Mahlon Darlington, violin
Jonathan Sturm, viola
George Work, cello
William David, piano
Chamber Music
Society of Central Kentucky,
February 24, 2008,
3:00pm
Quartet in
E-flat Major, K.452
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Largo–Allegro moderato
Larghetto
Allegretto
Quartet in F Major, Op.15 Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
Allegro con brio
Scherzo: Allegro vivace
Poco Adagio
Finale: Allegro con brio
Intermission
Quartet in E-flat Major,Op.45 Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904)
Allegro con fuoco
Lento
Allegro moderato, grazioso
Allegro ma non troppo
Program Notes
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart: Quartet in E-flat Major, K.452
Mozart's Quintet in
E-flat Major, K.452 for piano and four wind instruments inspired the young Beethoven
to write a work for the same instrumentation that incorporated a number of
similar musical characteristics. Beethoven created an arrangement of his work
for piano and three strings, probably also in the spirit of the piano quartet
arrangement of Mozart's Quintet to be
performed tonight. Whether or not Mozart himself composed this transcription is
not known. But the piano and strings version was published six years before the
original wind version in 1794. It is discussed in one of Mozart's sister Nannerl's
letters in terms which strongly suggest that, even if Mozart did not make the
arrangement himself, he certainly knew of its existence and approved of its
publication as his own Piano Quartet
No.3.
Like Mozart’s earlier two masterworks for piano and three strings (probably the earliest works for this instrumentation ever written), K.452 has three movements. But there the similarities end. Each of K.452's movements is shorter and the role of the piano is far less soloistic than in the earlier quartets. Especially noteworthy are the extremely chromatic harmony of the second movement and the imitative section marked Cadenza near the end of the third. The transformation from quintet to quartet obviously involved rewriting, not mere transcribing, of the original score. The music is totally idiomatic for the piano quartet instrumentation and an important contribution to the repertoire for this genre.
Charles Villiers Stanford: Piano Quartet in F
Major
Born and raised in
Dublin, Stanford was the only son of a prosperous Protestant lawyer. His genius
for classical musical forms gained him admission to Cambridge University at the
age of 18. Afterward he went to Germany to study composition with Carl Reinecke
in Leipzig, and later with Friedrich Kiel in Berlin. He went on to compose in
almost every music form including seven symphonies; ten operas; chamber, piano,
and organ pieces; and over thirty large-scale choral works. His voluminous
sacred music continues to be the foundation of the Anglican tradition.
Stanford has
often been dismissed in recent years as a German imitator: an unoriginal
fabricator of "Brahmsian" music. However, anything more than a
cursory investigation of his music reveals his Celtic roots, as well as his
intense individuality. This combining of German and Celtic traditions to create
an integrated idiom was instrumental in establishing an English style upon
which the next generation of British composers could build.
Stanford’s
Piano Quartet was written in 1879 and may be regarded as the first composed by
an English composer. (The Scottish composer Alexander Campbell Mackenzie
composed a quartet in 1873.) Both the Stanford and the Mackenzie are included
in a two CD set of British piano quartets recorded by the Ames Piano Quartet on
Albany Recordings.
Antonin Dvorák: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op.
87
Dvorák's knack for expressing himself and his beloved Czech heritage in music that is fresh and accessible never permitted him to equate musical weight with severity of style. Thus it is that even his large-scale works in the standard forms contain something of the high spirits of the wildly popular Slavonic Dances. The Piano Quartet, Op.87 is no exception. Composed in 1889, two years before Dvorák's voyage to New York and Iowa, the work combines considerable compositional mastery with ready appeal. Each movement—the first with its opening piano-strings dialogue and thumping rhythms, the expansive and elegant Largo, the genial third movement waltz, and the energetic Finale—allows for the interplay of exuberance and poignancy, nostalgia and nonchalance. The Ames Piano Quartet's CD of the Dvorák Quartets is available on Dorian Recordings (DOR-90125).