Encounter: Fellowship Artist Spotlight II

Monday, August 15 · 2 PM

THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL

This event will be live streamed.

ARENSKY
(1861-1906)

Piano Trio in D, Opus 32

Allegro moderato
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Elegia: Adagio
Finale: Allegro non troppo

Aestas Trio
Wynona Yinuo Wang, piano; Sophia Stoyanovich, violin; Andrew Byun, cello

MOZART
(1756-1791)

Quintet A Major for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581

Allegro
Larghetto
Menuetto
Allegretto con variazioni

John Bruce Yeh, clarinet;
Pelia Quartet
Heejeon Ahn, Dalphine Skene, violins; Sung Jin Lee, viola; Nathan Cottrell, cello

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Piano Trio in D Minor, Opus 32

ANTON ARENSKY
Born July 12, 1861, Novgorod, Russia
Died February 25, 1906, Terijoki, Finland, Russian Empire
Composed: 1894
Approximate Duration: 31 minutes

The son of two passionate amateur musicians, Anton Stepanovich Arensky studied with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and received the gold medal on his graduation in 1882. That same year, at age 21, he became professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory, where he was a friend and colleague of Tchaikovsky and taught Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Gliere (Rachmaninoff dedicated his first tone poem, Prince Rostislav, to his teacher). Arensky served as head of the Imperial Chapel in St. Petersburg from 1895 until 1901 and died at age 44 from tuberculosis.

Arensky’s music has today largely disappeared from the concert hall—of his 75 opus numbers, only the Piano Trio in D Minor remains an established part of the repertory. Arensky wrote this trio in 1894 and dedicated it to the memory of Russian cellist Karl Davidov (1838-1889), who had served for several years as principal cellist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Arensky has been described as an “eclectic” composer, and the influence of Tchaikovsky is strong here; some have also heard the influence of Mendelssohn, whose own Piano Trio in D Minor is one of the most famous in the literature.

The sonata-form Allegro moderato alternates soaring lyric ideas—there are three separate theme-groups—with dramatic gestures before coming to a quiet close. The ternary-form Scherzo has a brilliant beginning, where the violinist alternates harmonics, spiccatos, and pizzicatos over swirling piano runs; the middle section is a good-natured waltz with the strings dancing above the piano’s rollicking accompaniment.

The third movement, marked Elegia, is the memorial for Davidov, and Arensky has the muted cello—Davidov’s own instrument—introduce the grieving main theme, which is quickly picked up by the violin. The sparkling center section of this movement sounds the most “Tchaikovsky-an,” but this sunlight is short-lived and the somber opening material returns to bring the movement to its close.

The opening of the finale seems consciously dramatic, built on contrasting blocks of sound: the piano’s massive dotted chords and string passagework in octaves and tremolos make for a portentous beginning. All seems set for a conventional spirited finale, but the conclusion brings some surprises: just as Beethoven had done in the finale of his Ninth Symphony, Arensky now revisits themes from earlier movements, bringing back the middle section of the slow movement and the opening theme of the first movement. The trio concludes with a brisk coda derived from the opening of the finale itself.

Quintet in A Major for Clarinet and Strings, K.581

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg
Died December 5, 1791, Vienna
Composed: 1789
Approximate Duration: 33 minutes

While Mozart reportedly did not care for the sound of the flute, he felt a special fondness for the clarinet. He first heard the newly invented instrument at the age of seven, while on a visit to Mannheim, and his fascination with the clarinet’s mellow sonority and wide range stayed with him throughout his life. Mozart was one of the first composers to use the clarinet in a symphony, and the instrument figures prominently in such important late works as his Symphony No. 39 (1788) and the operas Così fan tutte (1790) and La Clemenza di Tito (1791).

Part of Mozart’s fascination with the clarinet late in life resulted from his friendship with the Austrian clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler (1753-1812), one of the composer’s fellow Freemasons in Vienna. It was for Stadler that Mozart wrote his three great works featuring the clarinet: the Trio, K.498; the Quintet, K.581; and the Concerto, K.622. Stadler played the basset horn, a clarinet-like instrument of his own invention, which could play four pitches lower than the standard clarinet of Mozart’s day. This unfortunately resulted in a number of corrupt editions of Mozart’s works for Stadler, as editors re-wrote them to suit the range of the standard clarinet. Subsequent modifications have given the A clarinet those four low pitches, and today we hear these works at the pitches Mozart originally intended.

Mozart wrote the Clarinet Quintet during the summer of 1789, just before he began work on Così fan tutte, finishing the score on September 29; the Quintet had its first performance in Vienna the following December 22, with Stadler as soloist and Mozart a member of the quartet. Simple verbal description cannot begin to suggest the glories of the Quintet—this is truly sovereign music, full of the complete technical mastery of Mozart’s final years and rich with the emotional depth that marks the music from that period. The strings have the first theme of the Allegro, and the clarinet soon enters to embellish this noble opening statement. The second subject, presented by the first violin, flows with a long-breathed lyricism, and the movement develops in sonata form. The Larghetto belongs very much to the clarinet, which weaves a long cantilena above the accompanying strings; new material arrives in the first violin, and the development section is Mozart at his finest. Particularly impressive here is the careful attention to sonority, with the silky sound of muted strings set against the warm murmur of the clarinet. The Menuetto is unusual in that it has two trio sections: the minor-key first is entirely for strings, while in the second the clarinet evokes the atmosphere of the Austrian countryside with a ländler-like dance. In place of the expected rondo-finale Mozart offers a variation movement based on the violins’ opening duet. The five variations are sharply differentiated: several feature athletic parts for the clarinet, the fourth is a soaring episode for viola over rich accompaniment from the other voices, and the fifth is an expressive Adagio. The Clarinet Quintet concludes with a jaunty coda derived from the first half of the original theme.

Financial support is provided by the City of San Diego

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