Schubert String Trio in B-flat major, D.471 (1816)
Mozart Trio in E-flat major, K.498, “Kegelstatt” (1786)
Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time (1940)
My faith is the grand drama of my life. I’m a believer, so I sing words of God to those who have no faith. I give bird songs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them, make rhythms for those who know only military marches or jazz, and paint colors for those who see none.
Olivier Messiaen
In our first concert of the calendar year we offer a selection of great pieces that, typically for BCMS, allow our players to be heard in different roles and relationships. The great apocalyptic statement by Olivier Messiaen that concludes our concert has the distinction of being one of the few chamber works, if not the only, to be written for a diverse ensemble and assembled in that same spirit—piece by piece—using different forces as new characters and relationships appeared in life.
Much has been written about the inspiration, circumstances, and techniques that occasioned the creation of Quartet for the End of Time. Messiaen, himself as pianist, and the other players (violin, cello, and clarinet) for whom it was written, have provided more personal, technical, and practical guidance for understanding this work than we have for any other in the repertoire. The reason for so many words may be more about seeking acceptance in a secular and broken world, lessening the resistance of nonbelievers for movements whose titles are unabashedly faithful.
There is an historical context within which to hear Messiaen’s Quartet. Since the times of Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel and Satie, French composers sought to throw off the aesthetic dominance of Germanic musical styles (from Haydn through Wagner) and restore those qualities that epitomized the spirit of French traditions since the time of Rameau and Couperin. By returning to imagery from the natural world, from painting and literature, the exotic that flooded Europe through International Exhibitions and colonialism, or the ‘primitive’ of Stravinsky and others; by breaking from writing long heavy movements to short witty pieces, Messiaen, armed with all the tools of his times, was more than ready to express epic losses on an apocalyptic scale, and transcendent faith.
Our opening work, by the nineteen-year-old Franz Schubert, draws on a rich Classical tradition of writing for string chamber combinations. D.471, which consists of a full first movement and second movement fragment, is a second of three efforts to compose a full string trio in B-flat major. The first, D.111A, was only a few measures; and the third, D.581, in four full movements, was also published with a second version that has significant changes. New to our repertoire, our first performance of D.471 took place only last November in our Arlington Street Church Series as an opener to the weightier string quintet by Anton Bruckner. As a single finished movement, it may feel like a fragment, or the start of a very promising work in progress.
As the first work for clarinet, piano and viola, Mozart’s K.498 trio is also unusual for his choice of instruments—pairing two middle instrumental voices with piano, rather than one high (violin or flute) with one low (cello or bassoon). The piece was dedicated to the von Jacquin family whose daughter, Franziska, was one of Mozart’s piano students. The work is in three movements—each of about the same pulse albeit different meters—and makes increasing technical demands on the pianist as she ‘progresses’ from one movement to the next.
The first movement seems to be embedded with a lesson on how to play an ornamental turn that is heard played by viola and piano in the very first measure. That turn is repeated nearly sixty times throughout the movement as one might find in an etude designed to develop mastery. In the piano part alone it appears, in one hand or the other, on each step of the E flat major and minor scales (if you count the one appearance on F-sharp).
Mozart, who was also a brilliant pianist, played the viola part (!) with Franziska at the piano and later praised her studiousness and diligence in a letter dated 1787. The name “Kegelstatt” which refers to skittles was supplied at a later time. This work has been performed repeatedly by BCMS throughout our history and is available on CD.
Enjoy!
Marcus
