April 22 2007

Ah, youth! All three composers today began creating music while very young. We find the emergence of mature, adult skills in small children irresistible, whether it be in performing or composing music, playing chess or skating. Mozart was a magical child prodigy but Mendelssohn was no slouch either. Many critics believe his best music dates from before his 20th birthday and that the rest of his work tended just to be repetition in an unchanging style. By contrast, Mozart constantly grew and developed. The great question is what sort of music would he have written had he survived past 36.

Thomas Adès made his debut as an adolescent and produced new music from a very early age. He is still very much with us and likely to demonstrate more and more changes with time.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 -1791) String Quartet in F major K 590
Mozart was the youngest of seven children. Only his sister Maria (”Nannerl”), the fourth child, survived with him. The others had all died. This had to have a deep if unspoken effect on a family. Such losses were very profound even at a time when children died much too frequently. The last child was named Johannes Wolfgang Chrysostomus Gottlieb (”Amadeus”) or beloved of God, in gratitude and as a talisman.

Their father, Leopold Mozart, was a highly educated man, a noted violinist, composer and author of a standard pedagogical work on the violin, Violinschule. If his son had not been a world famous genius he would still have had a respectable place in history. Wolfgang simply eclipsed all this quite unconsciously. There is no evidence of rivalry between them.

Leopold sacrificed himself by becoming kapelmeister to Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, thus maintaining a steady income. Living in a backwater was stultifying but necessary. Nannerl was five years older than Wolfgang and was already very proficient on the harpsichord when he was born. Her little brother spontaneously began to pick out thirds on the harpsichord when he was three and showed great pleasure when he heard the sounds. The powerful bonds between siblings were reinforced by the shared knowledge of loss.

Leopold left Nannerl primarily to work on the harpsichord but with an amazingly sure touch he deftly moved Wolfgang from one stage to another. It was as if all his preceding efforts had been in preparation for this.

At the right time, Leopold arranged for his son to study with experts across Europe. He took the little boy to one great master after another, all over the continent. All through this period the old curmudgeon Colloredo acted fairly benevolently.

Leopold knew how to flatter him and with the right degree of obsequiousness made it seem that the child reflected glory on the archbishop. The archbishop allowed him to take long leaves of absence.

The acknowledged master of the classical string quartet was Joseph Haydn. In his hands the four instruments became a miniature symphony, complete with sonata form and rich and complex harmonies providing new levels of sonority. Mozart was impressed by Haydn’s work. He had written some quartets earlier but in 1772, he undertook the exercise of creating six string quartets in the Haydn manner yet with his own special flair. Then he left this form for a number of years while he mainly wrote symphonies and operas.

In 1789 he visited Prussia. King Frederick Wilhelm II was said to be a reasonably competent cellist. It is hard to know just how good he was because of the filters of flattery but he commissioned Mozart to write three string quartets with emphasis on the cello parts.

The first two “Prussian” quartets do indeed have good parts for the cello but it is less obvious in K. 590. There are some places in which the cello leads and plays slightly more complicated lines than was usual at the time but the work is not notable for that.

Mozart’s 23rd quartet dates from 1790 and was the last one he wrote. It was the same year in which he wrote Cosi Fan Tutte. The quartet opens with unison phrases and most of the music is derived from these themes. Mozart made much use of counterpoint in this movement. He anticipated Beethoven in the unity of the themes.

There are four movements, with an allegretto replacing the standard slow movement but nevertheless an impressive and sober segment, set in the key of C major. He was not adventurous in the use of keys, staying with F major for the other three movements. The minuet builds on a mocking bird theme and has rather capricious, lively rhythms but the really exciting movement is the rondo.

It is almost a moto perpetuo, mixing sonata form with the rondo. The feeling of motion is reinforced by flights of semi-quavers (16th notes), constantly catching themselves in fermatas but then picking up speed again. At one point a sonorous interlude in d minor appears and there is another section in c minor with considerable chromatic counterpoint.

Thomas Adès (b. 1971) Arcadiana
Thomas Adès was educated both at Kings College, Cambridge and the Guildhall School of Music in London. Very soon after completing these formal studies he worked as Composer in Association for the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. He wrote The Origin of the Harp in 1994 and These Premises Are Alarmed for the opening of Bridgewater Hall in 1996. The orchestra was founded in 1858 by Sir Charles Hallé, whose wife, Wilma Norman Neruda, was one of the first women virtuosi on the violin. Lady Hallé appeared with the orchestra frequently as soloist.

Mr Adès has written music for most of the large orchestras and significant conductors in England. In 1995 Almeida Opera commissioned Powder Her Face for the Cheltenham Festival. It has since been performed in many different countries and has been both recorded and televised. A few years later the composer created The Tempest for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. This was critically acclaimed in 2004.

He both conducts and performs piano works by a wide variety of composers with many orchestras throughout the world. Modern composers are strongly represented in his repertoire but he also includes the great classical musicians. He has played at many festivals and received many prizes. He won the Grawemeyer Award in 2000 even though he was the youngest competitor.

One position anchors him. He has directed the Aldeburgh Festival started by Benjamin Britten since 1999.

In 1999, Allan Kozinn wrote the following about this work:

“Mr. Adès’ ”Arcadiana,” written in 1994, is meant to be an evocation of paradise in seven short movements. Paradise for Mr. Ades is a place of complexity rather than simplistic loveliness; in fact, the idyllic and the terrifying are closely intertwined here. One moment dark, sliding string figures evoke a dance of death; the next is a serene paean to England in slow, gracefully consonant chordal passages.

Mr. Adès evokes a pantheon of sorts in fleeting, subtle, half-submerged references to Mozart, Schubert, Elgar and Wagner. He provides scenery in stretches of descriptive scoring inspired by pastoral paintings of Poussin and Watteau.”

The sections of Arcadiana are:

I. Venezia notturna

II. Das klinget so herrlich, das klinget so schön

III. Auf dem Wasser zu singen

IV. Et (tango mortale)

V. L’Embarquement

VI. O Albion

VII. Lethe

Each of the seven titles which comprise Arcadiana evokes an image associated with ideas of the idyll, vanishing, vanished or imaginary. The odd-numbered movements are all aquatic, and would be musically continuous if played consecutively. Movement III alludes to the eponymous Schubert Lied. The title of movement V derives from Watteau’s painting “The Embarkation from the Island of Cythera” in the Louvre. Movement VII bears the name of the mythical River of Oblivion.

The second and sixth movements inhabit pastoral Arcadias, respectively Mozart’s ‘Kingdom of Night’ and more local fields. At the dead centre is the fourth movement, bearing part of the Latin inscription on a tomb which Poussin depicts being discovered by shepherds: Even in Arcady am I.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldy (1809 - 1847) String Quartet in a minor, opus 13, number 2
A few months after Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel died, her brother Felix followed suit. Their illnesses were different but one cannot help thinking that the anguish and depression over the loss of an alter ego played a role. Even going to visit his sister’s grave caused Mendelssohn physical distress.

The resemblance between the youthful Mozarts and the young Mendelssohns was restricted to their musical lives: an elder sister and younger brother evincing scintillating skill preternaturally early was the main one, with the devotion between them a close second. Nannerl outlived her brother by about 30 years. She was the one to experience loss.

In other respects no two families could have been less alike. Being Jewish set the Mendelssohns apart more sharply than anything else. The founder of the family, Felix’s Grandfather Moses Mendelssohn, was a self made man. Seeking further education he walked barefoot to Berlin as a young boy from his remote village in 1743. He had to enter by the gate reserved for Jews and cattle. The cattle went first. He became a noted rabbinical scholar and philosopher, with a passionate concern about integrating Jewry into German civil society. His children benefited from the esteem in which he was held. They prospered mightily, yet all his life he toiled as an accountant for a mundane business.

Abraham Mendelssohn quipped that he never had an identity of his own. He was the “son of his father and the father of his son”. He worked in the family bank and married Leah Salomon, daughter of a cultured Berlin family. Both Felix’s mother and grandmother were good musicians. The bank lasted until 1938 when the Nazis confiscated it.

Abraham’s four children all survived, another big difference from the Mozarts. There was more than enough money to pay for tutors of all sorts and even to organize large musical ensembles to play the children’s compositions. They lived in the far more cosmopolitan city of Berlin. Famous persons such as Alexander von Humboldt the great scientist frequented their salons. At one time he conducted scientific experiments in the Mendelssohn’s garden.

Felix was closest to his older sister Fanny. She was almost as talented as he was but suffered from the convention that wealthy and refined women never performed in public. It was viewed as a violation of their femininity and an oblique slur against the ability of their husbands to support them.

Both children began composing very young. Felix was allowed to make it his profession, with some slight misgivings on his father’s part. The boy was restless and impulsive with widely swinging moods. The father was concerned that he might make terrible mistakes in such a career.

In the end it worked out well. Mendelssohn was very successful as the director of the Berlin Singakademie and later the Leipzig Gewandhaus. He travelled to England often and Queen Victoria adored him. She allowed him to see her children in their nursery and they exchanged notes on child rearing. Mendelssohn gave her some singing lessons, another extraordinary privilege.

His early music delighted and startled the sophisticated Berlin audiences with its originality. The octet and “Midsummer Nights’ Dream” overture, written at the age of 17, established him. He wrote a total of 11 string quartets altogether, including two published posthumously. For some reason the numbering system became confused. Curiously the only one to retain both its chronological place and its correct number in the catalogue is opus 13, no 2.

In 1827 he was just 18. He had written a quartet five years before, Opus 12. It was imaginative and well constructed with early hints of dramatic Romantic expression.The next one was overtly Romantic. The principal influences on him were Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven with some attention to Weber.

Mendelssohn used one of his own songs, “Frage” (Ask), as the basis for what followed. The questioning note was integral to the meaning of the composition. It was not simply a melody on which to hang elegant variations. This was not unlike Beethoven’s “Les Adieus” sonata.

A first movement with much drama is succeeded by a slow movement with a rich chorale-like theme enhanced by fugal treatment. Mendelssohn had also been exposed to J.S. Bach by his maternal grandmother. He used counterpoint to enrich his ideas in the first movement together with much imitation between voices.

One can hear folk qualities in the brief intermezzo (26 bars). The scherzo moves in the inimitable Mendelssohn way with clouds of semi-demiquavers (32nd notes). In the final movement there are recitative passages, some imitation from the fugal section of the slow movement and more counterpoint to pull it all together.

ALTERNATIVE PROGRAM (not played on this occasion)
Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903) Italian Serenade
It is possible that Hugo Wolf was the unhappiest man in the annals of major composers, a select company not known for its cheerfulness. The unhappiness was due both to internal and external forces. It was driven by his inability to tolerate even minute reversals, the sort that go on all day long in everyone’s lives. Starting at that incredibly low threshold it is not surprising that major frustrations led to unbelievable recriminations and lashing out at all around him.

Critics and biographers are fond of using the word “flame” to describe the well spring of artistic genius but in Wolf’s case it is apt. He did not fly into rages over venial matters but about artistic integrity or the superiority of Wagner over Brahms. In other words there was a purity of vision which guided his sometimes inexplicable behavior. The final blow was the development of tertiary syphilis which left him demented, confused and incoherent. The record indicates the presence of the Argyll-Robertson pupil, a tell-tale sign of late syphilis. Like Schumann, he had to stay in a private asylum for the last few years of his life.

Only one person stuck with him, Melanie Lang, Frau Kochert, but Wolf’s close companion for many years. Her husband knew what she was doing but supported her in her devotion to such a great artist. Herr Kochert even got him a job at one point when Wolf was almost destitute. The rest of his friends were all alienated though many helped him behind the scenes. Three years after Wolf died, Melanie killed herself for having failed to be a “better wife ” to him. Wolf is buried in the central cemetery in Vienna, between Beethoven and Schubert.

Wolf was all about songs. He left a legacy of unsurpassed lieder, in some ways picking up where Schubert left off but with a character and style all of their own. As a young man Wolf consciously chose to emulate Robert Schumann’s way of writing songs. At one point he drew close to Wagner but eventually adopted his own unique style. Eduard Mörike’s poetry stimulated him time and again and many of his best songs were settings of Mörike. The Wagner Verein in Vienna presented some of his first efforts. Later there would be a Wolf Verein.

As a poverty-stricken music student in Vienna, he “stalked” Hans Richter and Wagner, thrusting his compositions at them to elicit comment. His violent hatred of Brahms stemmed from their one meeting in which Brahms quite reasonably suggested that Wolf should study theory with the great Gustav Nottebohm, transcriber of Beethoven’s notebooks. Wolf was incensed, resenting what he thought was very patronizing advice. Liszt’s championing of his cause led to a broader recognition of his worth. Liszt saw the extraordinary talent behind the difficult little man. Wolf was only five feet tall.

Because of his temperament, Wolf never completed any course of study fully. This was a slight handicap when it came to orchestral writing or chamber music. As a result he did very little of either. He did leave one opera and hoped to write another but died too soon. The story of how Rosa Mayreder’s libretto for El Sombrero de Tres Picos was excoriated, summarily rejected and then adopted a few years later as Der Corregidor was a perfect microcosm of how Wolf operated.

The Italian Serenade was an exception, written for a string quartet and subsequently arranged for a small orchestra. Of course with all his other contradictions no one will be surprised to learn that Wolf never visited Italy. The closest he got was Trieste.

The serenade is a charming trifle, a sort of rondo in G major, a very cheerful key. It appeared in 1892 but was not published until after his death in 1903. The term “Italian” might stem from the fact that the piece has a tarantella-like rhythm in places.

Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904) String Quartet in F major, opus 96 The American
Between 1892 and 1895 Antonin Dvorak lived and worked in the United States. Mrs Jeanette Thurber, a wealthy philanthropist, established a National Conservatory of Music at East 17th Street in New York and invited Dvorak to be its director. She wanted to establish an American style of music. All went well until the last year when Mrs Thurber’s finances began to fail and she could not meet her obligations. By then Dvorak was anxious to return home and he left America without too much regret.

The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1896 and Dvorak was appointed its first conductor and music director. He also composed much of what it played. In 1986, the orchestra celebrated its 90th anniversary by playing the program from the opening night. They re-printed the programs from that event in facsimile, complete with all the advertisements. The music was all by their maestro.

Mrs Thurber’s choice of Dvorak was very significant. It underscored just how prominent he had become internationally. His music had been played in the United States since 1879.When he began his rise he had had difficulty shedding the image of a sweet folksy composer writing sweet folksy little pieces. Some of that stemmed from his first contacts with Brahms. Dvorak had entered some dances for a prize which Brahms judged. He desperately needed the prize money and made sure the pieces were very pleasing. The dances incorporated Czech folk melodies and rhythms.

Brahms found them delightful and promoted Dvorak tirelessly. It was another story when Dvorak began to produce mature major symphonies. Brahms now felt a little threatened. The toy composer was getting too close to his heels. He wasn’t supposed to do that.

Once in America, Dvorak decided to explore whatever music was indigenous this new world and to promote a truly “American” style. For a man who supposedly was something of a country bumpkin he stood up very well to the complexities of New York life. He gathered an unusual set of pupils around him, chosen because they knew something of the American way.

Harry Burleigh, a Negro student at the conservatory but not Dvorak’s own pupil, sang Negro spirituals for Dvorak as the latter’s request. Black musicians were not taken seriously before and Dvorak was ahead of his time.

In the summer of 1893 Dvorak took his family to Spillville, Iowa. This was a Czech - speaking village where it is said some of his distant cousins had settled. The surroundings soothed him and allowed him to relax and compose. He listened to the sound of the birds, at one point even writing down the notes he heard. This fragment formed the theme of his slow movements.

Dvorak had had good teaching even as a small child. His father, a butcher, was very musical and played the zither professionally. Once it was clear that the child was gifted, the father arranged for him to stay with a wealthier uncle in a larger town and be taught by better qualified teachers. They also insisted that he become fluent in German, the key to a better future back then.

More recent scholarship shows that Dvorak embodied some contradictions. Yes, he was fond of the national melodies and style but he primarily wrote in the mainstream of Germanic music. He had enormous admiration for Wagner, commenting that no matter what happened, Wagner’s music would survive, just as Homer’s poetry had done. In spite of this he managed to remain close to Brahms. Dare we say it. Dvorak was clearly somewhat calculating, making sure he did well in a very competitive environment.

We have to admire him. He had no resources other than his music. After the devastating loss of his first three children from measles and diphtheria, he and his wife went on to have six more. The first major work he composed was a Stabat Mater, commemorating the lost children. At the time he was playing the viola in an orchestra. There was no way he could give up this slightly menial position until composing was a safe alternative.

That was the reason the prize was so important. It was for a first attempt by a young person. Brahms arranged things so that Dvorak had a second shot a couple of years later, and once again awarded him the prize. It allowed him to devote more time to composing. St Adalbert’s Church in Prague then appointed him organist. He produced symphonies and chamber works. By 1884, his music was being played across Europe. The seventh symphony was given for the first time in London.

Dvorak wrote the eighth symphony “From the New World” in Iowa, incorporating the sounds of America for the first time in serious music. The “cowboy” motif is haunting.

Bedrich Smetana (1824 - 1884) From My Life (Z mého zivota) 1876
The “Red Revolutions” of 1848 had come and gone but that did not signal the end of fervent nationalism in Central Europe. The smaller nations, such as Hungary and Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) long subjugated by the Austro-Hungarian empire, all wanted to become independent.

The Emperor’s intimidating way of enforcing obedience left them very few outlets but music was one of them. Thoughtful citizens realized that if they could break the spell of purely Germanic music which gripped them they could rally a larger public to their cause. Verdi had shown how this idea could work in Italy. Nabucco was a very thinly veiled hint.

This theory was later applied successfully by Sibelius in Finland when he led the way to throw off the Russian yoke with Finlandia. In fact, alert imperial administrators were concerned about music with openly nationalistic themes. They knew what it could do.

Smetana was not the first Czech composer to use native themes and rhythms but as the author in “Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians” points out, his was the first such composition to remain a fixture in the repertoire. The Bartered Bride was a huge success from the beginning. The only strictures came from Czech Mrs Grundys: a comic opera had no business being the symbol of such a serious matter as the Czech lands’ national music but its durability anchored the efforts of those who followed.

There are four Czech composers who are considered to be the “fathers” of pure Czech music: Smetana, Fibich, Dvorak and Janacek. Fibich left the smallest output, and Janacek was the most virulently anti-Austrian. During both Dvorak’s and Smetana’s lifetimes, furious arguments ranged among music critics as to their relative merits.

Smetana was unusual among composers in that his father was prosperous and the struggle to realize his talent was less onerous than many others. No sensible businessman in any epoch actually wants his son to become a professional musician but the resistance was not too stiff and Smetana had a much easier time than most. His great tragedy was becoming totally deaf in later life.

Smetana considered chamber music to be an outlet for personal and private feelings. After his oldest child died he wrote the piano trio in g minor to express his lamentation. Chamber music was not supposed to have a “programme” but his next foray into the field was also essentially a tone poem. He adhered to a formal structure of four movements but substituted a polka for the scherzo in the same way Fibich and Dvorak had done