UMS Concert Program, January 20, 1945: Fifth Annual Chamber Music Festival -- Budapest String Quartet

Season: 1944-1945
Concert: Second
Complete Series: 2898
Lecture Hall, Rackham Building Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
CHARLES A. SINK, PRESIDENT THOR JOHNSON, CONDUCTOR
HARDIN VAN DEURSEN, ACTING CONDUCTOR
Second Concert 1944-1945 Complete Series 2898
Fifth Annual
Chamber Music Festival
BUDAPEST STRING QUARTET
Josef Roismann, First Violin Boris Kroyt, Viola
Edgar Ortenberg, Second Violin Mischa Schneider, Violoncello
Saturday Afternoon, January 20, 1945, at 2:30
Lecture Hall, Rackham Building
Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Quartet in G major, Op. 18, No. 2...... Beethoven
Allegro
Adagio cantabile Scherzo Allegro molto quasi presto
Quartet No. 7, Op. 96........ Ernst Kreneic
Allegro ma non troppo, grazioso e dolce Adagio
Allegro ma non troppo Andante sostenuto Allegretto con grazia
(played without interruption)
Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2...... . Brahms
Allegro non troppo Andante moderato
Quasi minuetto, moderato Finale (allegro non assai)
First performance in Ann Arbor.
(over)
THE THIRD CONCERT in the Chamber Music Festival will take place this evening at 8:30 o'clock.
The Steinway piano, furnished through the courtesy of Grinnell Brothers, is the official concert instrument of the University Musical Society
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES
Quartet No. 7, Op. 96........Ernst Krenek
The Quartet was written during the winter of 1943-44, and is dedicated in gratitude to "the vivifying spirit of my American students." It consists of five movements, to be played continuously.
The first movement (Allegro ma non troppo grazioso e dolce) is based on two contrasting ideas set forth in the first thirteen measures, the first presented in the higher strings, contemplative and lyrical. These two elements alternate throughout the first movement, each reappearance of either one covering a larger span and providing new thematic material to be, developed in subsequent sections. A brief codetta emphasizes the playful mood, all instruments participating in fast-moving rhythmic interplay.
The second movement (Adagio) at first develops the second lyrical idea of the first movement in broad expressive lines and gradually transposes other previously established thematic material, also, into the atmosphere of expansive lyrical expression.
The third movement (Allegro ma non troppo, ben misurato, con passione) is a fugue with three subjects, all of them derived from earlier themes. The first subject appears in the plucked tones of the violoncello, and is answered by inversion in the viola part. The second subject is presented by the first violin and answered, again by inversion, in the second violin part. Both subjects are treated extensively in the usual manner of a fugue. At the culmination point of the first climax the third subject enters and is in turn developed in fugue-like fashion. In the final section of the fugue all three subjects are combined. The resulting climax is the dramatic high point of the composition.
The fourth movement (Andante sostenuto) is a brief interlude, in which the excitement dies away, the first violin proffering plaintive, recitative-like phrases.
The fifth movement (Allegretto con grazia, scherzando a teneramente) has the form of a rondo and is gay and playful in mood throughout. The place of the third rondo-theme is taken up by the quick codetta of the first movement and toward the end one of the main ideas of the adagio is recalled. Then the movement turns back to the opening theme of the whole composition, which is brought to an end by the aforementioned codetta.
Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2.......Brahms
As Brahms wrote pure music, so he wanted pure tribute. Only from those who, unasked, brought to his work the spiritual co-operation necessary for a true revelation of its beauty, was the devotion worth having. The works of Brahms are intended for the pure minded among music lovers, those whose joy in sound is uncontaminated by poetical or pictorial fancies, those who in attentive trance, delight to contemplate tone shapes building themselves into a whole. No doubt the instrumental music of Bach and Mozart is equally absolute, yet Brahms seems to be so with a particular selfconsciousness.
CONCERTS
CHORAL UNION SERIES. Dorothy Maynor, Soprano, will be heard Saturday evening, February 3; Westminster Choir, Sunday afternoon, February 11; and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Desire Defauw, Conductor, Monday evening, March 19.
THE FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL MAY FESTIVAL, consisting of six concerts, will take place Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 3, 4, S, and 6. The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, Conductor, and Saul Caston, Associate Conductor; the Choral Union, Hardin Van Deursen, Conductor; and the Youth Chorus, Marguerite Hood, Conductor, will participate.
Negotiations are pending with distinguished soloists, both vocal and instrumental.
For further information, please communicate with the University Musical Society, Charles A. Sink, President, Burton Memorial Tower.