Open Rehearsal Aug. 23

Tuesday, August 23 · 2:30-3:30 PM

THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL

This event will be live streamed.

MENDELSSOHN
(1809-1847)

String Quintet in B-flat Major, Opus 87

Allegro vivace
Andante scherzando
Adagio e lento
Allegro molto vivace

Caroline Shaw, viola; Miró Quartet: Daniel Ching, William Fedkenheuer, violins; John Largess, viola; Joshua Gindele, cello

Program note by Eric Bromberger

String Quintet in B-flat Major, Opus 87

FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Born February 3, 1809, Hamburg
Died November 4, 1847, Leipzig
Composed: 1845
Approximate Duration: 31 minutes

Mendelssohn was one of the most gifted composers of all time, and while it has become fashionable in some circles to dismiss his music as superficial and glib, it should be noted that he drove himself mercilessly—not just as composer, but also as conductor, performer, administrator, and educator (he was also a talented painter). His death at 38 was at least partially the result of exhaustion that inevitably resulted from the demands he placed on himself. Mendelssohn was conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1835 until 1846 and also served as director of the Leipzig Conservatory. Such demands kept him from composing much during the concert season and academic year. He became in effect a “summer” composer: one who wrote during those sunny, happy months when he could take his wife and children away from Leipzig and relax.

The Quintet in B-flat Major is one of these summer compositions—Mendelssohn finished the score in Frankfurt on July 8, 1845, just a few months after the première of his Violin Concerto. One of the most distinctive things about the Quintet, particularly in its outer movements, is its concertante first violin part—the writing for first violin here is so brilliant that it demands a virtuoso performer. The very beginning of the Allegro vivace has reminded many of the beginning of Mendelssohn’s own Octet: over rustling accompaniment, the first violin leaps upward with a melody that will surge and fall back through two octaves. The falling, lyric second subject is introduced by the first viola, and the energetic development flies along over omnipresent triplets. The movement concludes with a majestic coda built on both main ideas.

The brief Andante scherzando is not the quicksilvery fast movement one might expect from Mendelssohn at this point but a piquant little dance. Mendelssohn varies the texture by combining bowed and pizzicato passages and surprising the listener with uneven rhythms and shifting harmonies before the movement concludes nicely with all strings pizzicato.

The marking for the third movement—Adagio e lento—seems redundant, for both terms mean “slow.” The movement is built on its grieving main theme, heard immediately in the first violin. The accompaniment is unusually busy, and the huge climax to this movement—with buzzing tremolos—seems more orchestral than chamber-like in its sonority (in fact, Toscanini once performed this movement with the entire string section of the NBC Symphony). Energy is the keynote of the finale, marked Allegro molto vivace. This movement returns somewhat to the manner of the opening movement, with the first violin part particularly brilliant, though Mendelssohn varies the pulse here by sharply syncopating the secondary theme group. The development is spirited and the coda exuberant—as befits music written by a man on holiday.

Financial support is provided by the City of San Diego

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