Brentano String Quartet Program Notes
December 3, 2006
Notes on the program: December 3
MOZART: Quintet in Bb-Major, K. 174
Mozart wrote his first Viola Quintet, K. 174, in 1773, when he was seventeen years old. The earliest works for which he is enduringly remembered date from around this time; his 25th and 29th symphonies were written in 1773-4, his motet “Exsultate, jubilate” in 1773, and the violin concertos were composed in 1775. At this time the viola quintet form was in its infancy; Mozart may have written this work as a response to a group of viola quintets composed by Michael Haydn, Joseph’s brother and Mozart’s friend.
This viola quintet bears the stamp of a light divertimento, but one senses a brilliant young composer starting to investigate his own potential. Consider the opening melody: cheerful and pleasant, it has its head bitten off after a few bars by a brusque tutti retort; then the first violin finds its way to a more natural cadence, but that moment is simultaneously the re-launching of this melody, this time in the first viola. Striking moments in this movement include an absolute silence after the second theme, followed by ominous octaves in the lower voices, and a gradual, difficult return to a sunnier climate.
The slow movement is solemn and lovely, distinguished by the use of mutes and a simple idea played in unison – first it is the melody, and then it becomes the gentle accompaniment for an expressive melody in the first violin. Noteworthy here is a sudden, anguished outbreak in the second half of the movement, leading through a series of suspensions before the music finds its way back to the return.
In the Trio, the quintet divides up into a bright, strong group, echoed teasingly by a shadow group. In the Finale, we have an especially interesting glimpse into Mozart’s creative process: the figure that opens the movement in the first draft survives in the final version, but is “demoted” to the role of a transitional idea, and a more innocent, tripping melody becomes the first theme. This movement has an unusual number of carefree melodic ideas, and underscores the divertimento-like quality of the work as a whole. (2006 by Misha Amory)
MOZART: Quintet in D Major, K. 593Mozart’s D major Quintet opens with a back and forth exchange between Truth and Beauty. The cello sets forth the position of Truth, firm and regal, and in response the upper instruments offer a more elegant and beguiling response on behalf of Beauty. The conversation continues throughout the Larghetto introduction, and the cello gives up some of its certainty, joining the upper parts. The introduction comes to a halt and the music becomes Haydnesque in its wit and flourish. The theme is derived from the violin in the introduction. When the cadence arrives, the first violin remains a beat behind the others. Ingenuity abounds: the repeated notes that end the very first statement in the introduction take over the texture at times and each of the opening phrases of the Allegro winds up interwoven with itself. As the music evaporates into stuttering notes at what should be the end of the movement, the Larghetto makes a reappearance. The music threatens to get serious, but the first phrase of the Allegro sweeps in to toss all aside.
The Adagio is filled with grace, the main theme answered by supple sighs floating downwards. These sighs get adorned with ornaments, accompanied by the same rhythm that closes the introduction of the first movement. A storm intrudes, with throbbing triplets in the inner voices. The first violin sings a dramatic aria and the cello creates a turbulent underpinning. After the initial material reappears, the sighs become infused with the energy of the storm. The violas cling together for comfort, pulsating and gliding back toward the tonic. The other three parts seem to float by each other. Yet once the two violins cross paths all parts find themselves together again in the security of the opening music. The coda integrates the storm music into the movement; the triplets and trills now glisten.
The theme of the Menuetto teases by seeming displaced by a beat. This disorientation is heightened by repetition of accents on the off-beats which are only corrected at the very end of the phrase. The promise in this displacement is fulfilled in the second part when the theme is played in canon, the voices apart by one beat, with the second entrance on the strong beat. The trio hearkens back to the introduction of the first movement. Although there are tiny hints of chromaticism, the wit of the Menuetto is absent, and the trio is more humorous for it.
The theme of the last movement is derived from the first violin responses to the cello in the introduction to the first movement and gives the impression of a bird alighting upon the water. As in the first movement, the amiable character of the themes seems almost to belie the startling compositional craft and contrapuntal complexity of the movement. (2006 by Mark Steinberg)
MOZART: Quintet in G minor, K. 5161787, the year in which Mozart wrote the G minor Quintet, was marked for the composer by misfortune and frustration over his lack of success in Vienna and his father’s serious illness. Musical keys undoubtedly have strong psychological associations, and G minor for Mozart suggests desperation, and anguish. The G minor Quintet begins with the upper three instruments full of a restless agitation; the main theme is punctuated by breathless rests, balanced between song and speech. A brooding repetition is offered in the lower three instruments. When the second theme arrives, the music remains at first in the tonic G minor. This theme has an interesting physiognomy, each of its parts introduced by a leap upwards which fails to take hold. The third is painfully dissonant, yet Mozart indicates only a subdued accent on it, less a crying-out than a sense of restraint. This dissonant leap evolves into a repeated protest in the development section, letting go into a chromatic sequence over a pedal point in the cello. The coda contains the most poignant moment. When the second theme is stated now, that dissonant leap is there no longer.
The Menuetto movement is a proclamation. Violent chords, answered by silence on the strong beats, add a sense of the terrible. When the trio arrives, it is based on the closing figure of the Menuetto, an alternate version of where the music might lead us. As this theme plays itself out in the violas, it is paired with a musical ellipsis in the violins and cello, trailing off into dreaming. Reality reappears with the return of the Menuetto and the movement ends, quiet and bleak.
The Adagio ma non troppo shifts into E-flat major, all the instruments muted for a translucent, silken timbre. An infinitely touching movement, it plays on the paradoxical beauty of sadness.
In a piece filled with extraordinary moments surely one of the most unexpected is the appearance of what appears at first to be another slow movement following the Adagio ma non troppo. The mutes come off the instruments and the first violin sings a tragic aria. The aria goes on long enough that the listener almost gives up hope of there being any catharsis when a joyous, major-key Allegro finally arrives. (2006 by Mark Steinberg)
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