One of Arnold Schoenberg’s most celebrated works, Pierrot lunaire is a masterpiece of ground-breaking melodrama. The music, written for five instrumentalists and a reciter of Sprechstimme or ‘spoken-singing’, features poetry by Albert Giraud that explores an obsession with the wonders of moonlight.
Helen Grime, who curated the 2022 Sheffield Chamber Music Festival, took the same poems by Giraud as the starting point for her own brilliantly eccentric miniatures, while Brahms’s soul-searching trio is a sublime and celebratory work.
When Ensemble 360 performs Pierrot Lunaire, they’ll be joined by star soprano Claire Booth, whose many dramatic interpretations of Pierrot over the years have been lavished with praise. She’s become the go-to singer to take on this astonishing role, with her perfect understanding of the complex and ever-changing character of Pierrot’s obsession with the beauty of the moon. After a recent performance, The Guardian’s critic Andrew Clements was stunned by Claire’s ability to tread the line between cabaret and nightmarish extremes, but with her caricature staying just “on the right side of winsomeness”.
If Claire and the Ensemble’s performance will be your first experience of Pierrot Lunaire, then be prepared for a truly unforgettable evening.
BRAHMS Johannes, Clarinet Trio in A minor Op.114
Allegro Adagio Andantino grazioso – Trio Allegro
When Brahms first heard the playing of Richard Mühlfeld, principal clarinettist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, he had not written any chamber music involving the clarinet. But after a meeting in March 1891 he was inspired – following more than a year of creative silence – to write two major works for his new-found muse. On 24 November 1891, Mühlfeld, the Joachim Quartet and Brahms himself played both the Trio and the Clarinet Quintet at a private concert for the Duke of Meiningen. The first public performances followed on 12 December 1891, in the Berlin Singakademie. For the Trio Mühlfeld was again joined by the cellist Robert Hausmann and Brahms.
The four movements of the Trio are concise and clear in design, without quite the mystery or the rapturous spirit that pervades the Quintet. However, the writing for the three instruments is unusually closely integrated, intertwined even – prompting Brahms’s friend Eusebius Mandyczewski to write in a letter to the composer that ‘it was as if the instruments were in love with one another.’ Brahms’s technical prowess can also be seen at its most ingenious: the second theme of the first movement is introduced as a canon in inversion, a procedure that can also be found in Haydn, and perhaps this was a nod from Brahms to one of the composers of the past he most admired. As well as the Trio and Quintet, Brahms went on to write the two Clarinet Sonatas Op.120 for Mühlfeld – all late masterpieces inspired by this great clarinettist.
The first performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Springin Paris in May 1913 may have provoked the most famous riot in musical history, but it wasn’t the only one. A few months earlier in Berlin on 16 October 1912, some members of the audience at the premiere of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunairewere enraged by what they heard. When Albertine Zehme – the actress who had commissioned the work from Schoenberg – appeared on the platform in a Pierrot costume, she was, according to one eyewitness ‘greeted by an ominous murmur from the audience. One could not help admiring her courage, as she went on from poem to poem, disregarding the hissing, booing and insults shouted at her and Schoenberg. There were also fanatical ovations from the younger generation, but the majority were outraged. A well-known virtuoso, his face purple with rage, shouted: “Shoot him. Shoot him,” meaning Schoenberg, not the poor undaunted Pierrot.’
What was it that caused such rage? While Schoenberg’s use of Sprechgesang (speech-song) was not new (both Schoenberg and Humperdinck had used it before), its other-worldly effect in Pierrot lunaireis something that must have been disconcerting. So, too, was the sense of disorientation (and unpredictability) of Schoenberg’s music. To listeners in 1912 it’s easy to see how this might have seemed downright peculiar, but to audiences today, Pierrot lunaire is a work of eerie beauty.
“Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire belongs alongside Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and a few other modernist masterpieces as one of the truly groundbreaking scores of the early 20th century”
The Guardian
SOUNDS OF NOW: THE STRING QUARTETS OF ANNA MEREDITH
Anna Meredith has achieved incredible success straddling multiple musical worlds, never compromising her raw, individual style. This concert launches the Ligeti Quartet’s new album, Nuc, providing a survey of Meredith’s career to date, heard through her original works for string quartet.
Nuc started life as a conversation between Anna Meredith and Richard Jones (Ligeti Quartet’s viola player) after realising that after a decade of frequently working together, they had almost an album’s worth of music. So an idea developed in which they would not only make the first studio recordings of Anna’s original music for string quartet, but that Richard would create new arrangements of existing tracks by Anna including from her award-winning electronic and dance albums.
The result is a joyful, occasionally furious, never too serious, energetic/restful collection of tracks which dazzle with Anna’s signature compulsive harmonies, rhythmic shifts of gear and sparkling textures.
“One of the most innovative voices in contemporary British music.”
Tonight’s concert in Sheffield with Steven Osborne has been postponed. Please bear with us while we make the arrangements for a new date. Tickets will be automatically transferred and box office will be in touch with ticket holders. Thanks for your patience, and sorry for any disappointment.
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BEETHOVEN Bagatelle in A Op.33 No.4 (3’) SCHUBERT Piano Sonata No.20 in A D959 (40’) RACHMANINOV Preludes Op.23 & Op. 32 (selection) (10’) RACHMANINOV Études Tableaux (selection) (10’) RACHMANINOV Sonata No.2 in B flat minor (24’)
Steven Osborne is one of the world’s most sought-after pianists, whose extraordinary musical depth has seen him in huge demand both on stage and in the recording studio, so it’s wonderful to welcome him back to Sheffield for what is sure to be a spectacular evening.
Steven will open with Beethoven at his most perfectly simple, before the poignant beauty of music by Schubert, with a work he composed near the end of his life. Finally, the evening is completed with three breathtaking examples of pulse-racing works for piano by Rachmaninov.
BEETHOVEN Ludwig Van, Bagatelle in A Op.33 No.4
Beethoven’s Bagatelles,Op.33, were first published in 1803 and they serve as a wonderful demonstration of his mastery of small forms. The A major Bagatelle, the fourth of the set, is a quiet, tender piece, its mood of calm entirely unruffled by drama. Though eminently Beethovenian in terms of its musical language, the serene feeling of this Bagatelle certainly seems to point the way forward to some of the music Schubert was to write more than two decades later.
Nigel Simeone
SCHUBERT Franz, Piano Sonata No.20 in A D959
In May 1838, the Viennese firm of Diabelli published Schubert’s last three piano sonatas. Schubert had originally intended to dedicate this trilogy of sonatas to the pianist and composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, but by the time they appeared in print Hummel, too, was dead and the publisher dedicated them instead to Robert Schumann, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of Schubert’s music. Schumann’s love of Schubert’s music had begun as a very private passion, as he wrote when reviewing the newly-published sonatas: ‘Time was when I spoke of Schubert reluctantly, and then only at night to the trees and the stars.’ In turn, Schumann’s great protégé Brahms wrote to his friend Adolf Schubring about Schubert, in words that could almost be a description of parts of Schubert’s A major Sonata in this concert: ‘Where else is there a genius like his, which soars with such boldness and certainty to the heavens, where we see the very greatest enthroned? He impresses me as a child of the gods who plays with Jove’s thunder and occasionally handles it in an unusual manner. But he plays in a region and a height which others cannot hope to attain.’
Composed in September 1828, two months before Schubert’s premature death, the A major Sonata opens with a noble first subject, soon contrasted with delicate triplets. Some typically adventurous harmonic excursions eventually arrive at the serene second subject. All this material is worked out in a spacious, unhurried sonata-form. The main theme of the slow movement (in F sharp minor) suggests a kind of cradle song, interrupted by a highly charged central passage full of dissonance and drama (pianist Alfred Brendel characterised it as ‘unease and horror’). The Schubert scholar Brian Newbould has written that in the delectable Scherzo, Schubert ‘uses the piano as percussionist and songster by turns’, while the finale combines elements of sonata form and rondo to create a sublime movement anchored by a gentle song-like main theme.
Nigel Simeone
RACHMANINOV Sergei, Preludes Op.23 & Op.32
One of the greatest pianists of his age, Rachmaninov’s own compositions for solo piano ranged from shorter works including sets of Preludes and Études-tableaux, to much more grandly-conceived pieces, notable among them his two piano sonatas. The Preludes (Op.23 and 32) were composed between 1901 and 1910. Unlike Chopin’s Préludes, Rachmaninov’s two sets were not conceived as a whole, but even though it wasn’t his initial plan, Rachmaninov eventually mirrored Chopin (and Bach before him) by composing one prelude in each of the twenty-four keys.
Nigel Simeone
RACHMANINOV Sergei, Études Tableaux
Rachmaninov’s conception of the form is more expansive than Chopin’s, with some preludes amounting to miniature tone-poems, but this tendency became more explicit in the two sets of Études-tableaux(Op.33 and 39), composed between 1911 and 1917. Reviewing an early performance, one Russian critic noted the stylistic evolution that can be detected in these works: ‘In the Études, Rachmaninov appears in a new light. The soft lyricist begins to employ more severe, concentrated and deepened modes of expression.’
Nigel Simeone
RACHMANINOV Sergei, Sonata No.2 in B flat minor
Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor was composed between January and August 1913, written simultaneously with his choral masterpiece The Bells. It was first published the following year but Rachmaninov was never entirely happy with the results and he made an extensive revision of the sonata in 1931, claiming that the original version was ‘too long’. Always ferociously self-critical, Rachmaninov’s 1931 revision has often been considered to be too drastic and pianists from Horowitz (with Rachmaninov’s blessing) to Steven Osborne in our own day have made performing editions which combine the best of both versions. The first movement, marked Allegro agitato, opens with a dramatic descent into despair, though this is by no means the only mood: one of the contrasting ideas is richly lyrical and the recapitulation is heralded by a glorious pealing of bells. The slow movement is a lilting intermezzo (with a more intense central section), while the Allegro molto finale brings the work to a thrilling and powerful close. The movements are played without a break and they are unified by thematic references which recur throughout the work.
Nigel Simeone
“A masterclass in the true beauty of pianism, delivered with an intelligent and instinctive musicality.”
When King Colin’s golden underpants go missing, it’s Sir Scallywag to the rescue! Brave and bold, courageous and true, he’s the perfect knight for the job… even if he is only six years old!
Original music by our children’s Composer-in-Residence, Paul Rissmann, features instruments including strings, woodwind, and horn, presented together with story-telling and projected illustrations from the best-selling children’s book by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul.
Performed by the wonderfully dynamic and hugely engaging Ensemble 360 and Polly Ives, this concert is a great introduction to live music for children. It’s full of wit, invention, songs and actions, and plenty of opportunities to join in.
Explore all the resources for teachers online here.
Books for teachers will be provided at the INSET sessions before the concerts. To enquire about pre-ordering a CD of the music, please email ellen@musicintheround.co.uk
Programme of music by CoMA’s Sheffield, Manchester & Allcomers participants including work by Cyborg Soloists composer Mark Dyer.
Join CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) for this programme of works that interweaves explorations of the human voice into the unique colours of an open ensemble. CoMA Sheffield and CoMA Manchester are joined by composer Mark Dyer (of the Cyborg soloists project), and will present his piece Mensura for voice and wearable metronome alongside other works by Sheffield and Manchester based composers, including a world premiere by Peter Bourne.
The programme will also include two pieces by the CoMA Allcomers Ensemble made up of players from all around Sheffield who have joined the ensemble for the day.*
Scores will be available for audience members to peruse during the concert.
*If you would like to join the Allcomers ensemble, please email ellen@musicintheround.co.uk to receive more details.
There’s no need to book for any of these free events, just turn up!
Saturday 14 May 10am-4pm Sheffield Winter Garden CLASSICAL SHEFFIELD / RAYE HARVEY violin Musicians from Classical Sheffield perform short concerts throughout the day in Sheffield’s Winter Gardens. Performances include collaborations with violinist Raye Harvey – catch Raye at 1.30pm with CoMA Sheffield and at 2.00pm with violin and cello duo Lucy Philips & Jonny Ingall.
Sunday 15 May 1pm – 1.30pm Samuel Worth Chapel COME AND SING PERFORMANCE
SHEFFIELD CHAMBER CHOIR and public participants (CONDUCTED BY ROBERT WEBB) Singers of all ages and abilities come together for music-making and an informal performance, following a morning of workshopping English composer Tippett’s arrangement of Willis’ Steal Away and American composer Shruthi Rajasekar’s Jayjaykar!.
Wednesday 18 May 1pm – 2pm Crucible Studio Foyer POP-UP PERFORMANCES BY LEEDS CONSERVATOIRE
Musicians from Leeds Conservatoire perform short concerts over the hour’s break between concerts.
Wednesday 18 May 4.30pm-6.30pm Orchard Square POP-UP PERFORMANCES BY LEEDS CONSERVATOIRE & THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
Musicians from The University of Sheffield, Leeds Conservatoire, and participants from our recent Bridge weekend for young wind musicians, perform short concerts throughout the afternoon.
Thursday 19 May 5.30pm – 6pm Site Gallery SOUNDS OF NOW WORKSHOP PERFORMANCE COMA SHEFFIELD & SHEFFIELD MUSIC SCHOOL
Sheffield Music School are joined by CoMA Sheffield and musicians from Bastard Assignments in this workshop and informal performance of open scores by Sarah Hennies and Joanna Bailie. The public are welcome to watch the workshop process from 4.30pm, before we open our doors for an informal performance at 5.30pm.
Saturday 21 May 10am – 11am Crucible Studio Foyer POP-UP PERFORMANCES BY SHEFFIELD MUSIC ACADEMY
Sheffield Music Academy perform short concerts in the foyer, led by Martin Cropper.
Saturday 21 May
12pm – 1pm Crucible Studio Foyer & Crucible Adelphi Room POP-UP PERFORMANCES BY SHEFFIELD MUSIC ACADEMY & THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD MUSIC DEPARTMENT Musicians from The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Music Academy perform short concerts in the Crucible Studio foyer and Adelphi Room.
R SCHUMANN Kreisleriana Op.16 (32′) STOCKHAUSEN Klavierstück VII (7’) CHOPIN Two Nocturnes Op.27 (12’) CHOPIN Three Mazurkas Op.59 (11’) CHOPIN Sonata No.3 in B minor Op.58 (26’)
Tim Horton continues his exploration into the music of one of the greatest composers for piano, Frédéric Chopin. Few musicians have had an influence on other composers quite like Chopin, and Tim has selected a sequence of some of his most beautiful music to illustrate this. Robert Schumann’s music is of intense passion that leaps without warning from tender to wild melodies, while Karlheinz Stockhausen’s approach to the piano was to find an entirely new world of sound, creating fascinating spine-tingling sonorities.
Please note the change to the previously advertised programme for this concert. We apologise for any disappointment this may cause.
Pre-concert talk with Tim Horton and Tom McKinney 6pm – 6.30pm Tim Horton chats to Music in the Round’s Programme Manager and BBC Radio 3 presenter Tom McKinney. Free to all ticket-holders for the evening concert. Please request your ticket at time of booking.
SCHUMANN Robert, Kreisleriana Op.16
Writing to a Belgian friend in 1839, Schumann wrote that of all his piano pieces, ‘I love Kreisleriana the most’, though he went on to admit that ‘only Germans will understand the title.’ In the same letter, he explained that ‘Kreisler was created by E.T.A. Hoffmann, an eccentric, wild and ingenious musician. There are many things about him you will like.’ The volatile mood-swings of Kreisleriana and the almost improvised feeling of some pieces are brilliantly imaginative musical evocations of the fictitious Kreisler’s personality. By turns passionate, intimate, capricious, dream-like and dramatic, Schumann wrote the pieces for Clara Wieck (whom he was to marry in 1840). Schumann told her that in Kreisleriana ‘you will play the main role, and I wish to dedicate it to you. You will smile so sweetly when you recognize yourself in them.’ Ultimately, the dedication was changed (Clara was afraid that accepting it would risk worsening the strained relations with her father), and the first edition, published in 1838, had an inscription from Schumann ‘to his friend F. Chopin’. Although Chopin’s reaction to the work was lukewarm, the following year he reciprocated by dedicating his Second Ballade to Schumann.
Nigel Simeone
STOCKHAUSEN Karlheinz, Klavierstück VII
Karlheinz Stockhausen began his series of Klavierstücke in 1952 while he was studying with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire. Klavierstück VII was composed in 1954 (a year after he left Paris) and extensively revised in 1955. One of the most remarkable features of the piece is the use of silently depressed keys allowing sympathetic vibrations to be set up. The result is that different sonorities are created by the same pitch – a technique that can be heard throughout the work.
Chopin completed the pair of Nocturnes Op.27 in 1836 and they were dedicated to Countess Thérèse d’Apponyi, wife of the Austrian ambassador in Paris. In the rather desolate first nocturne, in C sharp minor, the Chopin scholar Arthur Hedley detected hesitation and anxiety, and a mood of night-time and mystery. Its companion piece, in D flat major, serves as a complete contrast, bringing light where there had been darkness. The opening melody – described by Hugo Leichentritt as ‘achingly beautiful’ – unfolds over a gently undulating accompaniment. Listening to this magnificent pair of pieces, it is no surprise that Schumann welcomed Chopin’s nocturnes as heralds of a new age in piano composition.
Chopin’s mazurkas, inspired by the folk dances of his homeland, are often where he was at his most experimental, particularly with harmonies. The three Mazurkas Op.59 were composed in 1845. The first, in A minor, contains daring modulations, the second (dedicated to Mendelssohn’s wife, Cécile) is richly melodic (the main theme subtly varied and decorated as the piece progresses), while the third presents a rather brittle angular melody, often supported by chromatic harmonies.
Chopin developed many new forms of piano music, from the kind of audacious miniatures found among the mazurkas to extended single-movement works such as the ballades and scherzos. But he also wrote three piano sonatas, drawing on structures inherited from Mozart and Beethoven. The Piano Sonata No.3, Op. 58, was completed in 1844 and its first movement is in sonata form. Even so, the music seems closer to the world of Chopin’s ballades than to any classical models, particularly in the rhapsodic development section. The outer sections of the Scherzo are filled with rapid movement, the ideas delicate and airy, while the slow Trio is richly harmonised but never loses its hints of unease. After a declamatory opening, the slow movement – a Chopin nocturne in all but name – is dominated by the song-like melody heard near the start, the mood changing for a dream-like central section before returning to the opening idea. The finale has a seemingly unstoppable momentum and energy, and for Marceli Antoni Szulc, Chopin’s first Polish biographer, this movement evoked images of the Cossack Mazeppa on a galloping horse.
BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet (40’) BRAHMS 3 Intermezzi for piano Op.117 (16’) DOHNÁNYI Sextet (30’)
Ensemble 360’s clarinettist Robert Plane takes centre stage in this programme of sumptuous Brahms and bravura Dohnányi. The concert opens with an autumnal quintet full of subtle turns between languid themes, playful conversation and wistful melodies. Dohnányi’s unusually scored sextet brings together piano, clarinet, horn, violin, viola and cello to create a dramatic and sassy piece that draws on the influences of Brahms, waltzes and dance-like jazz.
BRAHMS Johannes, Clarinet Quintet Op.115
Allegro
Adagio
Andantino. Presto non assai, ma con sentimento
Con moto
In 1890, while only in his late fifties, Brahms declared that he was retiring: the String Quintet Op. 111 was to be his farewell from composition. A few months later he heard Richard Mühlfeld, clarinettist of the Meiningen Orchestra, and wrote to Clara Schumann that ‘the clarinet cannot be better played’. It inspired him to carry on composing. In the summer of 1891 Brahms went to stay at Bad Ischl in the Salzkammergut where he wrote the Clarinet Trio and Clarinet Quintet. Mühlfeld gave the premieres of both works on 12 December 1891 in Berlin. On hearing a performance in London the following year, George Bernard Shaw wrote that ‘it surpassed my utmost expectations’, and when the conductor Arthur Nikisch heard the Quintet, he fell to his knees in front of Brahms.
It has a rare and hypnotic beauty, thanks to its pervasive mood of melancholy, occasionally interrupted by quiet rapture, or by fiery gypsy figurations. The opening is played by the strings alone (like Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet), from which the clarinet emerges as if through the mists. Ideas gradually become more fully formed, and Brahms uses the tension between the home key (B minor) and its relative major (D major) to great expressive effect. The slow movement is a song-like Adagio, interrupted by a clarinet outburst in which Brahms evokes the improvisations of gypsy players. The third movement is a gentle interlude, with a more animated central section, and the finale is a theme and variations in which music from the opening movement is recalled at the end, to magical effect.
Andante moderato
Andante non troppo e con molto espressione
Andante con moto
These three short pieces were composed at the Austrian spa town Bad Ischl in 1892 and first performed in Berlin on 6 January 1893 by the pianist Heinrich Barth. Like the first of the Ballades Op.10, the first Intermezzo is based on a Scottish poem printed in Herder’s collection, this time a lullaby (and, informally, Brahms sometimes called the whole set ‘Lullabies’). Clara Schumann was enchanted by these pieces when she first saw them, telling Brahms that ‘In these pieces I at last feel musical life stir once again in my soul’. When Brahms’s publisher Simrock suggested using Lullabies instead of Intermezzi as the official title, Brahms’s response was endearingly curmudgeonly: ‘It should then say, lullaby of an unhappy mother or of a disconsolate bachelor’.
Allegro appassionato
Intermezzo
Allegro con sentimento
Presto, quasi l’istesso tempo
Born in Hungary, Dohnányi’s early compositions had been praised by Brahms, and he always had a strong sense of being part of the Austro-German Romantic tradition. In this respect he was very different from his classmate at the Budapest Academy, Béla Bartók, but his music is always beautifully crafted and has very individual harmonic touches. The Sextet for piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet and horn was completed on 3 April 1935 and it is the most unusually scored of his chamber works. It was first performed in Budapest on 17 June 1935, with the composer at the piano, and received warm reviews. One critic specifically praised the unusual choice of instruments, commenting that ‘the combination … is neither coincidental nor arbitrary.’
The musical structure is unified by Dohnányi’s use of a dramatic rising motif – often on the horn – that is first heard right at the start. The first movement is brooding and tense, but ends with hope (the rising motif returning in triumph). The Intermezzo includes a rather sinister march, while the third movement is a set of variations that includes one that is scherzo-like. This leads directly into the finale – an almost dizzyingly ebullient movement which suggests a kind of jazzed-up Brahms.
ANDY SHEPPARD tenor saxophone ESPEN ERIKSEN piano LARS TORMOD JENSET double bass ANDREAS BYE drums
Multi-award-winning British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, and the Norwegian masters of melody, Espen Eriksen Trio, is a partnership that has resulted in international tours and an acclaimed album. Espen’s trio is a tight unit with a dazzling use of dynamics, ranging from melancholic moods to hypnotic grooves and an almost telepathic level of interplay.
With a career spanning over four decades, working with the likes of George Russell, Gil Evans and Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard is truly one of Europe’s leading saxophonists and composers. Expect absorbing and uplifting music from superb musicians at the top of their game.
With a career spanning over four decades, working with the likes of George Russell, Gil Evans and Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard is truly one of Europe’s leading saxophonists and composers. Expect absorbing and uplifting music from superb musicians at the top of their game.
Please note: Sheffield Jazz concerts are not included in any Music in the Round ticket discount offers.
“The symbiosis between the saxophonist and the trio is truly remarkable.”
We’re very sorry but this concert has been postponed. Box office staff will be contacting ticket holders over the next few days. Please accept our apologies for any disappointment caused. We look forward to welcoming the artists in a future season.
Programme to include works by HILDEGARD VON BINGEN & HEINRICH BIBER.
Innovative violinist and recently appointed Resident Artist at London’s Southbank Centre, Daniel Pioro, is joined by Katherine Tinker on piano and chamber organ for an exploration flowing from the ancient sacred sounds of Hildegard von Bingen and Heinrich Biber, to a selection of contemporary meditations.
SUK Meditation on an Old Czech Chorale (7’) SMETANA String Quartet No.1 From My Life (31’) Arr. BURLEIGH (adapted for string quartet by Jeremy Birchall) I’ve been in the storm
Oh Lord, what a morning (7′) DVOŘÁK String Quartet No.12 American Quartet(26’)
Opening with Suk’s Meditation on the Chorale St Wenceslas and including the African-American composer Burleigh’s quartet settings of I’ve been in the storm and Oh Lord, what a morning, this sumptuous evening of music concludes with Dvořák’s most famous quartet.
This turbulent and thrilling selection of music tracks the relationship between nineteenth century quartet writing in eastern Europe and the musical conversations that played a decisive role in the evolution of chamber music.
SMETANA Bedřich, String Quartet No.1 in E minor ‘From my Life’
Allegro vivo appassionato
Allegro moderato à la Polka
Largo sostenuto
Vivace
In 1874 Smetana fell ill with an infection that led within months to total deafness. For peace and quiet he moved to the village of Jabkenice in Central Bohemia, and it was here that he produced this overtly autobiographical quartet in 1876. Smetana supplied his own commentary on the work. It opens with ‘the call of fate (the main motif, first heard on the viola) into the struggle of life. The love of art in my youth; inclination towards romanticism in music as well as in love and life in general; a warning about my future misfortune – that fateful ringing of the highest tones in my ears which told me of my coming deafness.’
The second movement (à la Polka) brings back, according to Smetana, ‘memories of the merry time of my youth’, while the third ‘reminds me of the beauty of my first love for the girl who later became my faithful wife. The struggle with unhappy fate, the final achievement of my goal.’ For the fourth movement Smetana wanted to depict: ‘the recognition of a national awareness of our beautiful art, the pleasure derived from it and the happiness of success along the way until a terrible-sounding high tone starts ringing in my ear (in the quartet a high E) … as a warning of my cruel fate.’
The first performance took place in Prague on 29 March 1879. During his last years, Smetana’s behaviour became increasingly erratic. Early in 1884 he was moved to an asylum in Prague where he died a few months later.
BURLEIGH Henry Thacker, I’ve been in the storm & Oh Lord, what a morning
Henry (Harry) Burleigh was born in Pennsylvania in 1866 – his grandfather had been emancipated from slavery in the 1830s and his father fought for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. As a child, Burleigh’s grandfather taught him the melodies that were commonly sung by enslaved African-Americans. In his teenage years he developed into a fine classical singer, making regular solo appearances at churches and synagogues.
At the age of 26 he moved to New York to study at the National Conservatory of Music, which coincided with the arrival of the Conservatory’s new director, Antonín Dvořák, who’d been brought to America with the specific role of laying the foundations of an authentic national musical style. Dvořák was thrilled by Burleigh’s voice, and there’s some evidence to suggest that it was Burleigh who introduced certain melodies to Dvořák which would find their way into the ‘New World’ Symphony and ‘American’ String Quartet.
Burleigh’s long career was centred around performing and publishing his arrangements, helping to popularise Swing Low, Deep River and Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen. He died at the age of 82 and his body is interred in Erie, the town where he was born and which celebrates his music and wider legacy with a week-long annual festival.
DVOŘÁK Antonin, String Quartet in F Op.96 ‘American’
Allegro ma non troppo
Lento
Molto vivace
Finale. Vivace ma non troppo
Dvořák was teaching in New York in 1893, and for his summer holiday he travelled over a thousand miles westwards, to the village of Spillville in Iowa, set in the valley of the Turkey River. It had been colonized by Czechs in the 1850s and in these congenial surroundings Dvořák quickly wrote the String Quartet in F major. On the last page of the manuscript draft, he wrote: ‘Finished on 10 June 1893, Spillville. I’m satisfied. Thanks be to God. It went quickly.’
Coming immediately after the ‘New World’ Symphony (which was to have its triumphant première in New York later in the year), the quartet has a mood that suggests something of his contentment in Spillville. Dvořák’s assistant Josef Kovařík recalled the composer’s routine: walks, composing, playing the organ for Mass and talking to locals, observing that he ‘scarcely ever talked about music and I think that was one of the reasons why he felt so happy there.’
Just how ‘American’ is the quartet? While remaining completely true to himself, Dvořák admitted that ‘as for my … F major String Quartet and the Quintet (composed here in Spillville) – I should never have written these works the way I did if I hadn’t seen America’. The first performance was given in Boston on New Year’s Day 1894 by the Kneisel Quartet.
PART Pari Intervallo CAGE Harmony XVIII (from 44 Harmonies) ROOSENDAEL Rotations for solo recorder CAGE Harmony XX (From 44 Harmonies) LIM slowly, turning WORLD PREMIERE CAGE Harmony XXXVI & HARMONY XL (From 44 Harmonies) HOSOKAWA Sen V for solo accordion CAGE Harmony XII (From 44 Harmonies) PART Spiegel im Spiegel
A unique programme of music and movement, inspired by the physicality of Roosendael’s Rotations, created by virtuoso recorder player, Tabea Debus and dazzling accordion player Samuele Telari, in collaboration with award-winning choreographer Sally Marie.
Featuring a new commission and works from giants of twentieth century music, the show will make full use of the intimate ‘in the round’ Studio Theatre space for its first ever performance before touring to the United States and beyond.
Presented in partnership with the Young Classical Artists Trust.
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