UMS Concert Program, December 3, 1974: Juilliard String Quartet --

Concert: Fourth
Complete Series: 3914
Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University Musical Society
of
The University of Michigan
Presents
Juilliard String Quartet
ROBERT MANN, Violin SAMUEL RHODES, Viola
EARL CARLYSS, Violin JOEL KROSNICK, Cello
Tuesday Evening, December 3, 1974, at 8:30 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Quartet in D major, K. 499 ("Hoffmeister") (1786)......Mozart
Allegretto
Menuetto: allegretto Adagio Allegro
Quartet No. 3, Op. 30 (1926)...........Schonberg
Moderato Adagio
Intermezzo: allegro moderato Rondo: molto moderato
INTERMISSION
Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3 (1807)........Beethoven
Andante con moto, allegro vivace Andante con moto quasi allegretto Menuetto: grazioso Allegro molto
Columbia Mastrrworks and RCA Victor Records
Fourth Concert Twelfth Annual Chamber Arts Series Complete Programs 3914
PROGRAM NOTES
Quartet in D major, K. 499 ("Hoffmeister")........Mozart
(17561791)
An inscription on the autograph score, in Mozart's own handwriting, indicates that this quartet was completed on Augurt 19, 1786, one of the most hopeful periods in Mozart's harried life. "Figaro" was making steady progress; Constanze was to present him with a third son, Leopold, in October of the same year; plans for a visit to England seemed to offer at last a measure of security and assured income.
The Quartet in D major represents a sharp division in Mozart's creative work, a departure first apparent in "Figaro." In fact, "Figaro" can be said to have begun what Cobb'ett calls "the decisive step in the division of his artistic development, inspirations from within instead of without." Musicologists have been puzzled by the fact that this quartet was published separately, for reasons unknown. There is a legend, says Koechel, "to the effect that the quartet was commissioned by Count Walsegg of Stuppach, who later commissioned the "Requiem." If that were true, Mozart would not have been able to publish it for himself." The date of publication is uncertain, he adds, but it can be given as "sometime in 1788."
The opening theme is more original in the modern sense than anything Mozart had written up to this time. The listener will notice "a great play of plagal cadence on the minor or major third below, seesawing in the new key thus acquired, and the sudden enharmonic return" in the manner of Schubert. The Trio of the Minuet, a "sober, graceful dance" is clothed in darker colors. But brightness and vigor charge the whole work.
Quartet No. 3, Op. 30............Schonbekg
(18741951)
The third Schonberg quartet, Op 30, written in 1926, is classical in form not only in the relationship between the four movements but in the construction of each indi?vidual movement. The opening motive of the first movement is divided between violin and viola--a series of marcato eighth notes persisting unaltered for the space of twelve bars. In the fifth bar the main theme appears above it in the first violin and is repeated with slight modifications in the cello and viola. There follows a short energetic section in which the accompaniment motive and a portion of the main theme are developed. The energy subsides and the second subject appears, again in the first violin. The very wide intervals in this theme are characteristic of Schonberg's late style of melodic development. The working out then begins, concerning itself chiefly with the steady eighthnote figure of the opening accompaniment motive into which the two main themes are gradually woven. There is an extremely free recapitu?lation. An extended and very sensitively beautiful coda closes the movement.
The second movement is in variation form. Two contrasting themes are stated in succession, each is three times varied in a richly ornamented or rhythmically in?ventive contrapuntal texture, and there is a brief coda in which the fervor of the last statement melts away. This movement is one of the most touching and beautiful compositions in the entire literature.
The Intermezzo third movement is in unconventional minuet form, with the repetitions worked out independently. The zestful main theme is given to the viola at the outset, second violin and cello providing rhythmical accompaniment. This is followed by a second section which the violin leads, after which a trio section is intro?duced, notable for its asymmetrical accentuation. A free recapitulation and a thematically derived coda end the movement.
The opening subject of the last movement, stated by the first violin, a light melody with wide skips, gives the clue to the spirit of the whole movement. Several episodes of new material alternate with varied recapitulations of the initial melody, and offer a climax of great dynamic intensity built on the principal and episodic material, a brief tender statement of the opening then ends the work.
Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3.........Beethoven
(17701827)
The five quartets of Beethoven's middle period were written between 1S06 and 1810. During these same years he wrote his fifth and sixth symphonies, the violin concerto, the fourth piano concerto and the music for Egmont. Beethoven was at this time at the height of his vigor although his deafness was quite advanced and he could hear very little of what he wrote. The three quartets of Op. 59 were commissioned by Count Rasoumovsky, Russian ambassador to Vienna, who was a noted amateur violinist.
This is the first Beethoven quartet to open with a slow introduction, a practice which was fairly common in the classical symphony but rare in quartet writing, there being only one example each in the quartets of both Haydn and Mozart. The content of this introduction has no thematic relation to the Allegro section and no tonality is established until the Allegro has begun.
The slow movement is basically an accompanied melody, its most notable feature a pizzicato cello accompaniment figure which both opens the movement and returns, extended, to close it.
In the third movement, Beethoven returns to the traditional eighteenthcentury minuet form rather than his usual scherzo. A coda leads directly into the fourth movement which is in sonata form, its principal theme and most dominant idea being a fugue.
Mstislav Rostropovich
worldrenowned Soviet cellist in recital
Sunday Afternoon, January 19, 1975, at 2:30 Hill Auditorium
Tickets at Burton Tower, or by mail:
Main floor: $8.50 and $7.50
First balcony: $7.50 and S7.00
Second balcony: $6, $5, and $3.50
Handel's Messiah.........Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
December 6, 7 & 8
For over ninety years, the University Choral Union has presented the "Messiah" in celebration
of the Christmas season. Donald Bryant conducts the 350voice chorus, members of the
Intcrlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, and soloists Elizabeth Humes, soprano, Barbara Windham, contralto, John McCollum, tenor, and Michael Devlin, bass. Guaeneri String Quartet and Gary Graffman, Pianist Wednesday, January 8
Schubert: Quartettsatz in C minor; Beethoven: Quartet in Eflat major, Op. 127; Dvorak:
Quintet in A major, Op. 81
Marcel Marceau, Pantomimist......Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
January 10, 11 & 12 Detroit Symphony Orchestra.......Saturday, January 11
Aldo Ceccato, conductor; Lorin Hollander, pianist
Bach. Piano Concerto in D minor; Strauss: Burleske in D minor; Dvorak: Symphony No. 8
Syntagma Musicum from Amsterdam.....Thursday, January 23
Tokyo String Quartet.........Sunday, February 2
Haydn: Quartet, Op. 50, No. 1; Bartok: Quartet No. 6; Debussy: Quartet in G minor American Symphony Orchestra.......Sunday, February 9
Morton Gould, conductor
Gould: Vivaldi Gallery; Strauss: "Macbeth"; Ives: Second Orchestral Suite; MussorgskyRavel: Pictures at An Exhibition Prague Chamber Orchestra
(replacing Moscow Chamber Orchestra).....Tuesday, February 11
Mozart: Symphony in D major, K. 504 ("Prague") ; Prokofieff: "Classical Symphony" in
D major; Dvorak: Czech Suite in D major, Op. 39 Goldovsky Grand Opera Theater.....Thursday, February 13
Donizetti: "The Interrupted Wedding Night"; Debussy: "The Prodigal Son" JeanPierre Rampal, Flutist, and
Robert VeyronLa Croix, Keyboard.....Tuesday, February 18
Harkness Ballet..........Thursday, February 20
Chhau, Masked Dance of Bengal.....Saturday, February 22
Moscow Balalaika Orchestra and Ludmila Zykina Monday, February 24
Paul Taylor Dance Company.......Wednesday, March 12
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra......Saturday, March 15
Alain Lombard, conductor; JeanBernard Pommier, pianist
Qawwali Music from Pakistan.......Sunday, March 16
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pianist.......Wednesday, March 19
Ars Antiqua de Paris.........Saturday, March 29
Boston Symphony Orchestra........Saturday, April 5
Seiji Ozawa, conductor; and the Festival Chorus
Featuring Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloe"
Preservation Hall Jazz.........Wednesday, April 9
Spanish RTV Symphony Orchestra.......Friday, April 11
Enrique Garcia Ascensio, conductor; Narciso Yepes, guitarist
Emil Gilels, Pianist...........Sunday, April 13
May Festival......Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
April 30, May 1, 2 & 3
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
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