Beethoven's Opus 130 (part IV) - Wednesday, February 22, 2012
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Beethoven's Opus 130 (part III)
The Grosse Fuge is Beethoven’s most controversial piece of music. To quote Joseph Kerman on this subject of whom he is the great expert, he describes the main issue. “The finale worried everybody: the players, the elite audience, Beethoven’s friends, very definitely the publisher, and by implication the composer himself. The Grosse Fuge one review called “incomprehensible, a sort Chinese puzzle.” The violinist Schuppanigh found it troubling. Beethoven’s not-always-to-be trust biographer Anton Schindler calls it Monstrum aller Quartett-musik, an honest statement on his part. Paul Bekker wrote: “Each movement is merely episodic inasmuch as it prepares for the finale.”
The Philharmonic Society’s 1995-96 concert season is still my favorite. It was the first one where I had a clean slate for securing new attractions. The first time I could strut my stuff. On that season, I scheduled the Arditti Quartet from London on this very series that tonight’s program is a part. The Arditti is arguably the most outstanding string quartet for contemporary chamber music. I wanted our audience to experience them first had. Knowing that some (as it turned out many) would object to the absence of familiar composer names on the program, I suggested to Irving Arditti, the quartet’s founder and first violin, that it might be a good idea to include a piece by one well known classical composer that would fit it with the avant-garde music on the program. The choice was obvious – Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge. It worked to a degree. At the intermission, Irving backstage commented to me “Dean, that’s a tough crowd.” I responded “Yea, they can be but the most important thing is that they are troopers, still in the hall and want to hear what you got on the second half.” There was a mixed reaction to the overall program – the subscribers seated in the best seats offer tepid applause while those in the marginal seats the single ticket buyer enthusiasts went wild. We are still programming the Grosse Fugue. The Brentano played the fugue alone the last time they were here.
The fugue is the alpha leader of the previous 5 movements. It is 15 minutes long. The opening is in your face, some may find it a bit brash or actually really brash to downright rude. The counter subject to the fugue theme is jerky, angular. The harmonies push the edge of tonality. It has a rollicking energy that propels the movement along. The inventions and twist and turns seemed to cascade endlessly but not effortlessly. Beethoven worked very hard on this movement. Suddenly there is a more serene treatment of the counterpoint. It still has that now familiar probing feel, trying carefully to find its way in the dark. It is like a horror movie. Things are good now but you know the monster will be back. What a shock to the sensibility of the early nineteenth century audience. We are lulled then again surprised what seems to be some closing material. Is it going to end? Of course not, this Beethoven, and late Beethoven at that. We are back into the fugue followed by flurry of trills. The harmonies are unstable, continually shifting. The dotted rhythms of the counter subject are further developed. We come to a stop with a clear cadence or two (like the first movement} and then what sounds a coda. Its happy almost reminiscent - then closing chords. The fugue theme once again returns in octaves trying to dominate the proceedings. The counter subject amid more trills brings the movement to a more normal and final close.
The Op.130 was completed in 1825 with the fugue. Published in June 1827 after Beethoven’s death by Matthias Artaria who asked Beethoven for a replacement movement for the fugue telling the composer that sales of the published work with the fugue would be difficult seeing as how no amateur group could play it much less unde
Beethoven's Opus 130 (part III) - Monday, February 20, 2012
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Beethoven's Opus 130 (part II)
The third movement is seven minutes long marked Andante con moto am non troppo, Poco scherzozo. After a few rather melancholy opening bars, a lovely melody ensues suggestive of upward steps en pointe asking probing questions followed by a descending answering passage that hearkens the future Dvorak. This movement begs to be choreographed as other movements of this quartet have. It is elegant. Towards the end of the movement is a chromatically descending sequence with triton skips and an accompanying ostinato that is extremely curious. This is another example of the late period Beethoven peeking into realms to which we mere mortal have no access and coming back to tell us what he saw. Maynard Solomon astutely writes: “With the Quartet in B-flat, op.130, Beethoven perhaps (almost certainly) had tried to carry his audience with him into a realm which their training and sensibility would not permit them to enter.” We are just now really beginning to get it.
The fourth movement is marked Alla danza tedesca which is what it really is – a lovely German dance. One can picture couples gliding gracefully across a dance floor in some manor house. It is bittersweet in the sense that Beethoven was never a part of such a couple. Having a family of own eluded him his entire life. Now as he is coming to the end of his, this delightful movement is all the more poignant. Added to this is the crisis with his nephew Karl that I will discuss in a moment. This piece is also short, less than 4 minutes, sort of a bookend pairing with the bagatelle supporting the en point movement. This cleans the slate for the powerfully beautiful penultimate movement – the fifth, Cavatina: adagio molto espressivo.
This is the movement that can be described as being out of this world. Figuratively, the deep personal expression seems borne of that same insight Beethoven draws upon during this late period. His vision and understanding seem somehow transported beyond our sphere, into a good place that he is able protray in this music. Literally, a recording of the Cavatina by the Budapest String Quartet is travelling at this moment through the Kuiper Belt on the far edge of our solar system aboard the Voyager 7 launched in 1977. This was Carl Sagan’s idea.
A cavatina is a short, simple song. Beethoven’s, though simple and kind of short (six minutes) probes our inner most feelings, connecting his with ours. It is a meditation. It is Mahleresque. Beethoven himself said that the Cavatina cost him tears both in the writing of it and merely to revive it in his thoughts afterwards.
The second section, features a violin solo marked as beklemmt or anguished which probes furtively, somewhat painfully upward in melodic development of the Cavatina then is joined again by the repeat of cavatina theme quietly ending the movement. In earlier times Beethoven would have further developed this beklemmt solo, but his compositions have now in a final phase of transcendence - not so much exploring as probing. As his slow movements go, this cavatina does not dominate the entire quartet as do ones in earlier quartets. This gives us a premonition that something very powerful is around the corner, which indeed it is. We are on the doorstep of the greatest explosion of Beethoven’s extraordinary vision and imagination – the Grosse Fuge or great fugue, the final and sixth movement.
To be continued...
Beethoven's Opus 130 (part II) - Friday, February 17, 2012
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Beethoven's Opus 130 (part I)
The distinguished Beethoven scholar William Kinderman refers to the term as denoting Beethoven’s favorite quartet, substituting the meaning of Liebquartett, or beloved quartet for the actual term Leibquartett, a glossy way out of the puzzle without really solving it. Albrecht claims, and I believe him, that the meaning of Beethoven’s reference was mixed up in translation. Beethoven coined this term Leibquartett not referring to his Op. 130 but to the actual quartet of musicians performing the Op. 130, namely Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Carl Holz, Franz Weiss and Joseph Linke – his Leib quartett or his “personal” quartet, a group of guys he was close to. This group organized to perform what would turn out to be Beethoven’s last works. They were the first professional string quartet. Prior to the advent of the Beethoven quartets, especially the last ones, professional musicians and talented amateurs could play most string quartets with just a few rehearsals. Schuppanzigh, a violin teacher of Beethoven, formed his group to tackle the difficulties of the Beethoven quartets. They went on to perform Schubert and other composers as well. Schuppanzigh became extremely corpulent later in life, so much so that Beethoven wrote a choral ditty poking fun of him called “Lob auf den Dicken” or “Praise to the Fat One.”
Of the Op. 130 itself, its six movements, while retaining some cohesiveness, are individual souls, like a pack of creatures, the alpha movement of the group being the final great fugue. This grouping of characteristic individuals carries over from the concept of the Diabelli Variations and the Bagatelles, op. 126 again presaging the romantic idea of separate ideas pulled together in spite of themselves, like works of Schumann and Chopin. Beethoven is having a good time.
The first five movements are delightful with an exhilarating if somewhat disturbing final sixth. The first movement marked Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro meaning slowly but not too much and then fast is somewhat deceiving. I would say it is more like slow-then-fast, then not-too-slow then fast again, then hold on a second, then slow and fast at the same time and so on and so on. It is not your garden variety slow introduction and then fast movement like most of the string quartet first movements written up to this point. Beethoven builds the whole movement on a series of cadences interspersed with rapid sixteenth note figures. A cadence is a device used by composers to close a phrase or an entire piece with a single chord or a few chords moving towards a key that brings the passage to rest. Beethoven in this case weaves the cadences and the rapid passage into a fabric that is cohesive in a direction that is unpredictable keeping the audience pleasantly off guard. It all makes for some fascinating listening. It’s best to treat the music like a clever short story taking care to enjoy the twist and turns. It all seems to work out beautifully. You can almost hear Beethoven’s creative process at work, the joy of taking the road least traveled. We are all having fun along with him on this sojourn. The genius of it is how much he can do with only two ideas – the cadences and the rapid sixteenths.
And the second movement? It’s a bagatelle. Two minutes long. A trifling. A lively sorbet –a cleansing of your musical palette as it were. Again, this is not something that you would expect in a quartet, especially one from any composer’s late period. Curious towards the end are the downward chromatic violin cadenzas followed by the punchy tutti chords that lead back to the opening material briefly and then out. It is a lively little dance that is suddenly here and then suddenly and completely gone. Schuppanzigh and company were asked to repeat this one at the first performance. It is addictive. You want more of it. Beet
Beethoven's Opus 130 (part I) - Wednesday, February 15, 2012
In our
Beethoven: the Late Great celebration, we are surveying the late Beethoven quartets as well as major works, including the Missa Solemnis and the most famous of all, the Ninth Symphony. The quartets will be coming to you out of order. This past April, the Op. 132 was performed by the Tokyo Quartet at Samueli Theater. On Saturday, we had the Op. 130 with the Brentano Quartet. On March 20,
the Takács Quartet performs the Op. 131 along with Garrick Ohlsson joining them for the G minor piano quintet of Shostakovich. I will again introduce the program. For those of you who weren’t able to make it to my pre-concert talk on Saturday, I am including the notes from my talk on the Op. 130. Please.. enjoy!
I love the Beethoven Op. 130 quartet. Of the five late quartets, this is the third and the first to seriously stray from the four movement norm. These five quartets were published out of order. The first three Ops. 127, 132 and 130 were commissioned by Prince Nikolai Galitzin. The final two are Op. 131 (which we’ll have performed next month) and the Op. 135 (performed next year along with Op. 127).
Prince Galitzin was from an important Russian family. He was a music patron and cellist. He fought in the Battle of 1812 (the Russian one, not with Colonel Jackson). He spent some of his youth in Vienna where he became a great fan of Beethoven who him asked to write one, two or three string quartets. Galitzin was a member of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society and was very influential in arranging for the Society to give the premier of the Missa Solemnis in 1824.
Beethoven communicated to others during this period of his most profound deafness by means of conversation books, beginning in 1818. People would write down what they wanted to say or ask the composer and he would verbally answer back or sometimes respond back in writing himself. In the 137 sheets of the conversation books that exist, he referred to the Op. 130 as his Leibquartett. This has always been confusing to scholars (and to me for that matter) as to what he meant. Literally it can be translated as “body quartet,” “belly quartet” or “torso quartet.” Some scholars translate it to mean “love quartet” – Liebequartet rather than Leibquartett. An old college mate of mine Theodore Albrecht at the University of North Texas is now a very respected Beethoven musicologist at Kent State. I ran across a reference to this subject in a paper that Jeff Mistri was able to unearth, or more accurately “un-ether,” from the internet for me. The explanation is quite simple and brilliant.
Dr. Albrecht, or Teddy as we knew him back when, always had a way of getting to the crux of a matter, an important trait for a future musicologist. The two of us, along with our fellow music nerds, would spend weekends in discussion and whatnot while listening to the complete symphonies of Mahler and Shostakovich or the total Ring Cycle. Teddy had a pet cactus that he named Der Füher and we all thought was hilarious. There was obviously some beer involved on those weekends. Teddy, in his paper “Beethoven’s So-Called Leibquartett, Op. 130: A Case of Mistaken Identity,” states that many of Beethoven’s pieces had nicknames originated by the composer himself such as Eroica, Pathétique or Pastoral. Others are associated with their commissioners or dedicatees such Kreutzer, Rasumovsky or Archduke. Some names were attached by friends such as Tempest, or publishers for marketing purposes such as Moonlight, Appassionata or Ghost Trio. All of these names make some sense. On the other hand, Leibquartett as the bellyquartett, bowelquartett or womb quartett certainly does not.
To be continued...
Riccardo Muti brings Chicago Symphony to California - Monday, February 13, 2012
There was a wonderful article on the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Sunday's edition of the Los Angeles Times. This Friday, our presentation of Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be the first time the CSO has been back in southern California in 25 years. Muti himself hasn't conducted in southern California the 1980s when he came with the Philadelphia Orchestra. If you haven't yet purchased your tickets for this concert, you'll want to do so soon! Seats are selling fast.
You can read the article
here.
On Riccardo Muti & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Thursday, February 09, 2012
Next Friday is a very special night for the Philharmonic Society with our presentation of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We have been working for decades to bring this stellar ensemble back to Orange County. Dean, along with CSO’s Vice President for Orchestra and Building Operations, Vanessa Moss, has managed to pull it off after a lot of trying.
One factor that galvanized this project is that our arts partner up north, San Francisco Symphony, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this season, and they are doing so by presenting several American orchestras: Chicago Symphony, of course, along with the Cleveland Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. We are presenting both of these orchestras this season as well.
We welcome Maestro Riccardo Muti back since his last appearance here conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has a very interesting program that he has prepared for us, including the beautiful Franck D minor Symphony which is rarely performed these days. Dean recalls that in his formative years, this work was one of the most popular symphonies in the repertoire. He recollects, “My dad had a 78 rpm version recorded in the 1940s, coincidentally by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Pierre Monteux. I listened to it thousands of times. It has not been performed on our series since I have been here. It will be wonderful to experience it in the context of our wonderful concert hall.”
Tim Mangan of the
Orange County Register recently had an interview with Maestro Muti. He writes that instructed to address Muti as “Maestro,” he was pleasantly surprised to find that instead of being a “touchy sort with an artist’s ego,” Muti is rather “a gracious, friendly and charming interviewee, with an air, even, of modesty.” You can read the article
here. If you still need tickets for this concert, we’ve just opened up Choral Terrace seats at $50, so you can watch the Maestro in action! The first three rows of Orchestra are also now available for sale. Call Patron Services at (949) 553-2422, or purchase tickets online at the
event page.
Joshua Bell is in Town! - Monday, February 06, 2012
Joshua Bell is in town! He’s in Orange County this week for a residency as Artistic Director of the Laguna Beach Music Festival. Last week, he stopped by Jose Andres’ Bazaar restaurant in Los Angeles for lunch. He said, “After music, I think food is my life” and mentioned that every time he’s in the area, he has to have an In-N-Out burger. Perhaps you’ll spy Mr. Bell on your next Double Double run!
Speaking of the Laguna Beach Music Festival, come hear Philharmonic Society President and Artistic Director Dean Corey perform on the piano as part of the festival’s “Music Break” at the Hotel Laguna at 3pm this Wednesday, February 8th. A free music event for this year’s festival, the “Music Break” gives you a chance to hear friends and neighbors in piano recitals by talented non-professionals and surprise guests. There’s a different line-up each day (the “Music Break” runs Wednesday through Friday), and you can stop by the hotel lobby to check the schedule.
And now for your listening pleasure is Joshua Bell performing the second movement from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Catch them
live in concert on April 26th at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall!
My Favorite Mistake to French Impressions - Wednesday, February 01, 2012
The 10th annual Laguna Beach Music Festival kicks off next week on Monday and is headlined this year by none other than Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell. Named Instrumentalist of the Year in 2010 by Musical America, Joshua Bell is no stranger to this area. Mr. Bell first performed in Orange County in 1989, along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of André Previn. We had him back in 1999 as the opening concert of our first ever Eclectic Orange Festival, and he’ll return to us again this April at the Renée & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall performing an
all-Beethoven program with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, of which he was recently appointed music director.
With the recent release of his album “French Impressions,” a number of articles on Joshua Bell have popped up, one of which I find not only fascinating by very inspirational. Featured in Newsweek magazine’s January 2012 issue, the essay is entitled “My Favorite Mistake.” In it Joshua Bell shares his thoughts on making a big mistake at his first major competition (at the age of twelve, no less!) and how he moved forward from it to become one of classical music’s biggest stars. You can read the article
here.
Speaking of “French Impressions,” here is a video of Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk during their visit to Google’s New York, NY, office to perform a few selections from their new album.
Our 2012-13 Season: Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, and more! - Monday, January 30, 2012
It was an exciting weekend for us at the Philharmonic Society. On Saturday, we announced our 2012-13 season (our 59th concert season) at a kick-off event held at the new Soka Performing Arts Center. It was a beautiful afternoon and the views from Soka’s campus were spectacular. Thanks to all of you who came out to support us. We were happy to see both new and familiar faces, and hope you enjoyed Judy Huang’s performance and hearing about what we have in store for you next season.
If you weren’t able to join us on Saturday, we’re sorry to have missed you! Our season announcement made it into the Los Angeles Times (click here), and the Orange County Register put together a slideshow featuring performers presented as part of our next season. Highlights include recitals by world-renowned soloists cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman. We will also be continuing our Beethoven: The Late Great celebration, curated by Dean Corey. Returning to the Orange County scene are Gustavo Dudamel with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Current subscribers should expect to receive renewal packets in the mail soon. If you would like a copy of our season brochure, please call our Patron Services Department at (949) 553-2422, or e-mail
ticketing@philharmonicsociety.org.
And now, for your listening pleasure, Yo-Yo Ma accompanied by Kathryn Stott performing Massenet: "Meditation" from Thaïs. See them perform live as part of our next season! Yo-Yo Ma in recital is part of The Works, Masterworks Gold, and Classical Series A.
Looking Forward: in 2 weeks vs. 2 years - Wednesday, January 25, 2012
We are busy preparing to announce our 2012-13 season’s lineup of concerts at our kick-off event this Saturday at SOKA University. To our loyal subscribers, do keep an eye out in the mail for your subscription renewal packets. You should receive them next week. For everyone else, our brochures will be available next week, so if you’re interested in getting a copy hot off the presses, contact our Patron Services Department at (949) 553-2422.
As some of you may know, the 2012-13 seasons, our 59th, is my second-to-last as President & Artistic Director of the Philharmonic Society. I’ll be retiring to southwest France in summer 2014. You may have noticed that each year, my blogs mention a trip to France with my wife Kaly. I have been learning French in preparation for my retirement, and even our dog Luc responds to commands in French!
At the end of next season, I will have been with the Society for exactly 20 years. I was appointed in July 1993, and it has been simply fantastic to see how Orange County and its cultural landscape has changed through the years. My first season here, we had the
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio over at the Barclay performing Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Schubert. It’s funny how things come full circle. This season we’ll have them back with some more Schubert—the Trout—and even a new variation on the Trout by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.
Our
Beethoven: The Late Great celebration will continue next season—-you’ll find out soon enough who the artists involved are, and I promise that you’re in for a treat! But more immediately, we still have a couple of concerts left this season that are a part of it, the first of which is coming up in only 2 and a half weeks:
the Brentano String Quartet with Beethoven’s Opus 130 and the Grosse Fuge on February 11th. I’ll again be giving the pre-concert talk for this concert at 7pm. I do hope you’ll join me. Here’s a photo of me and Marino Formenti backstage from the Diabelli Variations concert. If you haven’t already, read through my last 5 blog entries for my lecture notes from that concert. Please.. enjoy!
