Victoria Quartet & Leo Popplewell, cello
Saturday 20th September, 7.30 pm
Boccherini: String Quintet in C Op28 no 4
Schubert: String Quintet, D956
Shostakovich: Quartet no 4, D, Op 83
Boccherini and Shostakovich notes by Donald Judge
Luigi Boccherini (1743 – 1805) String Quintet in C major op28 no 4 G310
Allegro con moto: Minuetto con moto: Grave: Rondeau. Allegro con moto
Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini was an Italian born cellist and composer who spanned the high baroque and classical eras. Handel was 68 when he was born in Lucca, Italy, and Beethoven 35 when he died in Spain. If one had to give his style a name, it could be galante, music aimed at the many royal and aristocratic courts of Europe at a time when their patronage was how most composers earned a crust or better.
After a year as a teenager studying in Rome, in 1757 Boccherini and his father moved to Vienna where Luigi was certainly noticed. 11 years later he moved to Madrid where he secured a prestigious post with Don Luis, the king’s younger brother. The king objected to a cello passage that defeated him, Boccherini stood his ground, and was dismissed. But Don Luis remained loyal and the two moved to a village where Boccherini found prodigious inspiration as a composer.
Boccherini wrote a large number of chamber works and concerti almost all of which feature the cello. The standard line up for a string quintet was two violins, two violas and cello. Mozart and Beethoven were among those who opted for that, but Boccherini favoured a showcase for his own virtuosity and wished to give opportunities to cellist friends. It’s interesting to speculate whether Schubert knew his work when he made his inspired choice for the quintet to be heard later, or whether it just suited the dark and sonorous textures that would best serve his purposes.
In later life Boccherini lost patrons and died a poor man, his sadness compounded by the deaths of two wives and four daughters.
For decades after Boccherini’s rediscovery in the 20th century, most listeners only heard or knew a minuet from the op 11 quintet in E major. But he wrote over 100 quintets and the same number of quartets, often in sets of 6, much as Haydn’s appeared. This was to offer variety, to look inventive and industrious, and to maximise what could be lucrative sales to court and amateur players.
This C major Quintet is, as was usual, in 4 movements. The Spanish influence, as with his older compatriot by birth Domenico Scarlatti who made a similar relocation, is often evident. The rondo finale, without naming it, is a Fandango. The opening sonata form movement begins with an arresting motif, a descending scale for solo cello 1. The Minuet is in G major, the standard ABA form with repeats, and the trio section in G minor. The Grave (the Italian term is probably better translated as serious than grave) is ornate and lyrical. The lively finale ends with smiles from everyone.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Quintet in C major, D 956
Allegro ma non troppo – Adagio – Scherzo: Presto – Andante sostenuto – Allegretto
This great work, begun in August 1828 and written at great speed, stands alone in the classical quintet repertoire. It is bigger in most senses than any other, and Schubert’s use of two ‘cellos in place of the two violas of Mozart and Beethoven allows the production of remarkable sonorities and great richness of texture; often a melodic line is doubled in octaves (most notably by the first ‘cello and viola or first violin); at other times three melodic instruments are accompanied by the other two, a device which most beautifully begins the slow movement, where the second violin, viola and ‘cello move together with whispered comments from the first violin and pizzicato ‘cello.
The grand scale of the work is apparent at the outset where the expansive opening sentence presented by the four highest instruments is answered by the four lowest ones. Notice what Schubert keeps in reserve for the fifth instrument at the recapitulation of this passage. The second theme starts in E flat in one of Schubert’s typical harmonic twists. It is a mellifluous tune presented in sixths and thirds. Schubert combines these two themes in the coda.
The rapt mood of the opening theme of the second movement mentioned above is rudely shattered as the key is abruptly raised a semitone from E major to F minor and a passionate theme is presented by the first violin and first ‘cello with an urgent syncopated and triplet accompaniment for the other instruments. The opening theme returns with a new, elaborated accompaniment for the two outermost instruments.
A vigorous triple-time scherzo in C is followed, most unusually by a four-in-a-bar trio in D flat. The usual repeat of the scherzo follows. The finale is a relaxed, loosely constructed sonata movement with a pronounced Viennese lilt to the second theme. A reminder of the emotional breadth of the work is contained within the Coda.
Schubert notes provided by GBS for Droitwich Concert Club
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op 83
Allegretto: Andantino: Allegretto (attacca): Allegretto
The 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death has meant a flurry of more than usual investigation into a troubling and often elusive life story. Perhaps re-examining the most perplexing of musical lives and thoughts will shine new light, but it’s certain not all will ever be fully resolved.
Shostakovich came to early musical maturity 8 years after the 1917 revolution took hold, and he was immediately recognised as the country’s greatest composer, a hero. A phenomenal pianist too, he chose composition over the concert platform. Never mind that he dabbled in the light hearted, jazz, bourgeois Westernism, Brecht and Weill years before they even fled the Nazis. He was skilled enough to make his music not only brilliant, but to relate them to Russian and Klezmer folksong. Many will know the Waltz from the Jazz Suite with saxophone solo that Classic FM plays almost every time his name is mentioned: or the stunningly witty version of Tea for Two. His daring first symphony of 1925 dazzled. A darkness to light journey of Mahlerian power but wholly Soviet, serving the Revolution and citizens. Concerti, piano and chamber music, even those of darker more esoteric hue, all were praised.
Shostakovich and his family benefited from relative wealth, the best of flats, cars, items most had to collect brownie points for and keep fingers crossed. Then came Josef Stalin. Born in Georgia in 1878, he became the Soviet leader in 1924. Although Shostakovich may have had a few worries, or friends advised him of theirs, he sailed on riding a wave of adulation. He interceded for colleagues when they were criticised, and often succeeded in softening the harsh words. But in 1934 the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk premiered in Leningrad, previously and now St Petersburg. It was based not on Shakespeare (whose work the composer knew and loved) but on a mid-18th century Russian novella, a deeply tragic story of an abused woman driven to murder (three times in all) and suicide. Janáček could have made a spectacular job of it, as he did for several tragic heroines. Shostakovich produced a spectacular piece too, just one of four operas planned as a Soviet Ring Cycle about the oppressed citizenry.
No Soviet officials attended the premiere or subsequent performances until Stalin ordered Shostakovich to perform it in Moscow. Friends were having kittens, but the composer seemed relaxed and could hardly refuse. At the Interval, Stalin walked out. At the end there was booing. Next morning the state newspaper Pravda – Truth – published Stalin’s truth. It was Music as Muddle. The central character was the antithesis of virtuous Soviet womanhood: the opera a betrayal of the Revolution. Never mind that the story happened in Tsarist Russia: it obviously targeted Stalin’s regime and the Soviet people. Shostakovich’s life was turned upside down in an instant, literally on a knife edge. He lost his income, his perks, his peace of mind. He kept a suitcase permanently packed in case he felt the need to flee, or if thugs came to cart (literally!) the family off to Siberia, as Lady Macbeth had been.
3 years later in1937 Shostakovich’s long musical silence was shattered by the 5th Symphony, the “Soviet Artist’s response to just criticism,” performed again in Leningrad, by the local orchestra that would one day blast the 7th Symphony at besieging Naxis. The 5th received an ecstatic 30 minute standing ovation. Earlier in those 3 years, Shostakovich seemed determined to premiere tonight’s 4th Quartet. Its hushed ending and some chromatic passages might have raised eyebrows, but the Klezmer-inspired melodies chimed with Stalin’s love of folksong and support for Israel. But friends implored him to hold back and he heeded them. The quartet finally premiered in the winter of 1953. For a few years, Stalin’s enthusiasm for Israel had waned, delaying it further.
A few weeks before the Quartet’s premiere, Stalin and senior colleagues dined until 4 am. He denied them gourmet Russian food, choosing a cold Georgian peasant deli platter, charcuterie, sauerkraut, pickles, fresh white cheese, rye bread and rustic cakes, washed down with copious Georgian red wine. Stalin’s final thought after his last meal on earth and hitting the pillow may have been: I must sort out that upstart Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich tomorrow.
It was 10 pm before anyone dared to venture into his bedroom when a tap on the door got no response. Stalin lay dead as a doornail from a stroke. Nikita Kruschev, one of the dinner guests, was soon annointed leader.
23 years of Shostakovich’s life remained, and it wasn’t all plain sailing, with suspicion about his relationship with, and friendships in the West, including Benjamin Britten. He was grappling with the second of the four operas as he neared death.