The first thing this classy music-loving audience might want to do is to
offer a silent tribute to Felix Mendelssohn. He’s our hero for
resurrecting and conducting the Bach Passions and B-Minor Mass and
several of Handel’s Oratorios. How horrible it would be had those
treasures stayed buried. The wealthy Mendelssohn also spent time and
money to promote the careers of composers who were less fortunate.
The next thing this adventuresome music-loving audience might want to do
is to send up a cheer for a really interesting program. One neat package
combines the poetic elegance of Mendelssohn, the Mexican flavor of
Revueltas, and the Afro-Cuban melancholy of White with the emotional
power of Shostakovich.
A toast everybody: heist your glasses to a new year of chamber music
discoveries.
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Robert Schumann considered Mendelssohn to be the Mozart of the 19th
century. Franz Liszt proclaimed him “Bach reborn.” Generations of
listeners have no trouble accepting Mendelssohn as Mendelssohn, and are
quite happy to place him on the same honor roll as Mozart and Bach. Lest
we forget, Mendelssohn was also an accomplished pianist, violist,
composer, and teacher, all of which greatly influenced his works. Much
of his music is easy on the ear, written in a comfortable classical form
with occasional fresh breaths of Romanticism.
Born in Hamburg to a wealthy Jewish family, Mendelssohn encountered many
well-known philosophers, actors, artists, writers and musicians. His
solid grounding in cultural pursuits matured him fast, and at the age of
13 he was already an accomplished musician and composer. At the age of 16
he married the daughter of a Lutheran pastor and twenty two years later
died at the age of 38 from overwork and grief over the death of his
beloved sister Fanny.
BONUS FACT: CONTRARY TO HIS TIDY PERFECTED MUSIC, MENDELSSOHN DRESSED
VERY BADLY: “HE WAS IN SAD WANT OF A PIECE OF SOAP AND THE NAIL BRUSH,”
WHICH HIS SISTER SO OFTEN THREATENED TO OFFER HIM. YOU GOTTA LOVE THOSE
SISTERS.
STRING QUARTET NO.4 in E MINOR, OPUS 44, NO. 2. The opus 44 collection
of three quartets was dedicated to the Crown Prince of Sweden.
Historians tell us that Mendelssohn’s marriage was a happy one, so we
assume that his wife didn’t object to him composing the quartet while
they were honeymooning. There’s not much hint of romanticism in the
straightforward first movement, but what is interesting is the sudden
recognition of baroque techniques. It’s as if Mendelssohn was a bit
hesitant to depart from the influence of Bach. Another point of interest
is the cello playing in a range much higher than normal, which creates a
fascinating tonal texture. Mendelssohn’s principal themes get routine
treatment here, but later, a new bold theme, acting as a referee of sorts
comes in to separate the two principal themes. A powerful modulating
buildup, heavily endowed with rushing16th notes, concludes the movement.
You’ll love this rhythmic gem of a Scherzo, and you might be surprised
at how it can be so bouncy and graceful at the same time. Particularly
interesting is the violin’s steadfast long sustained notes against the
pulsating accompaniment.
Aha, so here comes the romanticism. Does the Andante not open and close
with a love song? Was Mendelssohn thinking of his bride? To keep it
from getting too intimate and sentimental, he throws in an agitated
episode, and no, we refuse to think of it as an argument. In the Presto
Agitato, themes fight for dominance until they finally come together,
playing simultaneously. The boisterous race to the end will get your
attention.
SILVESTRE REVUELTAS
The Mexican composer/violinist was born in Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango
and studied first in Mexico then Chicago. He conducted theater
orchestras in Texas and Alabama, and was a free-lance violinist until
1928 when he was appointed associate conductor of the Mexico Symphony
Orchestra. He taught violin and chamber music at the Mexico National
Conservatory. During the Spanish Revolution, he served as Promoter of
Culture Affairs for Spain’s Loyalist government. In addition to his
orchestral, string, piano, and vocal compositions, he wrote music for
seven films. Unfortunately, he too had s short life, dead at the age of
40 in Mexico City.
After reading his delightful autobiographical notes, we wish we could
have known this colorful, witty, talented musician, who grew up poor in
wealth but rich in humor and the arts. His father, a businessman of the
humble life, loved art, music and poetry, and sacrificed much to see his
son pursue his dreams. Revueltas loved Bach and Beethoven, and the
lithographs and engravings of poor Beethoven, grim-faced and defying the
storm, had a strong influence on him. “I could do no less” said
Revueltas.
BONUS FACT: REVUELTAS CONFESSED THAT HE WAS “BORN WITH A REGRETTABLE
INCLINATION TOWARDS MUSIC AND LOAFING, AND AN UNQUENCHABLE NOSTALGIA FOR
NEW HORIZONS.” HE WAS THREE YEARS OLD WHEN HE HEARD MUSIC FOR THE FIRST
TIME (FROM A LITTLE VILLAGE BAND). “HIS LISTENING WAS SO INTENSE THAT
HIS EYES CROSSED, AND CROSS-EYED HE REMAINED FOR THREE OR FOUR DAYS” UPON
HEARING HIS MUSIC TONIGHT, INSTEAD OF A STANDING OVATION, JUST CROSS YOUR
EYES.
STRING QUARTET NO 4 (MUSIC OF THE FAIR)
Step right up folks. This one-movement work will accompany you through the fair grounds where you might hear the typical sounds of a Mexican Fiesta. Watch out for the drunks, and listen for the happy children. You might hear more than one Mariachi band, and some even playing at the same time. You might hear fair goers walking the walk and talking the talk. It is busy music because the fair ground is crowded. There will be moments of beauty and moments of surreal quietness. And with bitonality, polyrhythms and folksy songs tuning up together, you will always be kept in the moment. You may even get a glance of Ravel and Stravinsky on your way to the exit.
JOSE SILVESTRE WHITE.
White was born in Matanzas, Cuba and died in Paris. He had an
international reputation as a leading concert violinist, and in the late
19th century he was a leading exponent of the modern school of French
violin playing. “The black Paganini” wrote works for piano, harpsichord,
orchestra and string quartets, but his rise to fame was due mostly to a
notable violin concerto and the enormously popular “La Bella Cubana,”
originally for violin and piano, and later for voice and piano. There
are a host of transcriptions out there today, including tonight’s
arrangement for string quartet.
BONUS FACT: AT THE AGE OF 16, WHITE GAVE HIS FIRST PUBLIC CONCERT IN
MATANZAS. HE PERFORMED A FANTASY ON THEMES FROM ROSSINI’S WILLIAM TELL
AND TWO OF HIS OWN VARIATIONS OF THEMES FROM CARNIVAL OF VENICE AND
MELODIA SOBRE AIRES CUBANAS. HIS DISTINGUISHED ACCOMPANIST WAS LOUIS
GOTTSCHALK, WHO ENCOURAGED HIM TO GO TO PARIS TO STUDY AND WHO HELPED
RAISE MONEY TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE.
“LA BELLA CUBANA” (“THE BEAUTIFUL CUBAN WOMAN”)
Such a beautiful sad song, this traditional song of the island, and how
neat is its construction. A gorgeous melody with some Chopin influence
grabs one in deep places. But equally satisfying is the syncopated Cuban
contra dance that interrupts the melting melody. It’s nearly five
minutes is not nearly long enough.
DIMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
It was anything but a cold war between Shostakovich and Stalin’s Soviet
Union. The love-hate relationship is documented all over the place and
it certainly has colored most of Shostakovich’s compositions. For many
years Shostakovich was considered the “great white hope” of Soviet music.
But then came 1936, the year Stalin began his terror reign of arrests,
executions, and trials. Shostakovich’s denunciations took many turns and
his game of “creating deliberate dissonances and chaotic flood of sounds”
was deemed dangerous and absurd. The churning forces of war, the many
casualties, and the purging of fellow artists shaped his attitude and his
music. So is there any wonder that his music is full of anger,
ambiguity, cynicism and even satire. He was a clever composer who often
used irony to pull the wool over Stalin’s “ears.”
Shostakovich quartets were written between 1938 and 1974 and each has an
interesting history. You might consider reading “Testimony, The Memoirs
of Dimitri Shostakovich” as related to and edited by Solomon Volkov.
BONUS FACT: DID YOU KNOW THAT SHOSTAKOVICH WROTE FOR THEATER ORCHESTRAS?
IN ONE OF HIS JAZZ SUITES, HE WROTE AN ARRANGEMENT OF “TEA FOR TWO,”
WHICH SOME CALLED “TAHITI FOXTROT.” THE ARRANGEMENT CAME ABOUT AS A BET
WITH CONDUCTOR MALKO, WHO BET SHOSTAKOVICH THAT HE COULDN’T TAKE THE
PIANO SCORE AND ORCHESTRATE IT WITHIN AN HOUR. IN FORTY MINUTES THE TASK
WAS DONE!
STRING QUARTET NO 3 IN F MAJOR
We like to think of this 5-movement quartet as one absorbing music
novel. There are many points of interest in every “chapter,” but the
near-seamless progression from one movement to the next invites an
overview description. You will hear a huge sound at the beginning. It
may even sound like an orchestra whooping up a polka of sorts, but
there’s irony. Shostakovich instructions, more or less, were to play it
straight and with tenderness, not with sass or with a light heart.
Listen for the “tiptoeing” staccato accompaniment in the second movement
and how it dances around the haunting melodies. Note the mysterious
strange happenings and the delightful way tender themes, like light
breezes, slip into the maze of sonorities.
Brusque chords sound really mean and urgent in the introduction to the
third movement, and the changing meters add a delicious edge to the
sound. Somewhere down the way we’ll hear a funeral march and the death
theme, which will figure so prominently in later works.
We will note that sometimes the accompaniment gets very percussive.
Even when it’s not pizzicato, there’s so much definitive pulse one can
all but “see” the drummer. We like the passion in this music - the
weeping viola, the wandering cello and the suspended tension of the upper
strings. We like the grit. This quartet is definitely not for sissies.
But listen up. Is not the subtle ending a quiet marvel?