Fauré Quartett: Program Listing and Notes
November 6, 2024
Wednesday at 7 pm
Samueli Theater
Artists and program subject to change
Segerstrom Center Presents
Fauré Quartett
Dirk Mommertz, piano
Erika Geldsetzer, violin
Sascha Frömbling, viola
Konstantin Heidrich, cello
Adagio and Rondo concertante for
Piano Quartet in F major, D. 487
Franz Schubert | 1797–1828
I. Adagio
II. Rondo. Allegro vivace
Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87, B. 162
Antonín Dvořák | 1841–1904
I. Allegro con fuoco
II. Lento
III. Allegro moderato, grazioso
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
Intermission
Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 16
George Enescu | 1881–1955
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante mesto
III. Vivace
Program Notes
Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F Major, D. 487
Franz Schubert
Born January 31, 1797 in Vienna
Died November 19, 1828 in Vienna
Of all the so-called “Viennese masters,” only Schubert was actually born and raised in that city. His aptitude for music was exhibited very early in his life. At the age of 9, he was under the tutelage of Michael Holzer, from whom he received instruction in violin, piano, singing and theory, as well as organ. Of these early years in Schubert’s life, Holzer once said: “If I wished to instruct him in anything fresh, he already knew it. Consequently, I gave him no actual tuition but merely conversed with him and watched him with silent astonishment.”
His catalogue of works includes 600 songs, nine symphonies, and numerous choral and chamber works. During the year 1813 alone, at the age of 16, Schubert produced more music than most composers today produce in a lifetime. By 1816 the composer created his first symphony, 25 choral works, 12 songs, five piano pieces and 12 chamber works, including a wind octet, a wind nonet and five string quartets.
Although only a tiny fraction of Schubert’s music was published during his lifetime, his solo and chamber music fills a comparatively large space in his instrumental writing. The history of the unpublished manuscripts is extremely difficult to unravel; many gathered dust for decades on the shelves of his heirs and publishers, while others passed obscurely from one private collector to another until they came into the public domain.
The Piano Quartet D. 487 was composed in 1816, but some sources show that it may have been conceived as early as 1812. It is particularly remarkable that the teenage Schubert could put forth such a mature work and this was his first complete composition for piano and strings, preceding the “Trout” Quintet by three years. Like most of his catalog, the Quartet was debuted and published posthumously, the first known performance took place in 1861 at the Ludwig Bösendorfer Salon in Vienna.
Schubert’s compositional approach was a departure from the Romantic standard of equality of the ensemble instruments and chose instead to designate the piano as the the dominant and virtuosic presence throughout the Adagio and Rondo. The molto legato Adagio and Rondo are played concurrently, enabling the piano to resemble the likes of a concerto, albeit with a minimalist orchestra. The Rondo is actually not in rondo form, but rather and abbreviated sonata allegro form in which there is no development section.
© 2024 Ileen M. Zovluck
Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87, B. 162
Antonín Dvořák
Born September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, near Prague
Died May 1, 1904, Prague
For some four years, starting in 1885, Dvořák’s publisher, Simrock, pressed him to compose a second piano quartet. (The first, Op. 23 in D major, was written in 1875.) Finally on August 10, 1889, Dvořák acceded and in one month was able to write to his friend, Alois Göbl, “I’ve already finished three movements of a new piano quartet and the Finale will be ready in a few days. As I expected it came easily, and the melodies just surged upon me. Thank God!” The quartet was indeed completed on August 19, and the premiere was given in Prague on November 23, 1890.
Although the E-flat piano quartet was composed during Dvořák’s nationalistic phase, it does not show extensive use of folklike themes. The quartet opens with a bold, courageous unison statement by the strings that draws a capricious unison statement by the strings that draws a capricious response from the piano. The strings quickly change their tune, making it sweet and tender. The piano, though, keeps its willful and carefree ways, until all four players join in a jubilant statement of the original string figure. The music then in a transition to the second theme, a soulful melody for the viola. Freely following the outlines of sonata form, Dvořák then presents a richly textured highly imaginative voyage based on the introductory material. Of special interest is the effect Dvořák achieves in the final measures of the movement as the violin and viola play fragments of the opening theme with rapid tremolo bow strokes on each of the notes.
Like a painting in which each face in a crowd portrays a different emotion—anger, fear, defiance, love, disgust—the Lento consists of five distinct themes, each with its own particular quality. The first theme, played by the cello, is intense and romantic, hinting at some mysterious passion. The violin enters with the next melody, an aloof and poised air, that maintains its calm in the face of all the activity in the other instruments. Excitement, even agitation, is borne on the piano’s statement of the third melody. The fourth melody’s stormy character is unleashed by the entire group, before the fifth theme, heard in the piano, quiets the furor with a reassuring melody derived from the third theme. After stating the five melodies, Dvořák repeats them with almost no change.
The first theme of the delightful third movement introduces the swaying rhythm of the Ländler, the peasant dance that was precursor to the waltz. The second theme, entrusted to the piano, is reminiscent of an oriental or Middle Eastern folk dance, and influence occasionally heard in Bohemian folk music. Particularly striking are the piano repetitions of the principal theme, which are written to sound like a cimbalon, or a hammered dulcimer, a favored folk instrument. A faster dashing middle section appears before a literal repeat of the opening.
The vigorous and energetic Finale demands so much tone from the four performers that some critics claim that it requires the tonal resources of a full orchestra. The assertive first theme receives a tutti statement before the individual instruments have a go at the tune. Another melodic phrase, one that starts with repeated notes and ends with a descending scale, functions both as a part of the first thematic group and then, in a different key, as the opening of the second subject, to be followed by an intense lyrical melody heard in the viola. Powerfully climactic at times, the movement builds to a brilliant conclusion.
© From Guide to Chamber Music, by Melvin Berger
Piano Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 16 (1909)
Georges Enescu
Born August 19, 1881 in Botosani district, Romania
Died May 3 or 4, 1955 in Paris, France
Georges Enescu was recognized in Europe as one of the most versatile of contemporary musicians, being a distinguished violinist, conductor and composer. Much of his music has as its basis Romanian folk music, and he has been regarded as the founder and leader of a national creative school in his own country. Later in his life, the composer lived in New York city and in 1946 began teaching chamber music performance practice at the Mannes College of Music. Shortly before his death, he returned to France where he died at the hotel Atala in Paris.
Enescu’s First Piano Quartet is a work of epic proportion and is solidly in the Romantic tradition. The score is dedicated to Mme Ephrussi, the wife of Parisian banker Michel Ephrussi. Very original in conception, there was nothing like it being contemporaneously written. This large-scale chamber work lasts over 40 minutes in performance and shows partial affinity with the Decet Op. 14 and the two Intermezzi for Strings. It has been criticized both for being “retrogressive” and for being “too harmonically advanced.” It is unquestionably a harmonically and contrapuntally rich score, with strong influences of Chausson and Fauré, incorporating sublime moments of satisfying lyricism.
The first movement begins with a unison melody in sonata-allegro form, recalling Fauré’s own Piano Quartet No. 1, but then moves in another direction with a Romantic theme. Later, the piano has a tune that sounds a lot like Rachmaninov, but there are more than a few varieties of mood in the movement containing lighter passages, including pizzicato and simpler piano figures. The Allegro concludes with a forceful coda.
The second movement is marked “Andante mosso,” in the full score, but the parts are marked Andante mesto, a subtle difference, either of which suit the pensive mood. This central movement is in the key of A-flat minor, a tritone away from the home key of the outer movements.
Enescu utilizes chromatic and modal harmony, recalling such French antecedents as César Franck. The second theme group is largely derived from the first theme, but displays a scalewise melodic cell alternating semitones and whole tones, which will emerge as a full descending octatonic scale five measures after rehearsal 39.
In the concluding finale Vivace, marked senza sordino, the piano unexpectedly introduces the secondary theme of the first movement, which is the only cyclic feature found in this work. Its vigorous style provides evidence of the composer’s Romanian folk influence. The movement contains contrasting, lyrical themes before concluding the work in high spirits. This was Enescu’s last major work for almost five years as concert schedules became more intense and Enescu’s disappointment set in as a result of the failure of several of his major works.
© 2024 Ileen M. Zovluck