We open the second concert of our fall series at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre by concluding the observance of Frederic Chopin’s 200th birthday begun this summer at the Mosesian Theater at the Arsenal Center in Watertown. In that series we heard Chopin’s early piano trio, two ballades, and his Op. 3 for cello and piano, Introduction and Polonaise Brilliante. Sonata in G minor, Op. 65 (1845-7) for cello and piano is a late work, which Chopin premiered with cellist Auguste Franchomme the year before he died at age 39. As a composer and virtuoso pianist living in Paris, he was known primarily for his inventiveness in short or stand-alone character pieces that evoked an expatriate’s memories of his native Poland. Chopin struggled for many years creating the sonata because it presented several challenges—moving from essay to epic proportions, finding an appropriate chamber music balance between the two instruments by reining in the virtuoso piano writing for which he was famous—all without sounding too influenced by the Germanic traditions. Chopin well understood that great oaks grow from small acorns. The underlying three-note motif from which the piece springs is first heard twice in the piano introduction (as G-F#-G and D-Eb-D), but really exposed and echoed by the cello’s first breathless utterance (A-Bb-A).
Chopin Cello Sonata in g, Movement 1, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Chopin65_1.1.wmv
Thereafter, it appears in one variation or another at the beginning of each movement and is not only a source of connection, but also a resource for further chromatic creation and expansion.
Chopin Cello Sonata in g, Movement 1, second themehttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Chopin65_1.2.wmv
Chopin Cello Sonata in g, Movement 2, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Chopin65_2.wmv
Chopin Cello Sonata in g, Movement 3, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Chopin65_3.wmv
Chopin Cello Sonata in g, Movement 4, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Chopin65_4.wmv
For me the Sonata is collection of delicious sounds and ironies. With all Chopin’s efforts to show mastery of a large multi-movement work without sounding Germanic, his gorgeous third movement Largo is excerpted as an independent, short piece and performed more often than the entire Sonata. The underlying harmonies of its piano accompaniment are taken verbatim from the chords introducing Beethoven’s First Symphony transposed from C major to B-flat. On top of these chords, within the oboe part from first to second and second to third, are the notes E-F, F-E, or E-F-E, the motif for the entire sonata. That chromatic motif gave birth to harmonies like those of the second theme in the first movement, mentioned earlier, and is recognized today as a source of the harmonic language for many who followed: Liszt, Wagner, and especially, Richard Strauss, all of whom had a profound effect on the sound of Germanic music for generations to come.
Chopin Cello Sonata in g, Movement 1, second themehttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Chopin65_1.2.wmv
Alfred Schnittke’s String Trio was commissioned to commemorate the 100th birthday of Alban Berg in 1985. Schnittke, who has been recognized as spiritual heir to Dimitri Shostakovitch, has said that the music of Alban Berg is dearest to him “above all others.” Schnittke’s working processes and expressive qualities closely resemble those of Alban Berg in the way motifs are transformed to the point of disintegration, and tonal and atonal elements are used side by side. Born in the Soviet Union in 1934 Schnittke moved with his family to Vienna just after World War II where he began his musical training. Schnittke was profoundly affected by the decay and disintegration of the world that had invented and supported the musical traditions he inherited. Much of his music consists of abruptly juxtaposing fragments and quotes of earlier and contemporary music and/or styles in an idiom known as Polystylism. (Other terms that might apply are Eclecticism and Collage.) The String Trio, relying more on juxtaposing styles of music rather than quotes of actual pieces as he did in the first string quartet, takes the act of recollection and remembrance onto a whole new scale. Rather than quoting a pre-existing piece, he ‘inhabits’ a work that is regarded as one of the greatest musical memorials ever conceived: Violin Concerto (1935) by Alban Berg. The concerto was written in Berg’s 50th year to memorialize the daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius. (It was premiered in Barcelona by Louis Krasner, father of a long-time BCMS subscriber.) The String Trio is in two movements, as is the concerto. When tonality appears at the beginnings and ends of movements, it tends to hover around or to introduce G minor. The G minor triad is at the root of the twelve-tone row that Berg carefully arranged to allow him to move between tonality and atonality. (The triads, arranged as interlocking tonic and dominant, are the tonal elements; the whole-tone scale at the end of the row, the atonal.)
Schnittke String Trio, Movement 1, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Schnittke_1.1.wmv
Schnittke String Trio, Movement 2, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Schnittke_2.1.wmv
The prominent use of the whole-tone scale we associate with the music of Debussy is really one of the least explored territories within major and (natural minor) scale. Berg’s quotation in the Violin Concerto of Bach’s harmonization of the opening whole- tone phrase of the chorale ‘Es ist genug’ still has the power to shock.
Berg Violin Concerto, Poco piu mosso, ma religioso, Es ist genughttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Berg_Es_ist.wmv
Berg Violin Concerto, Movement 2, endinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Berg_end.wmv
Schnittke String Trio, Movement 2, endinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Schnittke_2.ending.wmv
Schnittke includes other references to music with which he has deep connection: Just when things seem to be wandering and hopeless we are confronted with the repetitive certainty of a Philip Glass or Steve Reich- type minimalist episode.
Schnittke String Trio, Movement 1, #15-17https://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Schnittke_1.15-17.wmv
As Schnittke was a convert to Christianity we are also witness to Russian Orthodox chant played in a screechy voice that is achieved by playing on the bridge:
Schnittke String Trio, Movement 1, #26-27https://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Schnittke_1.26-27.wmv
One way in which we experience Schnittke’s connection to Dimitri Shostakovitch is in the way Schnittke spells out the name of Bach in the same way Shostakovitch spelled his own name: DSCH = D, Eb, C, B natural
Shostakovich String Quartet in c, Op. 110, Movement 1, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Shostakovich_opening.wmv
BACH = Bb, A, C, B natural Transposed to begin on F# becomes: F#, E#, G#, G natural And embellished, it is:
Schnittke String Trio, Movement 1, endinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Schnittke_1.ending.wmv
Schnittke achieves a richness of texture that is rare for string trios by requiring players to play many double note passages, i.e., more that one note at a time, thereby creating a texture one might hear from at least twice as many people. This same idea of adding double stops to his inner part writing for purposes of enriching or thickening a texture is also employed by Brahms in String Quintet in F major, Op. 88 (1882). Adding a second violist to the standard string quartet as did Mozart six times, Mendelssohn twice, and the cello by Schubert and Boccherini, has the immediate effect of shifting the tonal spectrum of the entire ensemble to the darker side. In this work Brahms goes even farther by choosing the key of F that guarantees the continued resonant use of the lowest pitches (the C strings) on viola and cello every time he passes the tonic and dominant chords in the outer movements. Brahms considered this quintet his most beautiful work. It is certainly among his most melodic, nostalgic, and inventive.
Brahms Quintet in F, Op. 88, Movement 1, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Brahms088_1.wmv
Instead of the standard four-movement scheme, Brahms adapts the form of the second movement to take the place of two: by combining a slow section based on an earlier Sarabande, and a quicker section based on an earlier Gavotte as a variation. Making it all work required the unusual step of beginning the movement in one key (C-sharp major/minor) and ending in another (A major), each a major third away from the F major key of the piece. Moving from C-sharp major/minor (a black-note key) to A major, a white-note key with more open string resonance has the effect of moving tonally from darkness to light. The quintet ends with one of the most vigorous fugatos (fugue-like textures) in the literature that is both spirited and spiritual heir to the finale of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 59 #3, complete with loud chords as harmonic pillars!
Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 59 No. 3, Movement 4, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Beethoven059.3_4.wmv
Brahms Quintet in F, Op. 88, Movement 3, openinghttps://bostonchambermusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Brahms088_3.wmv
Enjoy!
