance of a man who was very celebrated at the time and who,
moreover, happened to be his best friend.
In like manner I send my six sons to you, most celebrated and very
dear friend. They are, indeed, the fruit of a long and laborious
study; but the hope which many friends have given me that this toil
will be in some degree rewarded, encourages me and flatters me
with the thought that these children may one day prove a source of
consolation to me.
During your last stay in this capital you yourself, my very dear
friend, expressed to me your approval of these compositions. Your
good opinion encourages me to offer them to you and leads me to
hope that you will not consider them wholly unworthy of your
favour. Please then receive them kindly and be to them a father,
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guide and friend! From this moment I surrender to you all my
rights over them. I entreat you, however, to be indulgent to those
faults which may have escaped a father's partial eye, and, in spite
of them, to continue your generous friendship towards one who so
highly appreciates it. Meanwhile I remain with all my heart, dearest
friend, your most sincere friend
Vienna, 1 September 1785.
Haydn heard some of the Quartets at a concert at the Domgasse in Vienna
on 15 January 1785. Not long after, ozart's father Leopold visited
Wolfgang in Vienna and was able to write to his daughter (Wolfgang's
sister Nannerl):
W. A. MOZART
On Saturday evening [12 February] Herr Joseph Haydn and the two
Barons Tinti came to see us and the new quartets were performed,
or rather, the three new ones [including K.458] which Wolfgang has
added to the other three which we have already. The new ones are
somewhat easier, but at the same time excellent compositions.
Haydn said to me: "Before God and as an honest man I tell you that
your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or
by name. He has taste and, what is more, the most profound
knowledge of composition."
The day before the meeting described there by Leopold Mozart, Haydn had
joined the masonic lodge Zur wahren Eintracht in Vienna: Wolfgang Mozart
had missed the ceremony as he was giving the first performance of the D
minor Piano Concerto, K.466.
The B flat Quartet, K.458, is known as the Hunt, because of the way the
opening music resembles the calls of hunting horns. The infectious jollity
of this first movement belies the effort this Quartet, in common with all
the Haydn set, cost Mozart: we know for instance that he made at least
one earlier attempt at the minuet movement and abandoned at least two
other finales before hitting on the present one.
As with most of Mozart's quartets up to this time, the Minuet is placed
second. Unusually, both the elegant minuet and its more playful trio are
in the same key, B flat. The E flat slow movement is one of Mozart's
comparatively rare adagios: it is the opposite emotional pole to the flighty
opening movement - warm, centred, secure, though with passages of
extraordinary luminosity.
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The finale could only have been written by a man with Mozart's love of
puns and practical jokes. He was writing for an elite audience of his
friends, peers and the cognoscenti of the musical world, and he was
determined to give them something he knew they'd enjoy.
Quartet No.1 (The Kreutzer Sonata)
Adagio
Con moto
Con moto
Con moto
Leoš Janáček
(1854 1928)
-
[initial tempo markings only]
Leoš Janáček was one of music's late developers, the exact opposite of
prodigies like Mozart and Mendelssohn. His early music belongs to the
world of Dvořák and Smetana; he did not find his mature, startlingly
individual voice until the turn of the century, when he was already 47,
and his finest music is concentrated in the last ten years of his life, an
Indian summer virtually without parallel in musical history. (While many
other composers had remarkable Indian summers, none contained so great a
proportion of its composer's greatest works.)
There were three main reasons for this late flowering: the formation of
the Czechoslovak state in 1918; the successful staging of Janáček's opera
Jenůfa in Prague; and the composer's passionate but apparently unconsum-
mated love for a young married woman called Kamila Stösslová whom he
met in 1917 and to whom he wrote over 600 letters.
The state of Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 when the map of Europe
was redrawn in the aftermath of the Great War. The crumbling Austro-
Hungarian Empire was dismantled, and the industrialised North and North
East made into a new state. Its three main constituents were: Bohemia in
the West, with its chief city of Prague; Moravia in the middle with its
chief city of Brno; and Slovakia in the East, its chief city being Brati--
slava. Janáček was Moravian, and an eastern-looking nationalist, which
explains his excitement at the new independent state and also his leanings
towards Russian and Slavonic literature.
The First String Quartet was composed between 30 October and 7
November 1923 in Brno. It was dedicated to the Bohemian Quartet, whose
leader was the violinist and composer Josef Suk (1874-1935), and who
gave the work its first performance in Prague on 14 October 1924. The
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Bohemian Quartet's performance, however, was somewhat idiosyncratic,
even to the extent of changes to the musical text, which were in fact
incorporated into the original edition of the piece. Janáček, though, went
on refining the Quartet, making many changes during a series of rehearsals
with the Moravian Quartet in the autumn of 1924: only in the 1970s was
the score shorn of its Suk revisions and amended as Janáček wished.
The Quartet is known as the Kreutzer Sonata, but it is only indirectly
connected with the Beethoven Violin Sonata (which Igor Oistrakh will be
playing us next month). The Quartet was inspired by Tolstoy's novella of
that name: Janáčck's autograph titlepage bears the words Z podnetu L.N.
Tolstého "Kreutzerovy sonáty" [= inspired by L.N. Tolstoy's Kreutzer
Sonata]. Lev Tolstoy wrote his novella in 1891, over 20 years after
completing War and Peace and 14 years after finishing Anna Karenina.
The book makes bleak reading. It takes the form of an Ancient Mariner-
style confession, made by one Pozdnyshchev to the author on a long
railway journey. The first two thirds of the book is an impassioned,
searing, jaundiced and, ultimately, depressing analysis of all that was
rotten with conventional marriage among the late 19th-century Russian
middle class the hypocrisy, double standards, lying, self-deceptions,
romantic myths, delusions, misery and hatred.
The remaining third of the book accelerates towards inevitable tragedy.
Pozdnyshchev's wife Lisa, having borne a clutch of children, begins to
practise the latest fashionable form of birth control. She regains her
beauty and her figure, and begins to spend more time playing the piano.
Pozdnyshchev's jealousy is aroused, even before the appearance of
Trukhachevsky, a friend of his youth who studied the violin in Paris. (For
simplicity I will henceforth refer to Pozdnyshchev as "the husband" and
Trukhachevsky as "the violinist".) The violinist begins to visit to play
music with the wife, their efforts culminating in a musical soirée at which
they perform Beethoven's notoriously difficult Kreutzer Sonata.
(If I
remember, I will quote Tolstoy's description of the music in the notes for
Igor Oistrakh's recital next month.)
Their association is meant to cease with this final performance, but the
husband, away on business, is alarmed to find from one of his wife's
letters that the violinist has been calling again. The husband returns
early and sees the violinist's overcoat in the hall. He arms himself with a
knife and bursts in on them as they are (innocently) discussing music.
The violinist escapes, but in a insane jealous rage the husband stabs his
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)
J
0
(
wife fatally.
As his operatic output shows, Janáček has enormous sympathy for women
as the victim of male aggression, and so he was naturally drawn to
Tolstoy's novella. Indeed, he had worked on a piano trio inspired by it in
1908 and 1909. The trio went through two versions that we know of, but
is now lost, presumed destroyed. From a letter of 1924 we know that
"The Quartet derives from some of the ideas in the earlier work", but how
much will probably never be established.
The Quartet is in four movements, none of which keeps a single tempo for
more than a few bars, though each mostly alternates two speeds. No one
movement, then, has a consistent character, though the second and third
are the closest the Quartet comes to a scherzo and slow movement.
Janáček does include a musical quote from the Beethoven, though it is not
easy to spot, given the change in character: at the opening of the third
movement he quotes the second subject of Beethoven's first movement,
disguising it by perversely altering the very first note.
INTERVAL
Coffee and drinks are available in the foyer. Coffee is 50p a cup: to find
it, go past the bar on to the landing and turn to the left.
Tickets for the next BMS concert (for details, see Forthcoming Concerts
at the end of this book) are now on sale at the Members Desk. This can
be found in the foyer at the opposite end to the bar, to your left as you
leave the auditorium.
If you are interested in becoming a Patron or Benefactor of the BMS, or
have any queries about the Society, come and see us at the Members Desk.
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Quartet in A minor, D.804
Allegro ma non troppo
Andante
Minuet: Allegretto
Allegretto moderato
1823 was not a good year for Schubert. It saw the final death of his
operatic ambitions, his long cherished wish to make his mark in this
richest and most gaudy of musical arenas. The year before, his Alfonso
und Estrella had been completed and rejected. Now he laboured over yet
another full length opera, Fierabras, where some of his finest music was
wasted on a historical farrago ridiculous enough to keep any music off the
stage. It too was rejected. In October he accepted a commission to
provide the incidental music to the drama Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus,
by Helmina von Chézy. This did at least reach the stage, that December,
but lasted exactly two performances, despite some of Schubert's most
attractive music.
Franz Schubert
(1797 - 1828)
More seriously, Schubert was very ill in 1823, with the syphilis he had
contracted late in the previous year. He even spent some time in the
Vienna General Infirmary, where the first songs of the cycle Die schöne
Müllerin were composed. Fortunately, his symptoms abated; his general
health improved and he was able to complete the song cycle that
November. But, of course, at this time the condition was incurable:
Schubert might thereafter suffer only occasional bouts of ill health and
the odd mood swing, but the disease was all the time insidiously at work
attacking his central nervous system and five years later was to claim his
life.
At the beginning of 1824 Schubert turned his back on the stage and struck
out in a new direction
chamber music, a genre he hadn't touched for
over three years. The painter Moritz von Schwind gives us a glimpse of
him in a letter of 14 February 1824 to another of Schubert's close circle
of friends:
wwwww
He looks much better and is very bright, very comically hungry and
writes quartets and German dances and variations without number.
The "quartets" were the present A minor (D.804, Feb. Mar.) and the D
minor (D.810, Mar.), more popularly known as the Death and the maiden.
The Variations must mean the remarkable virtuoso Introduction and
-
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Variations for flute and piano (D.802, Jan.) based on one of the songs
from the Schöne Müllerin cycle. Alongside these, indeed exactly contem-
porary with the A minor Quartet, Schubert wrote his celebrated Octet
(D.803, Feb.
1 Mar.).
In all, Schubert wrote 20 or more string quartets. Only three and a bit
can be considered mature works: the remainder were composed before 1817
for family consumption Schubert himself on the viola, his father on cello
and two brothers on violins. The mature quartets are altogether different
works, both in the scale, depth and significance of the music and in the
demands made on the performers. The A minor and D minor Quartets of
Feb. Mar. 1824 were meant for a set of three, but the remaining work
was never composed. The A minor was published later the same year as
Op.29 No.1
presumably the others were meant to follow as Nos.2 & 3.
The remaining completed quartet was the G major, D.887, of June 1826.
[The "bit" was the so-called Quartettsatz, D.703, the complete first
movement of a C minor string quartet, which Schubert then abandoned
after writing only a fragment of another movement.]
-
The impulse to write the 1824 quartets came from the violinist Ignaz
Schuppanzigh, whose group gave the first performance of the A minor
Quartet in the Vienna Musikverein on 14 March 1824 and to whom the
published edition was dedicated. Schuppanzigh was the player who had
been associated with Beethoven since the Op.18 Quartets, and who had
assembled and led the "finest string quartet in Europe" for Count
Razumovsky between 1808 and 1814 (when the Razumovsky palace burned
down). From 1816 to 1823 Schuppanzigh was in St Petersburg, and it was
his return to Vienna that prompted Schubert's quartets and almost
certainly Beethoven's late quartets, beginning with Op.127 in E flat (1823-
4).
Schubert's A minor Quartet opens with an Allegro ma non troppo whose
predominant mood is one of restlessness. The second movement is based
on a celebrated theme borrowed from an entr'acte out of the Rosamunde
music (Schubert was to use the theme again much later in the B flat
Impromptu for piano, D.935 No.3, of December 1827). This borrowing of
themes was a feature of Schubert's music of this time: of the works
composed in the first three months of 1824 two others do the same - the
Flute and Piano Variations and the D minor String Quartet, which gets its
nickname from the Schubert song on which its slow movement is based-
Der Tod und das Mädchen [= Death and the maiden]. In the A minor
Quartet Schubert makes a further quotation: the haunting opening of the
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Minuet is taken from a song of November 1819 to a text from Schiller's
Die Götter Griechenlands [= the gods of Greece]. The consistently
cheerful finale is based on a dance rhythm.
Programme notes by David Mather
Floral decorations by Sue Bedford.
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FORTHCOMING
CONCERTS
The remining concerts in the 74th Season of the British Music Society,
presented in association with the Department of Music at the University,
are as follows. They take place in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall,
beginning at 8.00 pm.
8 Friday, 17 February 1995
IGOR OISTRAKH (violin)
NATALIYA ZERTSLOVA (piano)
Violin Sonata No.1 in B minor, BWV 1014
Violin Sonata No.9 in A major, Op.47 (Kreutzer)
Chaconne in D minor
2 Caprices from Op.1
Fantasy on Gounod's Faust
§ Thursday, 16 March 1995
Bach
Beethoven
Bach (arr. Schumann)
Paganini (arr.Schumann)
Wieniawski
LARS VOGT (piano)
Piano Sonata in G major, Hob.XVI:40
Ballade No.2 in B minor, S.171
Piano Sonata
Piano Sonata in F minor, Op.5
Haydn
Liszt
Komarova
Brahms
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Also in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at 8.00:
§ Wednesday, 18 January 1995
BIRMINGHAM CONTEMPORARY MUSIC GROUP/
TRESTLE THEATRE COMPANY
Programme includes Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale
Wednesday, 25 January 1995
CHARLES ROSEN (piano)
Sonatas by Haydn, Mozart and Schubert
BMS 75th SEASON
1995/6 sees the 75th season of the British Music Society of York, and to
celebrate this anniversary, we have commissioned a new work for oboe and
strings from a young composer who has strong connections with the
Society, Dr Christopher Fox. His new work will be the centrepiece of a
concert given for us by the brilliant oboist Nicholas Daniel with the
Brindisi Quartet on Friday, 16 February 1996.
One of the highlights of the season will be the appearance of the London
Fortepiano Trio on 14 December 1995. As the name suggests, they are a
period-instrument group, with repertory centred on the trios of Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Their playing, which has "ravished" our
Hon. Programme Secretaries, can also be heard on their many recordings
on the Hyperion label.
More Mozart, though on conventional instruments, is included in a recital
by Erich Gruenberg (violin) and Anthony Goldstone (piano) on 24 November
1995.
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BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY of YORK
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY
President
Dr Francis Jackson
Vice-Presidents
Joan Whitworth
Jim Briggs
Rosalind Richards
Chairman: Barbara Fox
Vice-chairman: Derek Sutton
Hon. Treasurer: Albert Ainsworth
Hon. Asst. Treasurer: John Petrie
Hon. Secretary: Nigel Dick
Hon. Publicity Secretary: Stephanie Kershaw
Hon. Programme Secretary: Brian & Rosalind Richards
Dr Richard Crossley
NFMS Representative:
Hon. Auditor: Derek Winterbottom
Members of the Committee: Andrew Carter, Amanda Crawley, Lesley &
David Mather
BENEFACTORS AND PATRONS
The BMS manages to maintain the high standard of its concerts largely
Without their
through the generosity of its Benefactors and patrons.
covenanted gifts to the Society, we could not hope to balance our books.
Our Benefactors(§) and Patrons are as follows:
Mr A. Ainsworth§
Mrs P. J. Armour
Mr R. A. Bellingham
Mr & Mrs J. Briggs&
Mrs M. Danby-Smiths
Mr C. G. M. Gardner
Mr G. Hutchinson
Mrs E. S. Johnsons
Mrs F. Andrews
Dr D. M. Bearparks
Mr & Mrs D. A. C. Blunt
Dr R. J. S. Crossley
Mr N. J. Dicks
Mr A. D. Hitchcocks
Dr F. A. Jackson
Mr J. C. Josling
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If
Professor R. Lawton
Mr P. W. Millers
Mr G. C. Morcoms
Mr L. W. Robinsons
Mrs I. G. Sargent
Mr & Mrs N. Sexton
Dr G.A.C. Summers§
Mr O. S. Tomlinsons
Mr J. I. Watson
Mr R. Wilkinsons
Mrs H. B. Wright
you
would like to become a Benefactor or Patron, or have any queries,
recommendations, criticisms or even praise, please come and see us at the
Members Desk and make your feelings known.
Mr R. P. Lorriman§
Mrs A. M. Morcom§
Mr B. Richards§
Mrs D. G. Roebuck
Mr J. B. Schofield§
Mrs D.C. Summers§
Mr D. A. Sutton
Dr M. J. Turners
Miss L. J. Whitworth§
Mr & Mrs A. Wright
In addition to the generosity of our Benefactors and Patrons, the activities
of the BMS are supported by grants from Yorkshire and Humberside Arts.
The Society also gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Royal Bank
of Scotland.
***
Yorkshire & Humberside
ARTS
Registered Charity No.700302
NATIONAL FEDERATION
OF MUSIC SOCIETIES
NEMS
BORTHWICK
*SMS S/2/3 (1)
OF
INSTITUTE
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
Compiled by David Mather and published by the British Music Society
of York. Reproduced by Wright Design of Easingwold.
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BAS
YORK
IGOR OISTRAKH
NATALIYA ZERTSALOVA
(violin and piano)
Friday, 17 February 1995
Programme: 50p
Presented by the British Music Society of York
in association with the Department of Music
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NOTICE BOARD
Advance ticket sales
Throughout the 1994/1995 season single tickets for the next concert will
be available at the Members Desk in the foyer during the interval. This
follows a successful try-out at the end of last season. Tonight tickets
will be available for our last concert of the season, given by Lars Vogt on
16 March.
NMFS Diamond Jubilee
The National Federation of Music Societies was founded to supply central
help, support and represention to local music clubs of all kinds - choirs,
orchestras, concert-giving groups like the BMS and so on. The NFMS has
particularly strong links with York: it was founded here on 23 February
1935 and for many years our own Raymond Fox served on its committees,
both as regional then as national chairman.
The NFMS is holding a diamond jubilee celebration in York next Thursday
23 February 1995, 60 years to the day since the founding. There will be
a special evensong at the Minster at 5.00 pm, featuring music by members
of the Society's founding committee, and later that evening (7.30 pm)
there will be a celebrity recital in the Chapel of the University College of
Ripon and York, St John, the proceeds from which will go to the NFMS's
Raymond Fox Bursary. More details of the concert are given towards the
end of this programme book, under Forthcoming Concerts.
Your views
The BMS is a society run for the benefit of its members by a committee
elected from those members. If there is something you think we should be
doing, or should not be doing, don't keep it to yourself; please tell a
committee member. They should all be wearing their badges and they do
want to hear from you.
Viol
Viol
Cha
20
Fan
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IS
ts
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S
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2
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BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY of YORK
74th Season
Friday, 17 February 1995
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
IGOR OISTRAKH (violin)
NATALIYA ZERTSALOVA (piano)
Violin Sonata in E minor, K.304
Violin Sonata in A major, Op.47 (Kreutzer)
Chaconne in D minor
2 Caprices from Op.1
INTERVAL
Bach
Paganini
Fantaisie brillante on themes from Gounod's Faust
Mozart
Beethoven
(arr. Schumann)
(arr. Schumann)
before the concert starts,
and use a handkerchief when coughing.
For the sake of others in the audience,
please turn off all alarms on watches, calculators etc.
Wieniawski
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IGOR OISTRAKH
NATALIYA ZERTSALOVA
A international celebrity such as Igor Oistrakh scarcely needs any
introduction here. The son of the great David Oistrakh, he was born in
Odessa in 1931. He was taught by his father and also attended the
Central Music School and Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated
in 1955. In violin and piano recitals he is partnered by his wife, Nataliya
Zertsalova.
PROGRAMME NOTES
Violin Sonata in E minor, K.304
Allegro
Tempo di Menuetto
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
(1756 - 1791)
One of the most widely known incidents in Mozart's short life was the
occasion (8 June 1781) when he was dismissed from the service of the
Archbishop of Salzburg, being literally kicked out of the room by the
Oberküchenmeister Count Arco. But this was not the first time he had
engineered his own dismissal from the Archbishop's employ. In the
summer of 1777 Mozart was chafing at his servitude in Salzburg and in a
petition full of thinly-veiled insolence asked to be released so he could
make another foreign tour. In retaliation the Archbishop released both
father and son from their contracts, but evidently Leopold could not
afford to make the trip and quickly got himself reinstated. Instead young
Wolfgang set out, chaperoned by his mother, to make what money he could
and, if at all possible, find a suitable position.
They left Salzburg on 23 September 1777 in their own chaise, making for
Munich where they stayed over a fortnight. But there was no job for
Mozart there, either, and they travelled on to Augsburg, where they
stayed with relatives for another fortnight. (Mozart discovered a kindred
spirit in a young girl cousin, who for a while was to receive from him a
barrage of his most lavatorial and obscene letters.) Eventually, on 30
Octo
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October, Mozart and his mother arrived in Mannheim, an important musical
centre with a legendary orchestra. Again, there was no post here for
Mozart, but he stayed several months, picking up work as he could,
getting to know the principal musicians and falling in love with a 16-year-
old singer called Aloysia Weber. (Another man was to claim Aloysia, but
Mozart married her younger sister Constanza, on 4 August 1782.)
Back in Salzburg, Leopold was getting frantic at Wolfgang's waste of time.
He urged and bullied his son on to Paris. Wolfgang and his mother left
Mannheim on 14 March 1778 and arrived in Paris just over a week later.
It was not the success the family had hoped for: Paris was polarised
between two musical camps into neither of which Mozart fitted, and to
make matters worse Frau Mozart succumbed to fever, dying on 3 July.
By August Leopold had renegotiated a better position for his son at
Salzburg and was urging him to return. Wolfgang set out from Paris at
the end of September, dawdled away (to his father's extreme vexation)
another month in Mannheim, but arrived back in January 1779, in time to
petition the Archbishop formally for the new post.
One of the jobs Mozart accepted over the winter of 1777-8 was to write
concertos and quartets for a Dutch amateur flautist. Amid the distractions
of Mannheim he found the work uncongenial. "Besides," he wrote to his
father on 14 February 1778:
you know I become quite powerless whenever I have to write for an
instrument I can't stand. So as a diversion I compose something
else, such as duets for clavier and violin, or I work at my mass.
Now I am settling down seriously to the clavier duets, as I want to
have them engraved.
These "duets for clavier and violin" are the six Violin Sonatas, K.301-
306. Mozart had finished four of them by the time he left Mannheim.
The E minor Sonata, K.304, was begun in Mannheim and finished in Paris,
while the sparkling D major, K.306, was written in Paris that summer. (A
seventh sonata, the C major, K.296, was composed at this time the
autograph is dated 11 March 1778 - but it was written for, and given to, a
pupil, the stepdaughter of the Privy Councillor in whose house he lived
during his stay in Mannheim: the Sonata was eventually published in 1781
as part of another set of six.)
It took Mozart some time to find an engraver who would print the Sonatas
cheaply enough, but eventually he succeeded. Although promised for the
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end of September, the printed copies were in fact only ready in the last
few days of the year. In time for Mozart, returning via Munich, to
present a copy to the dedicatee, the Palatinate Electress Maria Elisabeth.
Mozart clearly considered these Sonatas and their 1781 counterparts as
music for domestic consumption by amateurs, rather than for the concert
hall, and they are consequently unpretentious and (relatively) undemanding.
The E minor Sonata is in two short movements, an Allegro and a rondo in
minuct style. Mozart's use of a minor key here is a rarity: in all his 30-
odd works for piano and strings there is only one other in a minor key,
the G minor Piano Quartet. The style of the Sonata is in keeping with
the restrained, "classical" style of the 1770s, but the minor inflections of
the melodic line and underlying harmony give the music glimpses of a
romantic poignancy that would not be out of place in the Schubert of four
decades later. Perhaps this accounts for the Sonata being better known
than even the violin and piano masterpieces of the later 1780s.
Violin Sonata No.9 in A major, Op.47
(Kreutzer)
Presto
Adagio sostenuto
Andante con variazioni
Presto
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770 - 1827)
Where Beethoven indulged frequently in a particular type of composition-
such as piano sonata, quartet, symphony
examples are almost always
spread evenly over his composing career. The violin sonatas are a
notable exception: of a total of ten such works, nine belong to 1797-
1803, with the tenth isolated in 1812.
The A major Sonata, Op.47, was the last of the bunch of nine and stands
at the beginning of the composer's so-called second period. It was
completed in April 1803, and sketches for it are found in the same
sketchbook as the early ideas for the Eroica Symphony. Contrary to
Beethoven's usual working methods, the Sonata was composed very rapidly,
generally a sign that it was meant for a fast approaching occasion. In
this case the occasion was the appearance in Vienna of George Auguste
Polgreen Bridgetower (1780- 1860).
Bridgetower, improbably enough, was a mulatto, the son of an Abyssinian
father and a mother of Polish extraction. More to the point he was, in
of
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Beethoven's words, "a very capable violinist who has a complete command
of his instrument". In his young days Bridgetower had been in the retinue
of the Prince of Wales and had played in Salomon's band during Haydn's
visit to London, at which time he cannot have been older than 11 or 12.
Beethoven evidently got on very well with "Brischdower" and wrote a
concertante work for them to perform together, the A major Sonata. In
fact, because of the pressure of work Beethoven could manage only two
movements, the first and second, borrowing the finale from his recently-
composed, but still unpublished, violin sonata in the same key, Op.30 No.1.
So well does the movement fit its new home that its origins trouble none
but musicologists. (When the three Op.30 sonatas were published the same
summer, No.1 had a substitute finale in variation form.)
Beethoven apparently titled the autograph "Sonata mulattica". The
autograph is lost so this cannot be verified, but it is entirely in keeping
with his gruff humour. Yet when the Sonata was published, in April 1805,
the dedication was to another violinist, Rodolphe Kreutzer. Kreutzer,
whose studies are familiar to generations of violin students, was a much
more famous violinist, a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire and a composer
too. As such his was a much more formidable name for Beethoven to
choose as dedicatee. As history has it, of course, it is the Beethoven
sonata that has kept Kreutzer's name alive, even though as far as we
know he never performed the work.
From the beginning Beethoven set out to make the Sonata a display piece
for both performers. It is, as the elaborate title page of the first edition
declared: Sonata per il Piano-forte ed un Violino obligato, scritta in uno
stilo molto concertante, quasi come d'un concerto [= sonata for the piano
and an obligato violin, written in a very concertante style, almost like a
concerto].
Janácek's String Quartet No.1, as you may remember from our last
concert, is called the Kreutzer Sonata because it was inspired by Tolstoi's
novella of the same name, tale of murder and marital infidelity amongst
the fin-de-siècle Russian middle classes. During the course of the action,
the wife and her supposed lover perform this notoriously difficult Sonata.
Here, as promised, is how Tolstoi's "hero" ruminates on the music:
[Music] is indeed a terrible weapon in the hands of those who know
how to use it. Take the Kreutzer Sonata, for instance: is it right
to play that first Presto in a drawing-room to ladies in low-cut
dresses? To play that Presto, then to applaud it, and immediately
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Such
afterward to eat ice creams and discuss the latest scandal?
pieces as this are only to be executed in rare and solemn cir-
cumstances of life, and even then only if certain important deeds
that harmonise with this music are to be performed. It is meant to
be played and then to be followed by the feats for which it nerves
you; but to call into life the energy of a sentiment which is not
destined to manifest itself by any deed, how can than be anything
but baneful?
Tolstoi was more dismissive of the remaining movements, "the splendid but
traditional Andante, which has nothing new in it, with the commonplace
variations and the very weak finale". But this is scarcely surprising from
the man who was coming to the conclusion that all developed art was
pointless anyway and was shortly to write a book saying so.
INTERVAL
Coffee and drinks are available in the foyer. Coffee is 50p a cup: to find
it, go past the bar on to the landing and turn to the left.
Tickets for the final BMS concert of the current season (Lars Vogt on 16
March for details, see Forthcoming Concerts at the end of this book)
are now on sale at the Members Desk. This can be found in the foyer at
the opposite end to the bar, to your left as you leave the auditorium.
If you are interested in becoming a Patron or Benefactor of the BMS, or
have any queries about the Society, come and see us at the Members Desk.
Johann Sebastian Bach
(arranged for violin and piano by Robert Schumann)
Until the 19th century the veneration of music of previous generations
was the exception rather than the rule. The rediscovery of J.S. Bach
(1685-1750) is usually said to have begun with Mendelssohn's perfor-
mance of the St Matthew Passion in Berlin on 11 March 1829, though
Mendelssohn's enthusiasm derived ultimately from his teacher Zelter.
Chaconne in D minor
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>
()
These enthusiasts, though, had little truck with 20th-century attitudes to
Urtext and authenticity. Mendelssohn cut and changed the Matthew
Passion in much the same spirit as that in which, a generation earlier,
Mozart had reorchestrated Handel's Messiah for Baron von Swieten.
At the centre of Bach's writing for strings are the masterpieces he wrote
for unaccompanied cello and violin - the six Suites for cello and the six
(three each) Sonatas and Partitas for violin. The most famous and
substantial movement from any of these is the great Chaconne that closes
the D minor Partita for violin, BWV 1004. (Just how famous can be
judged from the fact that our BMS concerts have included two piano
transcriptions of it over the last five years.)
Bach's original is subtle and ingenious, overcoming the limitations of a
single line by making the harmony implicit rather than explicit. This was
not enough for the 19th century, however. To their ears Bach's unaccom-
panied line sounded almost naked. And so, in order to cushion the blow
to his public, Mendelssohn produced a version of the Chaconne in which
Bach's text is played by the violin, supported by Mendelssohn's piano
accompaniment. This arrangement was published posthumously in 1847.
Schumann heard the arrangement a few years later and it struck him that
Bach's remaining solo violin works might have some degree of public
success if decently clothed in a piano accompaniment. He put the idea to
the German publisher Härtel on 4 January 1853 and within a month had
written accompaniments to all six Sonatas and Partitas. He went on to do
the same for the Cello Suites in March and April.
In the Chaconne, as in all these arrangements, the piano accompaniment is
both superfluous and stylistically spurious, but it makes a charming period
piece.
2 Caprices from the 24 Caprices, Op.1
(arranged for violin and piano by Robert Schumann)
Niccolò Paganini
No.22 in F
No.23 in E flat
The history of music is crammed with performers of the highest degree of
excellence, but comparatively few of these ever achieve the status of
living legend. And of those few only a handful could compare with the
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violinist Niccolò Paganini (1782 - 1840).
What was the source of Paganini's appeal? He took virtuoso tricks
(thirds, tenths, ricochet bowing, left hand pizzicato, stopped harmonics,
high position work) and developed them far beyond both the custom of
his contemporaries and the imagination of his audiences. Long, dark and
thin, he looked the part and took risks in public performances: it wasn't
long before rumours arose of a pact with Mephistopheles... To add to the
store of mystery, he jealously guarded all his music lest others should
penetrate his secrets, even to the extent of collecting in the orchestral
parts of his concertos himself after performances: just about the only
virtuoso music of his he allowed to be published during his lifetime were
the 24 Caprices, Op.1, for unaccompanied violin. But alongside the
mystery, he was a showman, too, including in his programmes things that
would appeal to the dullest intellect, even down to farmyard impressions.
Paganini did not leave the borders of what is now Italy until March 1828,
by which time, let us remember, he was already 45. But he had been
touring Italy for most of the preceding 18 years, and news of this
phenomenon had leaked out. He gave a series of 14 concerts in Vienna in
the spring of 1828 and for the next six years was feted or lionised
throughout Europe. He played, incidentally, in both York and Leeds.
This cult of supervirtuosity, combined with the alluring prospect of the
obvious effects it had on audience, popularity and bank balance, was not
lost on the generation of pianist-composers born around 1810. Only the
classically-trained Mendelssohn seemed immune: the high-minded Chopin
succumbed with a Souvenir de Paganini, while Liszt and Schumann both
saw themselves as Paganinis of the piano. Liszt to some extent succeeded,
while Schumann was balked, chiefly by the hand injury that denied him a
concert career.
If anything, though, it was Schumann who remained most under Paganini's
spell. He and the violinist-composer Ernst followed Paganini from city to
city in Germany, taking in his tricks, his music and his manner. The
results, for Schumann, were 12 Studies based on Paganini Caprices (six
published in 1832 as Op.3, the remainder three years later as Op.10), and
Paganini's "appearance" as one of the characters in Carnaval, Op.9.
But perhaps the most curious manifestation of Schumann's passion came at
the other end of his life. In October 1853, not long after he made the
Bach transcriptions mentioned above, he added a piano accompaniment to
e
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the last of Paganini's 24 Caprices, the most famous of them which is itself
a set of variations on the theme used by composers from Brahms and Liszt
to Rakhmaninov and Lutoslawski. Schumann's accompaniment to this
Caprice is relatively complex, making use of canonic possibilities not
exploited in the original violin work.
In 1854 Schumann's mental condition deteriorated. On 27 February, left
alone for a few moments, he ran out and tried to drown himself in the
Rhine. He was taken to a private asylum near Bonn five days later. His
remaining two and a half years consisted of slight improvements followed
by relapses. He was not allowed to see his wife Clara until the end, and
even visits from Brahms, Joachim and Simrock were few and upsetting.
The last music he wrote belongs to 1855: it consists of accompaniments to
the remaining 23 Paganini Caprices, simple harmonisations this time. It
was all he could manage: when Brahms visited on his birthday (8 June) in
1856 he found him making alphabetical lists of towns and countries.
Caprice No.22 in F is effectively a study in thirds, sixths and tenths, just
as No.23 in E flat is in octaves. Both have busier middle sections in the
minor.
Fantaisie brillante on themes from
Gounod's 'Faust'
IIenryk Wieniawski
(1835 - 1880)
Henryk Wienawski was the most gifted of a family of Polish musicans. He
studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1843 to 1846 when he was awarded
first prize for violin. In 1848, after two years of further private study,
he gave concerts in Paris and St Petersburg with his brother Józef: 1848
saw Henryk's 13th and Józef's 11th birthdays.
By this time Henryk had already begun to compose, and he reentered the
Paris Conservatoire in 1849 for a year to study harmony and composition.
Between 1851 and 1853 he toured Europe, including England, where he
married an Isabella Hampton.
In 1860 he was lured back to St Petersburg where Anton Rubinstein
wanted him as part of his crusade to improve the standard of music in
Russia: he became solo violinist to the Emperor and led both the orchestra
and quartet run by the Imperial Russian Musical Society. He was a
natural choice as professor of violin at the newly-founded St Petersburg
Conservatory, making him one of the most important formative influences
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on the new Russian school of violinists, names that dominated the violin
world in the first half of the 20th century.
In 1872 Wieniawski left Russia for a two-year tour of America with
Rubinstein. The gruelling schedule of over 200 concerts undermined his
health (he was subject to a heart condition), which began to decline.
Despite this he continued to work he was professor of violin at the
Brussels Conservatory from 1875 to 1877 and continued to tour; but by
1878/9 he was already having to abandon concerts half way through. He
died in Moscow, in the palace of Chaikovsky's patroness, Nadyezhda von
Meck.
Wieniawski was one of the greatest violinists after Paganini and probably
the greatest violinist-composer. His playing was admired for its virtuosity,
purity of interpretation, tone and vibrato. He was criticised only for his
unnaturally stiff bowing arm, which bedevilled the Russian school for some
years.
Gounod's Faust, after Goethe's verse play, was first performed in Paris in
March 1859 and quickly established itself as one of the most popular
operas of the century. So when Wieniawski used its themes as the basis
of his fantasy around 1862, they really were the latest operatic hits.
Programme notes by David Mather
Floral decorations by Sue Bedford.
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FORTHCOMING CONCERTS
The final concert in the 74th Season of the British Music Society,
presented in association with the Department of Music at the University,
takes place in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, beginning at 8.00 pm.
§ Thursday, 16 March 1995
LARS VOGT
Piano Sonata in G major, Hob.XVI:40
Ballade No.2 in B minor, S.171
Piano Sonata
Piano Sonata in F minor, Op.5
(piano)
Also in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at 8.00:
§ Wednesday, 22 February 1995
UNIVERSITY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
guest conductor Peter Donohoe
Wednesday, 1 March 1995
Haydn
Liszt
Music by Richard Whalley, Copland (Clarinet Concerto), Stravinsky (Octet)
and Ravel
YORKSHIRE BAROQUE SOLOISTS
Music by this year's anniversary boy, Henry Purcell
Komarova
Brahms
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National Federation of Music Societies
Diamond Jubilee
Thursday 23 February 1995
Evensong
York Minster
www.
Concert
Chapel of the University College of
Ripon and York St. John
7.30 pm
Siobhan Grealy (flute)
5.00 pm
Susan Blair (harp)
(cello)
with Karen Suter and Olga Dudaek (piano)
Bozidar Vukotic
Programme to include works by:
Bach, Beethoven, Ravel, Fauré, Hindemith
Concert Tickets £5, incl. glass of wine
All proceeds will go to The Raymond Fox Bursary
Sponsored by INTERCITY East Coast
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BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY of YORK
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY
President
Dr Francis Jackson
Vice-Presidents
Joan Whitworth
Jim Briggs
Rosalind Richards
Chairman: Barbara Fox
Vice-chairman: Derek Sutton
Hon. Treasurer: Albert Ainsworth
Hon. Asst. Treasurer: John Petrie
Hon. Secretary: Nigel Dick
Hon. Publicity Secretary: Stephanie Kershaw
Hon. Programme Secretary: Brian & Rosalind Richards
NFMS Representative: Dr Richard Crossley
Hon. Auditor: Derek Winterbottom
Members of the Committee: Andrew Carter, Amanda Crawley, Lesley &
David Mather
BENEFACTORS AND PATRONS
The BMS manages to maintain the high standard of its concerts largely
through the generosity of its Benefactors and patrons. Without their
covenanted gifts to the Society, we could not hope to balance our books.
Our Benefactors(§) and Patrons are as follows:
Mr A. Ainsworths
Mrs P. J. Armour
Mr R. A. Bellingham
Mr & Mrs J. Briggs&
Mrs M. Danby-Smiths
Mr C. G. M. Gardner
Mr G. Hutchinsons
Mrs E. S. Johnsons
Mrs F. Andrews
Dr D. M. Bearparks
Mr & Mrs D. A. C. Blunt
Dr R. J. S. Crossley
Mr N. J. Dicks
Mr A. D. Hitchcock
Dr F. A. Jackson
Mr J. C. Joslins
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Professor R. Lawtong
Mr P. W. Millers
Mr G. C. Morcom§
Mr L. W. Robinsons
Mrs I. G. Sargent
Mr & Mrs N. Sexton
Dr G.A.C. Summers§
Mr O. S. Tomlinson
Mr J. I. Watson
Mr R. Wilkinsons
Mrs H. B. Wright
If
you would like to become a Benefactor or Patron, or have any querics,
recommendations, criticisms or even praise, please come and see us at the
Members Desk and make your feelings known.
Mr R. P. Lorrimang
Mrs A. M. Morcom§
Mr B. Richards
Mrs D. G. Roebuck
Mr J. B. Schofields
Mrs D.C. Summers§
Mr D. A. Sutton
Dr M. J. Turner§
Miss L. J. Whitworth
Mr & Mrs A. Wright
In addition to the generosity of our Benefactors and Patrons, the activities
of the BMS are supported by grants from Yorkshire and Humberside Arts.
The Society also gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Royal Bank
of Scotland.
滚术
Yorkshire & Humberside
ARTS
Registered Charity No.700302
NATIONAL FEDERATION
OF MUSIC SOCIETIES
NEMS
INSTITUTE
BORTHWICK
*BMS 5/2/3 (2)
OF
HISTORICAL
PESEARCH
Compiled by David Mather and published by the British Music Society
of York. Reproduced by Wright Design of Easingwold.
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BS
YORK
LARS VOGT
(piano)
Thursday, 16 March 1995
Programme: 50p
Presented by the British Music Society of York
in association with the Department of Music
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NOTICE BOARD
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the British Music Society will be held in
about three months time. After a short business mccting, at which BMS
members hear the reports of the Society's officers and have their chance
to elect officers and new committee members, there will be food and
musical entertainment, to which members and their guests are cordially
invited. Full details of date, venue, entertainment and cost will be posted
to members of the Society (that is all those who hold subscription tickets
for the current season) shortly.
75th Anniversary Season
The 1995/1996 season will be the 75th presented by the British Music
Society, and we are celebrating with a new work specially commissioned to
mark our three-quarters of a century.
Some details of next season's
concerts, as far as we know them, are included at the back of this
programme, under Forthcoming Concerts. Members of the Society and
those on our mailing list will receive a leaflet giving full details of all the
concerts at sometime around the beginning of September.
If
you have never received anything from us through the post and would
like to be included on our mailing list, please see us at the Members' Desk
during the interval of tonight's concert, or write to Mr Albert Ainsworth,
8 Petersway, York YO3 6AR.
Your views
The BMS is a society run for the benefit of its members by a committee
elected from those members. If there is something you think we should be
doing, or should not be doing, don't keep it to yourself; please tell a
committee member. They should all be wearing their badges and they do
want to hear from you.
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BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY of YORK
74th Season
Piano Sonata
Thursday, 16 March 1995
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
LARS VOGT
(piano)
Piano Sonata in G, Iob.XVI:40
Ballade No.2 in B minor, S.171
INTERVAL
Piano Sonata in F minor, Op.5
Haydn
Komarova
For the sake of others in the audience,
please turn off all alarms on watches, calculators etc.
before the concert starts,
and use a handkerchief when coughing.
Liszt
Brahms
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LARS VOGT
The German pianist Lars Vogt, still in his early 20s, is one of the rising
stars of the piano world. He won second prize at the 1990 Leeds
International Piano Competition: Simon Rattle, who conducted the orchestra
for the final round, described him as "one of the most extraordinary
musicians of any age group that I have had the fortune to be associated
with". He signed an exclusive recording contract with a German subsidiary
of EMI shortly afterwards, and they have issued several recordings by him.
The reviewer Christopher Headington wrote in the May 1992 issue of
Gramophone "I have rarely been so impressed with a debut recital disc".
Alongside his busy international schedule as a solo pianist throughout
Europe, America and the Far East, Lars Vogt also finds time to perform
chamber music (with the Trio Nova Vita, Frank Peter Zimmermann and
Heinrich Schiff) and to continue his studies with Professor Kämmerling in
Hannover.
Lars Vogt married the Russian composer Tat'yana Komarova in the summer
of 1991.
PROGRAMME NOTES
Piano Sonata in G major, Hob.XVI:40
Allegretto innocente
Presto
Joseph Haydn
(1732 - 1809)
This Sonata is the first of a group of three published in 1784 as being
"composées & dediées à son altesse madame la princesse Marie Esterházy
née princesse de Liechtenstein par son trés-humble & trés-obéissant
serviteur Joseph Haydn" [= composed and dedicated to her highness Maria
Esterházy, born princess of Liechtenstein, by her most humble and most
obedient servant Joseph Haydn]. To understand the important part
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Princess Maria was to play in Haydn's life, it is necessary to look a little
more closely at the Esterházy family, Haydn's employers for virtually the
whole of his life.
The Esterházys were one of the most important noble families on the
Hungarian side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They had been granted
the title Count back in 1626 and Prince in 1712. In all Haydn served four
successive princes. He was poached from an inferior aristocratic house in
1761 by Prince Paul Anton Esterházy (1711-1762, prince from 1734). On
Paul Anton's death the Esterházy title was assumed by his brother
Nikolaus (1714 - 1790), known as "the magnificent", Haydn's principal
employer. It was Nikolaus' wholehearted love of music that encouraged
Haydn's enormous output, and his eccentric passion for the curious
stringed instrument called the baryton that resulted in Haydn's 126 trios
employing the instrument.
Nikolaus was succeeded in 1790 by his son Anton (1738 1794). Anton
had little time for music and disbanded the musical establishment, paying
Haydn a small pension for the prestige value of retaining the name Haydn
as the Esterházy Kapellmeister. Haydn himself was snapped up by the
violinist and impresario Salomon (a former violinist of the Esterházy
orchestra) who brought him to London for two visits, January 1791 to June
1792 and February 1794 to August 1795, covering four seasons in all.
Haydn was lionised by the English, awarded an Oxford doctorate and
showered with money.
Meanwhile there was a new Esterházy prince Anton had been succeeded
by his son Nikolaus (II)(1765-1833). This Nikolaus wanted to re-form a
musical establishment, though on a rather smaller scale than that of
Nikolaus the magnificent, and asked Haydn to return. Haydn put him off
until 1795, to fulfil his contractual obligations in England, and then
returned to Vienna. In fact, Haydn's new duties were slight, and he spent
most of his time in his own home in Vienna: the main requirement was a
new mass every year for the nameday of the Prince's wife - the resultant
six works being amongst the glories of Haydn's choral output.
This wife was the princess for whom, over a decade earlier, Haydn had
composed those three Piano Sonatas. Maria Josepha Hermenegild, Princess
of Liechtenstein (1768-1845) married Nikolaus (II) on 15 September 1783,
when he was still the grandson of the reigning prince: both bride and
groom, of course, were teenagers at the time. Haydn's three sonatas must
have been written almost immediately, possibly even as some form of
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welcome. Maria quickly became devoted to the composer, and when her
husband eventually succeeded to the title was able to act as an emollient
between the two men: even Haydn's famous good humour and easy going
nature found it difficult to tolerate interference from an atavistic amateur
who was more interested in being obeyed than in artistic concerns.
As befits a gift to a highborn lady still in her mid teens, the three Piano
Sonatas are good-humoured works making modest technical demands-
certainly less than the sonatas composed immediately before and subse-
quently. They have the distinction, however, of being the first of Haydn's
keyboard sonatas specifically composed for the [fortelpiano, rather than
the harpsichord: they employ effects not possible on the older instrument.
All three Sonatas have only two movements. The first movement of the G
major Sonata is in double variation form, a speciality of Haydn's. Two
ideas, one in the G major (A), the other in G minor (B), are alternated in
the pattern ABABA: cach time either idea returns it is (further) elabor-
ated. In contrast to the urbanity of the first movement, the finale is a
bustling Presto.
The cumbersome "Hob.XVI:40" means nothing more than this: in Hoboken's
catalogue of Haydn's music, this is listed as work No.40 in group XVI, the
section of the catalogue devoted to the keyboard sonatas. That doesn't
make it the 40th keyboard sonata Haydn had composed: Hoboken simply
took his numbering straight from an existing published edition of the
sonatas, and any extra works missed by that edition were simply stuck on
at the end with little regard for chronology. A more realistic numbering
is that of Christa Landon for the Wiener Urtext Edition, where the G
major Sonata appears as No.54 of the total of 62 Sonatas.
Piano Sonata (1990)
Tat'yana Komarova
(b.1968)
The Russian composer Tat'yana Komarova was born in 1968 in Brest, then
at the extreme western end of the USSR, now in the new republic of
Belarus. Her father is Vladimir Komarov, composer and musical director of
Mosfil'm Studios. She studied piano and composition at the Moscow
Conservatory, her composition teacher being Nikolai Sid'yelnikov.
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t
t
I
The Piano Sonata dates from 1990, the year before she married the pianist
Lars Vogt. My only source of information on the work is Lars Vogt's
agents, who have kindly provided the following short note, which
presumably at least has the composer's sanction:
Komarova's Sonata (1990) for piano is cast in a single movement in
which the exposition, development and recapitulation of the
traditional sonata form can be detected. Its harmonic vocabulary
juxtaposes free atonality with elements drawn from a more dis-
ciplined tonal language. The piano figuration is at times reminiscent
of the Impressionist school and yet the Sonata as a whole retains
the distinct stamp of its composer's individuality.
Ballade No.2 in B minor, S.171
Franz Liszt
(1811 1886)
Most composers' lives can conveniently be divided into early, middle and
late periods, but some simply don't fit into this pattern
Liszt's for one,
as he himself later noted:
-
The course of my insignificant life as a player and writer of musical
notes does not divide up in the classic manner, but like a classical
tragedy in five acts:
1 the childhood years up to the death of my father (1827).
2 1830 to 1838, exploratory studies and productions in Paris, and
transitorily in Geneva and Italy before my return to Vienna
(1838), whose success determined me upon a virtuoso career.
3 concert tours Paris, London, Berlin, Petersburg etc.-
fantasies, transcriptions, riotous living.
4 1848 to 1861 consolidation and work in Weimar.
5 the continuation and completion of this, in Rome, [Buda]Pest,
Weimar, from 1861 until
The catalyst on Liszt's decision to give up his concert career in 1847 was
the 28-year-old Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, whom he had met
when he gave a recital in Kiev in February 1847. The Princess' addiction
to the serious and weighty in life is aptly demonstrated by her spending
her final 25 years on a monumental, 24-volume study entitled The interior
cause of the external weaknesses of the Roman Catholic Church. The
plain, cigar-smoking blue-stocking Princess is an easy figure to ridicule
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and many Liszt scholars have portrayed her influence as malign: on the
other hand there is no doubt Liszt was contemplating such a step in any
case. She encouraged him to take it, and consequently we probably owe
to her some of Liszt's greatest music.
Liszt accepted the post of Kapellmeister to the ducal court at Weimar.
At this period in the court's history the post was more of a sinecure
than it had been, for instance, in the early 18th century (when Bach had
been court organist) or in the late 18th century (when Goethe was privy
counsellor). But Liszt made it a full-time post once more, revitalising the
musical establishment and making Weimar one of the most important
centres for music in Europe.
In the first ten years he produced much of the music by which he is
chiefly known: the two symphonics (Faust and Dante), the two piano
concertos, the first 12 symphonic poems, the piano sonata and much else,
including the definitive versions of music composed earlier, such as the
Transcendental and Paganini Studies. He also gave premieres and
performances of music by other composers, including, for instance, the
first performance (28 August 1850) of Wagner's Lohengrin.
The Second Ballade was composed in 1853, the same year as the symphonic
poems Festklänge and Orpheus; this was also the year in which the young
Brahms visited Weimar and famously offended Liszt by falling asleep during
a performance of the newly-completed Piano Sonata in B minor. The
Ballade was published in the following year with a dedication to count
"Charles de Linange", that is Karl von Leiningen, Hofmarschall of the
court of Baden, who married a niece of Princess Carolyne.
The Second Ballade shares the key of B minor with the famous Piano
Sonata of 1852. He took the title "ballade" from his friend Chopin (who
had died six years before), using it, as Chopin had, for a substantial
single-movement piece which follows its own internal structural logic.
Like the Piano Sonata, the Ballade has many unconventional features
typical of Liszt's scarch for structural freedom, such as the way the
opening music is immediately repeated a semitone lower. As originally
composed, the work had a long, barn-storming finish, but in the printed
edition Liszt truncated this, slowing the music down to end with an
expressive Andantino.
1
1
1
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)
INTERVAL
Coffee and drinks are available in the foyer. Coffee is 50p a cup: to find
it, go past the bar on to the landing and turn to the left.
If you are interested in becoming a Patron or Benefactor of the BMS, or
have any queries about the Society, come and see us at the Members Desk.
Piano Sonata No.3 in F minor, Op.5
Allegro maestoso
Andante espressivo
Scherzo: Allegro energico
Intermezzo (Rückblick): Andante molto
Finale: Allegro moderato ma rubato
Johannes Brahms
(1833-1897)
Not long after I left Radio 3, a former colleague, staff script writer
Adrian Jack, got into a bit of hot water for the way he introduced
Brahms' Second Piano Concerto in a lunchtime concert. He said that the
work was written in 1878 81 about the time Brahms began to grow his
beard. Full stop. Of course, when the diarists and humorous columnists
of the broadsheet papers got hold of this remark they had a field day with
it, holding it up to ridicule as Radio 3 esoterica run mad. In fact, I have
always admired the introduction as a miracle of suggestion, containing as
The circumstances were
it does a profound observation in few words.
such that Adrian had only been alloted enough time for, at most, a two-
sentence introduction, too little to embark on anything even superficially
analytical, and so he sowed a mental image.
Think of Brahms, and the mental picture you get is almost invariably of an
elderly figure, long grizzled beard resting on an ample stomach, strong
black coffee and strong black cigars close to hand. It is a vision which
fits comfortably with the late music apparently conservative, avuncular,
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wistful music alternating with a passion that smoulders rather than
actually ignites.
But there was a time before that. It is a very different figure the early
daguerreotypes show, a clean-shaven young man with widow's peak,
shoulder-length hair and a far-away, poctic expression. This is the picture
Adrian was trying to conjure up, and how the 20-year-old composer must
have appeared to Robert and Clara Schumann when (moving on from his
encounter with Liszt) he appeared on their doorstep in Dusseldorf in
September 1853. He played them his compositions, including three piano
sonatas, and they greeted him as "the young eagle".
It is a great misfortune that Brahms, one of the greatest writers for the
piano and one of the greatest masters of three- and four-movement
structures (symphonics, quartets, trios, sonatas etc.) of the second half of
the 19th century, should have composed three piano sonatas in his late
teens (1852/3) and then ignored the genre for his remaining 44 years.
Of these three Sonatas (Op.1 in C major, Op.2 in F# minor, Op.5 in F
minor), the F minor is generally considered the best. Like the others it
begins with a forceful gesture, flung across the keyboard. This is followed
by a complete change of mood, a juxtaposition which sets the pattern for
the entire movement, a work of great concision worthy of the first
movements of some of the late Beethoven sonatas, rather than the
expansive canvasses of Brahms' later years.
The main slow movement comes second, an Andante espressivo headed by a
quotation from a love poem by Sternau:
Twilight falls, moonlight shines
Two hearts are united in love
And hold each other in blissful embrace.
The opening theme is an early instance of the falling thirds pattern that
was to become such a Brahmsian hallmark. The movement alternates two
keys, A flat major and D flat major, and, unusually for Brahms, begins in
the former but ends in the latter.
The F minor Scherzo follows, the music in Brahms' gruffly humorous vein
admirably living up to the "energetically" of the tempo marking.
The
central Trio section, in D flat, offers a moment of repose.
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Early
ture
ano
the
ment
ars.
F
sit
First
the
ya
hat
WO
in
he
So far the work has been on course for a textbook four-movement sonata,
and it is at this point that Brahms brings off his great coup. He adds an
unexpected new movement, an Intermezzo he subtitles Rückblick, that is a
backward glance, or retrospect. And it does, in fact recall music from the
second movement, but to the wistful tune Brahms has tellingly added the
muffled drums of a funeral march.
The Intermezzo is a clever idea; only a quarter of the length of the first
slow movement, it provides a perfect buffer before the finale, which
shares the key and some of the rhythmic panache of the Scherzo.
Programme notes by David Mather
Floral decorations by Sue Bedford.
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FORTHCOMING CONCERTS
This is the last concert in the 74th Season of the British Music Society,
presented in association with the Department of Music at the University.
Our 75th Season begins in October. At this early stage the details of the
concerts are not, as it were, written in stone, but here is the current
state of play:
§ Thursday, 12 October 1995
Leon MacCawley
Winner of the second prize at the 1993 Leeds International Piano
Competition. His programme includes Beethoven's Appassionata and music
by Haydn, Rakhmaninov and Samuel Barber.
§ Friday, 24 November 1995
Erich Gruenberg and Anthony Goldstone
A violin and piano duo particularly admired for its stylish way with the
Mozart Violin Sonatas. As well as Mozart they will be giving us one of
the Bach Solo Partitas, the Debussy Sonata, and one of the Everests of
the violin and piano repertory, the Franck Sonata.
§ Thursday, 14 December 1995
London Fortepiano Trio
A group specialising in period-instrument performances of piano trios
from, broadly speaking, the Classical epoch. Their playing, which has
"ravished" our Hon. Programme Secretaries, can also be heard on their
many recordings on the Hyperion label. For us they will be playing trios
by Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert (the B flat)
§ Thursday, 11 January 1996
Dominic Seldis and James Pearson
Dominic Seldis is a double bass player admired for his skill, wit and
enterprise. His concert will include a piece fast becoming notorious in
double bass circles, Failings, in which the bassist has to play increasingly
difficult music while keeping up a spoken running commentary, with the
expectation that at some point s/he will fail. Those who saw the
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S
t
performance a few months ago on BBC2 will remember what a highly
entertaining piece it is.
§ Friday, 16 February 1996
Nicholas Daniel and Brindisi Quartet
The Concert at which the BMS celebrates its 75th anniversary with a new
Oboe Quintet commissioned for the occasion from Christopher Fox and
written with the brilliant oboist Nicholas Daniel in mind.
§ Thursday, 14 March 1996
Skampa Quartet
A programme of less familiar works from the quartet repertory: a charming
early Mozart Quartet; the evocative and aphoristic 5 Movements, Op.5, by
Webern; and the sole quartet by master symphonist Anton Bruckner.
Though the BMS season is now over until October, the Department of
Music of the University of York continues until the end of June its wide-
ranging and adventurous series of Wednesday evening concerts in the Sir
Jack Lyons Concert Hall. The first concerts of next term are:
§ Wednesday, 10 May 1995
University Baroque Ensemble
Music by Cimarosa, Pergolesi, Bach and Vivaldi
§ Wednesday, 24 May 1995
Music by Schubert
§ Wednesday, 31 May 1995
Kathron Sturrock (piano)
Medea Quartet
Music by Britten (No.3), Webern (Op.5) and Beethoven (1st Razumovsky)
Full details can be found in the brochure available in the foyer.
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BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY of YORK
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY
President
Dr Francis Jackson
Vice-Presidents
Joan Whitworth
Jim Briggs
Rosalind Richards
Chairman: Barbara Fox
Vice-chairman: Derek Sutton
Hon. Treasurer: Albert Ainsworth
Hon. Asst. Treasurer: John Petrie
Hon. Secretary: Nigel Dick
Hon. Publicity Secretary: Stephanie Kershaw
Hon. Programme Secretary: Brian & Rosalind Richards
NFMS Representative: Dr Richard Crossley
Hon. Auditor: Derek Winterbottom
Members of the Committee: Andrew Carter, Amanda Crawley, Lesley &
David Mather
BENEFACTORS AND PATRONS
The BMS manages to maintain the high standard of its concerts largely
through the generosity of its Benefactors and patrons. Without their
covenanted gifts to the Society, we could not hope to balance our books.
Our Benefactors(§) and Patrons are as follows:
Mr A. Ainsworth
Mrs P. J. Armour
Mr R. A. Bellingham
Mr & Mrs J. Briggs
Mrs M. Danby-Smiths
Mr C. G. M. Gardner
Mr G. Hutchinsons
Mrs E. S. Johnsong
Mrs F. Andrews
Dr D. M. Bearparks
Mr & Mrs D. A. C. Blunt
Dr R. J. S. Crossley.
Mr N. J. Dicks
Mr A. D. Hitchcocks
Dr F. A. Jackson
Mr J. C. Josling
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Professor R. Lawtong
Mr P. W. Millers
Mr G. C. Morcoms
Mr L. W. Robinsons
Mrs I. G. Sargent
Mr & Mrs N. Sexton
Dr G.A.C. Summers
Mr O. S. Tomlinsong
Mr J. I. Watson
Mr R. Wilkinsons
Mrs H. B. Wright
If you would like to become a Benefactor or Patron, or have any queries,
recommendations, criticisms or even praise, please come and see us at the
Members Desk and make your feelings known.
Mr R. P. Lorrimang
Mrs A. M. Morcom§
Mr B. Richards§
Mrs D. G. Roebuck
Mr J. B. Schofields
Mrs D.C. Summers§
Mr D. A. Sutton
Dr M. J. Turners
Miss L. J. Whitworth
Mr & Mrs A. Wright.
Mr. A. R. Carter.
In addition to the generosity of our Benefactors and Patrons, the activities
of the BMS are supported by grants from Yorkshire and Humberside Arts.
The Society also gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Royal Bank
of Scotland.
AK
Yorkshire & Humberside
ARTS
Registered Charity No.700302
NATIONAL FEDERATION
OF MUSIC SOCIETIES
NEMS
Compiled by David Mather and published by the British Music Society
of York. Reproduced by WrightDesign of Easingwold.
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BORTHWICK
*(BMS 3/2/3 (3)
OF HISTORICAL
INSTITUTE
PESTARCH
S
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BS
YORK
ERICH GRUENBERG
ANTHONY GOLDSTONE
(violin and piano)
Friday, 24 November 1995
Programme: 50p
Presented by the British Music Society of York
in association with the Department of Music
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BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY of YORK
Violin Sonata
75th Season
Friday, 24 November 1995
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
Erich Gruenberg (violin)
Anthony Goldstone (piano)
Violin Sonata in E flat, K.302
Violin Sonata in A, Op.100
Violin Sonata in A
INTERVAL
For the sake of others in the audience,
please turn off all alarms on watches, calculators etc.
before the concert starts,
and use a handkerchief when coughing.
Mozart
Debussy
Brahms
Franck
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ERICH GRUENBERG and
ANTHONY GOLDSTONE
Erich Gruenberg OBE, one of Britain's most distinguished and musically
wide-ranging violinists, started his musical education in his native city of
Vienna, continued his studies at the Jerusalem Conservatory and came to
the UK at the age of 22. He won the 1947 Carl Flesch International
Competition, which launched him on an international career, since when he
has made his home in London.
Mr Gruenberg's repertory is extensive, and his name is associated with an
active advocacy of contemporary works. He has commissioned a number of
new pieces from composers both in Britain and abroad, and has given many
premieres throughout Europe. He is a professor at the Royal Academy of
Music in London and gives masterclasses around the world. He is also
regularly invited on to the juries of major international competitions.
Mr Gruenberg plays a 1731 Stradivarius.
Anthony Goldstone was born in Liverpool; he studied at the then Royal
Manchester College of Music and afterwards in London with Maria Curcio,
one of Schnabel's greatest pupils. International prizes in Munich and
Vienna and a Gulbenkian Fellowship launched him on a busy schedule of
recitals and concertos.
Mr Goldstone is an avid explorer of musical byways, such as the piano
music of composers not normally associated with the instrument (for
instance Elgar, Holst or Sibelius) and the output of unjustly neglected
19th-century composers such as Alkan, Goetz, Herzogenberg and Moscheles.
Mr Goldstone's intelligence, musical sensitivity and curiosity keep him in
constant demand as a player of chamber music. Not least in a piano duo
with his wife Caroline Clemmow: they opened our 1993/4 season with one
of a series of recitals devoted to Schubert's entire piano duet output.
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PROGRAMME NOTES
Violin Sonata in E flat, K.302
Allegro
Rondeau: Andante grazioso
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
(1756 1791)
One of the most widely known incidents in Mozart's short life was the
occasion (8 June 1781) when he was dismissed from the service of the
Archbishop of Salzburg, being literally kicked out of the room by the
Oberküchenmeister Count Arco. But this was not the first time he had
engineered his own dismissal from the Archbishop's employ. In the
summer of 1777 Mozart was chafing at his servitude in Salzburg and in a
petition full of thinly-veiled insolence asked to be released so he could
make another foreign tour. In retaliation the Archbishop released both
father and son from their contracts, but evidently Leopold could not
afford to make the trip and quickly got himself reinstated. Instead young
Wolfgang set out, chaperoned by his mother, to make what money he could
and, if at all possible, find a suitable position.
They left Salzburg on 23 September 1777 in their own chaise, making for
Munich where they stayed over a fortnight. But there was no job for
Mozart there, either, and they travelled on to Augsburg, where they
stayed with relatives for another fortnight. (Mozart discovered a kindred
spirit in a young girl cousin, who for a while was to receive from him a
barrage of his most lavatorial and obscene letters.) Eventually, on 30
October, Mozart and his mother arrived in Mannheim, an important musical
centre with a legendary orchestra. Again, there was no post here for
Mozart, but he stayed several months, picking up work as he could,
getting to know the principal musicians and falling in love with a 16-year-
old singer called Aloysia Weber. (Another man was to claim Aloysia, but
Mozart married her younger sister Constanza, on 4 August 1782.)
Back in Salzburg, Leopold was getting frantic at Wolfgang's waste of time.
He urged and bullied his son on to Paris. Wolfgang and his mother left
Mannheim on 14 March 1778 and arrived in Paris just over a week later.
It was not the success the family had hoped for: Paris was polarised
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between two musical camps into neither of which Mozart fitted, and to
make matters worse Frau Mozart succumbed to fever, dying on 3 July.
By August Leopold had renegotiated a better position for his son at
Salzburg and was urging him to return. Wolfgang set out from Paris at
the end of September, dawdled away (to his father's extreme vexation)
another month in Mannheim, but arrived back in January 1779, in time to
petition the Archbishop formally for the new post.
One of the jobs Mozart accepted over the winter of 1777-8 was to write
concertos and quartets for a Dutch amateur flautist. Amid the distractions
of Mannheim he found the work uncongenial. "Besides," he wrote to his
father on 14 February 1778:
you know I become quite powerless whenever I have to write for an
instrument I can't stand. So as a diversion I compose something
else, such as duets for clavier and violin, or I work at my mass.
Now I am settling down seriously to the clavier duets, as I want to
have them engraved.
These "duets for clavier and violin" are the six Violin Sonatas, K.301-
306. Mozart had finished four of them, including the E flat Sonata, by
the time he left Mannheim. The E minor Sonata, K.304, which Igor
Oistrakh played for us last February, was begun in Mannheim and finished
in Paris, while the sparkling D major, K.306, was written in Paris that
summer. (A seventh sonata, the C major, K.296, was composed at this
time
the autograph is dated 11 March 1778 - but it was written for, and
given to, a pupil, the stepdaughter of the Privy Councillor in whose house
he lived during his stay in Mannheim: the Sonata was eventually published
in 1781 as part of another set of six.)
-
It took Mozart some time to find an engraver who would print the Sonatas
cheaply enough, but eventually he succeeded. Although promised for the
end of September, the printed copies were in fact only ready in the last
few days of the year. In time for Mozart, returning via Munich, to
present a copy to the dedicatee, the Palatinate Electress Maria Elisabeth.
Mozart clearly considered these Sonatas and their 1781 counterparts as
music for domestic consumption by amateurs, rather than for the concert
hall, and they are consequently unpretentious and (relatively) undemanding.
Like most of the set, the E flat Sonata is in two movements. The first is
a sparkling Allegro demanding the odd bit of fast fingerwork. It opens
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er
with a favourite device of Mozart's in such pieces, an assertive gesture
immediately followed by a conciliatory one, as if he were trying first to
catch the listener's attention, then to beguile h. into the piece. The
im
finale is a Rondeau, the French form of the name, suggesting an unhurried
pace and graceful character, rather than the light-hearted, comic type of
movement associated with the Italian "rondo".
Sonata for violin and piano
Allegro vivo
Intermède: Fantasque et léger
Finale: Très animé
[principal tempo markings only]
Claude Debussy
(1862 1918)
When war broke out in 1914, the patriotic Debussy answered his country's
call and volunteered. Of course, he was turned down by the authorities:
he was 52 and already ill enough with the cancer that was to kill him to
have been forced to abandon a projected concert tour of the USA.
Fortunately for us, Debussy channelled his patriotic fervour into what he
did best, embarking on a set of Six Sonates pour divers instruments
composées par Claude Debussy, musicien français.
The plan was that each of the first five sonatas would be for different
instruments, while the sixth, anticipated as the most important of the set,
would include all the instruments used so far, plus a double bass.
Unfortunately, he lived to complete only three of the sonatas: for cello
and piano (1915), for flute, viola and harp (1915) and for violin and piano
(1916/7). It is doubly unfortunate considering the combinations planned
for the remaining works. What would a colouristic imagination like
Debussy's have made of sonatas for oboe, horn and harpsichord and for
clarinet, bassoon and trumpet, not to mention the promise of all these put
together?
It is tempting to imagine that Debussy's motive in choosing these sonatas
for his patriotic gesture arose from what must have appeared the total
stranglehold of the Austro-German tradition on all forms of chamber
music. In every other type of composition orchestra, opera, ballet,
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piano and so on - French, Italian and Russian music between them had
managed some kind of challenge, but chamber music was virtually a
province of Austro-Germany. I like to imagine Debussy squaring himself
up and then launching a fierce and fearless attack at the very point where
the enemy was strongest.
As he wrote the Violin Sonata in the autumn and winter of 1916/7,
Debussy already knew he was dying of cancer. He wrote to a friend about
the piece:
You should know, my too trusting friend, that I only wrote this
Sonata to be rid of the thing, spurred on as I was by my dear
publisher. This Sonata will be interesting from a documentary
viewpoint and as an example of what may be produced by a sick
man in time of war.
We should remember that when the Sonata was composed France was in
the third year of a war unparalleled for the misery it was causing.
Despite everything, though, no-one could describe the Sonata as a
pessimistic work. It is melancholy, nostalgic, valedictory certainly; but
surrender never enters its thoughts.
The first movement is the most classical with its use of proportion,
restraint and clarity, though it is not without its outburst of passion. The
Intermède, by contrast, is as fantastical as its tempo marking suggests,
with changes of mood and flights of fancy to rival those of the Études for
piano of 1915. The finale is a reminder of the Debussy of earlier years,
the composer in particular of Ibéria from the orchestral Images: its
opening page quotes themes from both preceding movements.
Violin Sonata No.2 in A major, Op.100
Allegro amabile
Andante tranquillo (alternating with Vivace)
Allegretto grazioso (quasi Andante)
Johannes Brahms
(1833 1897)
In his later years Brahms' life settled into a comfortable routine. During
the artistic season (autumn, winter, spring) he would give concerts and do
1
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)
all the routine work that fell to him editing, proof-reading, arranging,
sometimes orchestrating. But during the summer he would move out of
Vienna to some resort where, in relative isolation, he could devote himself
to composition.
The summer of 1886 was the first of three which he spent at Hofstetten
on Lake Thun in Switzerland. It was probably also the most productive,
being dominated by chamber music. The spur seems to have been Robert
Hausmann's performance of the E minor Cello Sonata, which Brahms heard
in Vienna on 7 March 1885. The summer of 1885 itself was taken up
finishing the Fourth Symphony, Op.98, begun the previous summer. And so
it was in the summer of 1886 that he finally composed the Second Cello
Sonata (the F major, Op.99). He immediately followed this with a second
violin sonata (the A major, Op.100) composed in August. Scarcely pausing
for breath he wrote the last of his piano trios (the C minor, Op.101), and,
as if all this wasn't enough, made a start on the third and last violin
sonata (the D minor, Op.108), completed two years later. The A major
Violin Sonata was given its first performance that December in Vienna by
the composer with the violinist Joseph Hellmesberger.
14
Commentators like to talk about the relaxed and sunny quality of many of
these late works, pointing to their being composed amidst the beauties of
the countryside. It is true that few of Brahms' pieces have quite so much
warmth as the A major Violin Sonata, but at the same time we must
remember it was composed alongside the dark and troubled C minor Piano
Trio: the one balanced the other.
The first movement is open and straightforward, except for the opening
idea (based on a song Brahms composed during that same summer) with its
unusual five-bar phrases. The F major second movement combines slow
movement and "scherzo": the tranquil, major-key opening music is twice
interrupted by a light, but ambivalent Vivace [= lively] in the minor. The
sense of ambivalence extends into the finale, eternally poised between a
graceful dance and a slow movement as its tempo marking shows.
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INTERVAL
Coffee and drinks are available in the foyer. Coffee is 50p a cup: to find
it, go past the bar on to the landing and turn to the left.
If you are interested in becoming a Patron or Benefactor of the BMS, or
have any queries about the Society, please ask one of the committee
members: they should all be wearing badges.
Violin Sonata in A major
Allegretto ben moderato
Allegro
César Franck
1890)
(1822
Recitativo-Fantasia: Ben moderato [initial marking only]
Allegretto poco mosso
The "Chattering Classes" have, apparently, been much diverted recently by
this challenge: name six famous Belgians. The fact that so few can make
it as far as six without dragging in Hercule Poirot is taken as proof that
people's low opinion of the country must be justified. All it really proves,
of course, is our inexcusable inability to tell French from Belgian, and our
ignorance of the size and history of the country. Should you be faced
with the six famous Belgians challenge, think of the César Franck Violin
Sonata and you're a third of the way there.
César Franck was Belgian, born in Liège. He moved to France to complete
his education and came to occupy a distinguished position in French music
(organist of Ste-Clothilde in Paris from 1858, professor of organ at the
Paris Conservatoire from 1972): he and Saint-Saens were only two
figures in the French musical world to make any impact in the concert
hall (as opposed to the stage) between Berlioz and the turn of the
century. While Saint-Saens was classically-influenced and essentially
backward-looking, Franck developed many of his structural and harmonic
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ideas from the Liszt/Wagner camp, and was thus a more potent influence
on later French composers.
Franck shares with the Moravian composer Janacek the curious distinction
of being chiefly known for pieces composed in the last decade of his life.
The Violin Sonata was composed in the same year as the Brahms A major,
1886, as a wedding present for the great violinist Eugène Ysaye, also born
in Liège (Belgian No.2), though some 36 years after Franck.
The first performance of the Sonata was given by Ysaye and Madame
Bordes Pène on 16 December 1886 in the Musée Moderne de Peinture in
Brussels. The occasion, described by Franck's pupil Vincent d'Indy, must
have been a remarkable one. The premiere of this great new work was
naturally programmed as the climax of the recital. Unfortunately, though,
this was an afternoon recital, taking place on one of the shortest days of
the year. As the first half progressed the light got steadily worse, and by
the end of the first movement of the Franck, the gallery was completely
dark. Electric light hadn't reached as far as the Museum, and, with all
those expensive pictures hanging around, any lighting based on flame was
naturally forbidden. The artists, however, continued the performance,
playing from memory in the pitch dark.
César Franck's name is often cited as the textbook example of cyclic
form, a structural device whereby one or more themes return, often
disguised, in each movement of a composite work. Beethoven and
Mendelssohn had experimented with the idea, and Liszt and Schubert had
approached it from the other direction, expanding and sectionalising a
Franck's
single movement plan so that it resembled several movements.
use of cyclic form in the Violin Sonata is not so systematic as in, say, the
D minor Symphony, but you will notice ideas from one movement cropping
up in another, giving a unifying feel to the whole.
The first movement is a relatively sunny affair, not without its moments
of passion, but more substantially lyrical than any other first movement
Franck composed. The fiery D minor scherzo makes up for it, a movement
of passionate intensity where it is difficult for the piano not to dominate
and leave the violinist hanging on like someone on a roller-coaster. The
F sharp minor third movement is entitled "Recitative-Fantasia", and as the
name suggests is a rhapsodic, loosely-connected, questioning sort of
movement. The finale returns to the sunny A major of the first. Its main
idea is a famous theme in canon: you will notice that at the beginning the
violin's tune is the same as the piano's, coming in higher a bar later. In
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fact this is not so remarkable a compositional achievement as it sounds
and has the disadvantage that it makes the harmony rather static. Still,
it is undeniably a beautiful tune..
Incidentally, if you need help with other Belgians, apart from the
beleaguered Willy Claes, you could pick from Hergé (inventor of Tintin),
Maeterlinck (the symbolist playwright who wrote Pelléas et Mélisande),
Magritte (the surrealist painter), Django Reinhardt (jazz guitarist) and
Simenon (creator of Maigret).
Programme notes by David Mather
Floral decorations by Sue Bedford.
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FORTHCOMING CONCERTS
The next concerts in the 75th Season of the British Music Society,
presented in association with the Department of Music at the University,
are as follows. They take place in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall,
beginning at 8.00 pm.
§ Thursday, 14 December 1995
London Fortepiano Trio
Trio in A, Hob.XV:9
Duo for violin and piano in A, D.574
Trio in G, Op.1 No.2
§ Thursday, 11 January 1996
Dominic Seldis & James Pearson
A mixed bag of music for double bass and piano
Also in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at 8.00:
§ Wednesday, 29 November 1995
Haydn
Schubert
Beethoven
University Chamber Choir & Chamber Orchestra
Music by Fauré (including the Requiem) and Berlioz (Nuits d'été)
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BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY of YORK
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY
President
Dr Francis Jackson
Vice-Presidents
Joan Whitworth
Jim Briggs
Rosalind Richards
Chairman: Dick Stanley
Vice-chairman: Amanda Crawley
Hon. Treasurer: Albert Ainsworth
Hon. Asst. Treasurer: John Petrie
Hon. Secretary: Nigel Dick
Hon. Publicity Secretary: Stephanie Kershaw
Hon. Programme Secretary: Brian & Rosalind Richards
NFMS Representatives: Dr Richard Crossley & Noel Sexton
Hon. Auditor: Derek Winterbottom
7596
1998
Members of the Committee: Andrew Carter, Lesley & David Mather,
Robert Stevens and Sheila Wright
1999
1999
BENEFACTORS AND PATRONS
The BMS manages to maintain the high standard of its concerts largely
through the generosity of its Benefactors and Patrons. Without their
gifts to the Society, many of them covenanted, we could not hope to
balance our books.
Our Benefactors(§) and Patrons are as follows:
Mr A. Ainsworths
Mrs P. J. Armour
Mr R. A. Bellingham
Mr & Mrs J. Briggs§
Dr R. J. S. Crossley
Mr N. J. Dicks
Mr A. D. Hitchcocks
Mrs F. Andrews§
Dr D. M. Bearparks
Mr & Mrs D. A. C. Blunt
Mr A. R. Carter
Mrs M. Danby-Smiths
Mr C. G. M. Gardner
Mr G. Hutchinsons
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Dr F. A. Jackson
Mr J. C. Josling
Mr R. P. Lorrimans
Mrs A. M. Morcoms
Mr B. Richardss
Mrs D. G. Roebuck
Mr J. B. Schofield§
Mrs D.C. Summers§
Mr D. A. Sutton
Dr M. J. Turner§
Miss L. J. Whitworth§
Mr & Mrs A. Wright
If
you would like to become a Benefactor or Patron, or have any queries,
recommendations, criticisms or even praise, please make your feelings
known to one of the committee members: they should all be wearing
identifying badges.
Mrs E. S. Johnsons
Professor R. Lawtons
Mr P. W. Millers
Mr G. C. Morcoms
Mr L. W. Robinsons
Mrs I. G. Sargent
Mr & Mrs N. Sexton
Dr G.A.C. Summers§
Mr O. S. Tomlinsons
Mr J. I. Watson
Mr R. Wilkinsons
Mrs H. B. Wright
In addition to the generosity of our Benefactors and Patrons, the activities
of the BMS are supported by the NFMS with funds provided by Yorkshire
and Humberside Arts and City of York Leisure Services. The Society also
gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
AK
Yorkshire & Humberside
ARTS
Registered Charity No.700302
NATIONAL FEDERATION
OF MUSIC SOCIETIES
NEMS
Compiled by David Mather and published by the British Music Society
of York. Reproduced by WrightDesign of Easingwold.
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BORTHWICK
BMS 3/2/3 (4)
OF
INSTITUTE
HI TOPICAL
RESEARCH