Program Notes

Tonight’s performance features three works for piano quartet (violin, viola, cello and piano), and all were written within a span of fifty years. So because these works share instrumentation, and musical form, structure, and time period, one might be tempted to listen only for what these three works have in common. Instead, please consider this concert to be an opportunity to compare and contrast the distinct, individual characteristics of the nationalistic tradition as exemplified in the music from the Romantic period of Spain, Austria, and France. Spanish music of the Romantic period is rich with folk songs, dance rhythms, guitar-like flourishes and chord sequences, and idiosyncratic musical forms. Austrian Romantic music featured emotional intensity; rich and expansive harmonies, and straight-forward traditional musical structure. French composers favored lyrical and melodic characteristics, used concise elegant forms, and preferred subtle, not obvious, expressionism.

Joaquin Turina (1882-1949)
Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 67 (1931)
Performance time: 17’

In 1931, the Empire State Building opened, and was the world’s tallest building at 102 stories until 1970; Irma Rombauer privately published the first edition of The Joy of Cooking; Jacob Schick invented the electric razor.

Joaquin Turina (1882-1949)

Manuel de Falla and Joaquín Turina were the successors to Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados as the standard-bearers for nationalism in Spanish classical music – that is, for the incorporation of Spanish folk idioms and folklore into serious concert music

Turina graduated from the Royal Conservatory in Madrid. However, he had very little interest in Spanish music, and had moved to Paris to study composition in the more international style. One night, Albéniz took de Falla and Turina to a café for a drink, and lectured them on their responsibilities to their homeland. “We were three Spaniards,” Turina subsequently recalled, “gathered together in that corner of Paris, and it was our duty to fight for the national music of our country.” Turina subsequently returned to Spain to work as pianist, conductor and composer.

Turina wrote music in traditional Western classical music form, but also freely adapted these forms to suit his own expressive ideas. In fact, he composed much music using the Spanish idiom, including a large body of guitar music. He imbued his work with the folk rhythms and guitar styles of the different regions of Spain, which we will hear in today’s piano quartet.

This piano quartet departs from the traditional quartet form by omitting a long sonata-form first movement. Instead, the work uses a movement sequence of lento-vivo-andante, and ties the three movements together with common themes. The listener will be rewarded by listening for and remembering these themes. Starting with a slow introduction, the first movement is a lyrical picture of a Spanish garden or countryside in the evening. It opens with a searing statement from the strings. There is a momentary mood break before the movement gains full power with a strong piano solo. Lyricism invades before an abrupt conclusion.

The second movement is livelier, with another theme in Spanish dance-like character and recalling themes from the first movement’s introduction. The celebratory feeling, however, also has its dark Spanish mood. There is a return to the lively opening atmosphere, followed by a rousing and definitive ending.

The third movement is a rhapsodic treatment of folk-like motives. It opens with an elaborate violin solo followed by an intense piano solo. All four instruments then join forces for a section that uses themes from the first movement which are profoundly moving and also celebratory, and then it comes to a powerful conclusion.

Click here for a performance of this quartet by Camerata Pacifica. They are an interesting non-profit ensemble in California that perform in many different venues in California, including hospitals and retirement communities, and also have a travel program focused on music. And please note that their cellist is Ani Aznavoorian, the sister of Marta Aznavoorian, pianist, who will be performing this quartet tonight. Both are Chicago-born famous musicians we are privileged and happy to celebrate.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Piano Quartet in A minor (movement), Op. 15 (1876)
Performance time: 12’

In 1876, the Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought; Alexander Graham Bell won a patent for and then debuted his invention, the telephone; Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

At the young age of sixteen, Mahler was finishing his first year at the Vienna Conservatory and began to dabble in composing some chamber music, including this piano quartet. The first movement exists in complete form, and Mahler drafted a sketch of the second movement but then abandoned it. The famous 20^th century Russian composer Alfred Schnittke took the liberty of completing the sketch, but it is quite rare now to hear this second movement.

Following 19th century models, the movement is cast in traditional sonata form, with the presentation of two main themes followed by their development and restatement. The piano states the first theme. The strings extend this pattern, which then dominates the movement. The second theme, presented by the strings, complements the pattern with a rapid descending series of notes. The development combines the two themes, rising to an intense climax. The movement’s most imaginative passage is the return of the first theme, now in a subdued, even mysterious mood. Near the end, a cadenza for the first violin leads to a quiet conclusion.

Although written in his teens, this work is that of a mature composer. In a true Mahlerian manner, this quartet emphasizes seriousness and emotion in every phrase of the score. With the key of the work being centered around A minor, the foreboding darkness of the work can be heard.

Click here for a performance of this work at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for their annual Young Musicians Concert. It seems appropriate to listen to this piece, written by the 16-year old Mahler, performed by these Scarsdale High School musicians. Their performance is quite terrific.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1 (1879)
Performance time: 32’

In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the first practical incandescent light bulb; Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House premiered in Copenhagen, Denmark; Albert Einstein born in Ulm, Germany.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

Coming early in Fauré’s career between 1876 and 1879, the C minor Piano Quartet appears to be tied to his broken engagement with the beautiful Marianne Viardot, daughter of a French family prominent in operatic circles. The disconsolate Fauré was later comforted when he returned to his first love, the composition of chamber music and specifically the C minor quartet.

The definitive opening statement of the movement dispels our notions of watery Impressionism. Elusive yes, watery, no. Thrilling arpeggios and scales announce the pianistic challenge of the work while the string parts signal its melodic gifts. The long-short-long rhythmic pattern lends much intensity to the movement.

The graceful Scherzo is almost comic (and after all, the translation of “Scherzo” is “joke”) except for its gossamer delicacy. The piano plays the wispy melody over light pizzicato (plucked) chords in the strings. A quieter section intervenes before a return to the opening delicacy with much melody for the strings.

The Adagio well might be an expression of Fauré’s grief. Organized in A-B-A form, this deeply emotional movement portrays great yearning and melancholy. Both themes are structured around different treatments of rising scale fragments. The first, weighty and burdened, struggles to reach upward, even as it falls back in failure. The second, more songful, is slightly more optimistic. The piano part is elaborated for the return of the opening theme.

The last movement Allegro Molto brings a return of the rhythmic pattern of the first movement, lending the work great cohesiveness. Like a good French novel (perhaps Madame Bovary?) the Quartet builds to a passionate climax followed by a quiet recapitulation, and, finally to a brilliant conclusion.

Despite its undeniable dark underpinnings, the work is ultimately celebratory, as suggested in the final Allegro Molto, and seems almost to contradict Fauré’s declaration that he had been reserved all his life and was able to free himself only occasionally. Perhaps the C minor Quartet is one of those times.

Click here for a very interesting (although long) lecture by the famous Bruce Adolphe on Fauré and on this quartet itself. Adolphe gives these lectures on a subscription basis and they are quite illuminating. The performance of the first movement of the quartet itself starts at approximately 1:00:00. And of course, there are many performances of the complete work available on YouTube.

Program Notes by Louise K. Smith
with thanks to Willard J. Hertz,
Lucy Miller Murray and Melvin Berger.