Escher QuartetAdam Barnett-Hart, violin

Danbi Um, violinPierre Lapointe, viola

Brook Speltz, cello

Quartet in F Major, K. 590 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756-1791 Allegro moderato Andante – allegretto Menuetto: Allegretto Allegro

Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 BENJAMIN BRITTEN 1913-1976 Andante sostenuto. Allegro vivo Allegretto con slancio Andante calmo Molto vivace

— I N T E R M I S S I O N —

Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 “American” Antonín Dvořák 1841-1904 Allegro ma non troppo Lento Molto vivace Finale: Vivace ma non troppo

SAMUELI THEATERNovember 1, 2018

Th ursday at 8 p.m.

Preview talk by Dr. Byron Adams at 7:15 p.m.

Out of courtesy to the artists and your fellow patrons, please take a moment to turn

off and refrain from using cellular phones, pagers, watch alarms and similar devices. The use of any audio or videorecording device or the taking of photographs (with or without

flash) is strictly prohibited. Thank you.

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Discography: NAXOS, BISExclusive Management: ARTS MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC.

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About the Program

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZARTBorn: January 27, 1956, Salzburg, AustriaDied: December 5, 1791, Vienna

String Quartet in F Major, K.590

The F major is Mozart’s last quartet, written in June 1790, a year and a half before his

death. The tenth of his mature quartets, it is actually the 23rd that he wrote.

The opening theme of the quartet can be simply described as an ascending arpeggio followed by a descending scale. Yet Mozart immediately transforms this basic material, changing the dynamics, the individual notes, and the scoring, thereby effecting a metamorphosis of the character it originally presented. To start the second theme the cello moves up in a broken chord from its very lowest note over two octaves to the new lyrical melody. The first theme returns to end the exposition. A concise development section leads to the recapitulation, which is little changed from the exposition. The coda starts just like the development but quickly winds down to a delightfully attractive, witty ending.

Alfred Einstein, the noted Mozart scholar, says of the Allegretto: “One of the most sensitive movements of the whole literature of chamber music, it seems to mingle the bliss and sorrow of a farewell to life. How beautiful life has been! How sad! How brief!” The basis of this movement is not so much a melody as a rhythm, a plain rhythmic figure played at the outset by the entire quartet. Mozart

then reflects and meditates on this basic cell, plumbing its emotional depths and setting it forth in any number of different guises and postures, allowing it to permeate the entire movement.

The opening of the Menuetto—and, even more, the central trio—is rich in the use of appoggiaturas, quick ornamental notes that are played just before main notes. While there are those who dispute whether appoggiaturas should be played before the beat (so the main note is on the beat) or on the beat (delaying the main note), most experts now agree that Mozart’s appoggiaturas should be played squarely on the beat. In the Menuetto the appoggiaturas precede long notes; in the trio they come before short notes. In addition to the extensive use of appoggiaturas, the irregular phrase length, seven measures in the Menuetto and five measures in the trio (instead of the customary four measures), contribute to the movement’s overall eccentric quality.

The finale, a high-speed vivacious frolic, unstintingly gives all four players flashy passages that test even the most secure techniques. Cast in a combined rondo and sonata form, this irresistible, appealing movement has intricate fugal and contrapuntal sections, unexpected pauses and silences, harmonic surprises, and even a brief imitation of a bagpipe, making a brilliant cap to Mozart’s tragically short string quartet-writing career.

BENJAMIN BRITTENBorn: November 22, 1913, Lowestoft, EnglandDied: December 4, 1976, Aldeburgh, England

Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25

In Benjamin Britten’s childhood home, music was considered an essential part of daily life.

The earliest sounds that he could remember, though, were not of singing or piano playing, but of World War I bombs exploding near his home on the North Sea coast of England. Perhaps this terrifying memory helped turn Britten into a committed pacifist, leading him to flee his much beloved England for America just before the outbreak of World War II. It was in July 1941, while living in the small seashore town of Amityville, Long Island, that

he composed his first string quartet under a commission from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The work received its premiere in Los Angeles in September 1941, played by the Coolidge String Quartet. It was later awarded the Library of Congress medal.

The overall witty character of the quartet is belied by the introduction’s unmoving, dissonant cluster of tones played in the extremely high register by the violins and viola. Before long, though, an exuberant, rhythmic tune is flung out forcibly and with crackling energy. Maintaining the same rhythmic vitality, but softer and lighter, another theme, hardly more than an ornamented ascending and descending scale, is heard. The rest of the movement is then essentially devoted to alternating the slow introductory material and the highly charged contrasts.

The second movement, a sort of scherzo, tiptoes in lightly and delicately. All goes well until the viola rudely intrudes with a loud three-note turn. Sensing the impropriety, though, the viola gets in step with the others. As the movement progresses, however, the tread grows heavier, and there are more and more interruptions, until the triplet figure begins to dominate in various guises, the remainder of this impish, joyful movement.

The slightly asymmetric five-beat meter gives the Andante calmo a sedate lilt. Its repeated opening notes, a consonant echo of the first movement’s dissonant introduction, become the background for the simple, conjunct melody. A slightly faster middle

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section, with bold, disjunct declamatory statements from individual instruments, along with snatches of the opening interposed, is heard next, before the first section returns for a quiet close.

Britten starts the finale with a flip, quirky phrase that he whips into an intricate fugal passage. A rush of descending sixteenth notes transforms the phrase into the cello accompaniment for a sustained melody in the violins and viola. A second theme, quiet and static, follows. Britten works over these various thematic threads, weaving them together to create a boisterous climax.

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁKBorn: September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, near PragueDied: May 1, 1904, Prague

Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, “American”

When Dvořák arrived in New York from Prague on September 17, 1892, he immediately took up his duties as director of the National Conservatory but also continued to compose and fulfill his many obligations as a visiting celebrity. By the end of the taxing season, he was delighted to accept an invitation to spend the summer visiting the tiny (population 300) farming community of Spillville, Iowa, made up of Czech immigrants who preserved the language, culture and customs of their native

land. Dvořák arrived in Spillville on June 5 with his wife, six children, sister, maid, and secretary. Three days later he was already at work on a new string quartet. Although he usually composed quite slowly, he finished the sketches by June 11, writing at the end, “Thanks be to the Lord God. I am satisfied. It went quickly.” As soon as the final score was ready, on June 23, Dvořák, playing violin, along with three students, read it through. The “official” premiere was given in Boston by the Kneisel Quartet on January 1, 1894.

Written just after the New World Symphony, his most famous symphony, this quartet becomes Dvořák’s best known chamber music composition and acquired a similar nickname, the “American” Quartet. Many hear in the quartet strains of black spirituals and plantations songs, as well as elements of American Indian music. Others doubt that the quartet grew from sounds Dvořák heard in America and hold rather that it is based on certain melodic and rhythmic similarities shared by both American ethnic music and the Bohemian-Slavic folk tradition. This difference of opinion really matters little in light of the “American” Quartet’s enormous popularity and universal appeal.

Against a shimmering background that resembles the start of Smetana’s E minor quartet (1876), the viola sings out the first jaunty tune. After the confident swagger of the viola melody, the second theme, played by the first violin, seems tentative and restrained. Both themes are based on the five-tone pentatonic scale (the black keys of the piano), a common feature of folk songs around the world. The following development is devoted to the first theme until a fugato based on the second subject acts as a transition to the restatement of both themes.

The Lento, widely considered the crowning movement of the quartet, is like a lovely emotional aria with the first violin and cello mostly involved with the melody and the second violin and viola sustaining a busy, flowing accompaniment. The movement’s construction is arch-shaped, starting quietly and building gradually to an impassioned climax before fading to a subdued close, as the cello, nostalgically goes through the melody for the last time, accompanied by alternate bowed and plucked notes.

Although cast as A-B-A-B-A form, the third movement is essentially monothematic, since B is little more than a slower version of the A tune. The middle part of the A section is based on the song of the scarlet tanager, which Dvořák heard and notated on his walks around Spillville.

The Finale immediately establishes a rhythmic pattern that may be an adaptation of native Indian drumming. The first violin dances its joyful tune with and around the continuing beat. Other melodies follow, all with the same high-spirited good humor. In the middle of the movement, the tempo slows, and Dvořák introduces a chorale, probably derived from one of the hymns that he enjoyed playing on the organ for services at Saint Wenceslas church in Spillville. Following the chorale is a shortened restatement of what came before, leading to a resolutely happy ending.

Guide to Chamber Music, Melvin Berger ©1985

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About the Artists

ESCHER STRING QUARTETAdam Barnett-Hart, violins Danbi Um, violins Pierre Lapointe, viola Brook Speltz, cello

The Escher String Quartet has received

acclaim for its profound musical insight

and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New

Generation Artist, the quartet has performed at

the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular

guest at Wigmore Hall. In its home town of New

York, the ensemble serves as Season Artists of

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,

where it has recently performed quartet cycles of

Beethoven and Zemlinksy.

The 2018-2019 season finds the Escher

Quartet touring the U.S. extensively, performing

in numerous cities and venues including New

York’s Alice Tully Hall, Washington D.C.’s

Kennedy Center, Segerstrom Center for the Arts

in Costa Mesa, Chicago’s Harris Hall, West Palm

Beach, Baltimore and Pasadena, among others.

Internationally, the quartet returns for a season

long residency at London’s Wigmore Hall,

where it will present three self-curated programs

highlighting American and American-influenced

compositions.

Within months of its inception in 2005, the

ensemble came to the attention of key musical

figures worldwide. Championed by the Emerson

Quartet, the Escher Quartet was invited by

both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman

to be Quartet in Residence at each artist’s

summer festival: the Young Artists Program at

Canada’s National Arts Centre; and the Perlman

Chamber Music Program on Shelter Island, NY.

The quartet has since collaborated with artists

including David Finckel, Leon Fleischer, Wu

Han, Lynn Harrell, Cho Liang Lin, Joshua Bell,

Paul Watkins, and David Shifrin, and in 2013,

the quartet became one of the very few chamber

ensembles to be awarded the prestigious Avery

Fisher Career Grant.

Known for their wide stylistic interests,

the Escher Quartet has collaborated with jazz

saxophonist Joshua Redman, vocalist Kurt Elling,

legendary Latin artist Paquito D’Rivera, and

tours regularly with Grammy Award-winning

guitarist Jason Vieaux.

The Escher Quartet has made a distinctive

impression throughout Europe, with

recent debuts including the Amsterdam

Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, London’s

Kings Place, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall, Les

Grands Interprètes Geneva, Tel Aviv Museum of

Art, and Auditorium du Louvre. With a strong

collaborative approach, the group has appeared

at festivals such as the Heidelberg Spring Festival,

Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, Dublin’s Great

Music in Irish Houses, the Risør Chamber Music

Festival in Norway, the Hong Kong International

Chamber Music Festival and the Perth

International Arts Festival in Australia.

Alongside its growing European profile, the

Escher Quartet continues to flourish in its home

country, performing at the Aspen Music Festival,

Bowdoin Music Festival, Toronto Summer

Music, and the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals.

In 2014, the quartet gave a highly praised debut

at Chamber Music San Francisco and in 2015

presented a Schubert quartets focus at Music@

Menlo in California.

Currently String Quartet in Residence at

Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas,

the quartet fervently supports the education of

young musicians and has given masterclasses at

institutions such as the Royal Academy of Music

in London and Campos do Jordão Music Festival

in Brazil. Some of the Quartet’s most socially

impactful work takes place in Northeast Ohio,

where the Quartet serves in residence at the

Tuesday Musical Association in Akron and the

University of Akron.

Recordings of the complete Mendelssohn

Quartets, released on the BIS label in 2015-

2017, were received with the highest critical

acclaim, with comments such as “…eloquent,

full-blooded playing... The four players offer

a beautiful blend of individuality and accord”

(BBC Music magazine). The Escher’s most

recent recording, beloved quartets of Dvořák,

Borodin, and Tchaikovsky, was met with equal

enthusiasm. The quartet has also recorded the

complete Zemlinsky String Quartets in two

volumes, released on the Naxos label in 2013 and

2014 respectively, to accolades including five stars

in The Guardian with “Classical CD of the Year,”

a recommendation in The Strad, “Recording of

the Month” on MusicWeb International and a

nomination for a BBC Music magazine award.

The Escher Quartet takes its name from

Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by

Escher’s method of interplay between individual

components working together to form a whole.