Program Notes for RUSSIA
Front Range Chamber Players, February 14, 2017
String Quartet No. 2 by Alexander Borodin
Allegro Moderato
Scherzo: Allegro
Notturno: Andante
Finale: Andante – Vivace
Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) was a member of group of Russian composers labeled “The Five” by the rest of the musical world. They shared a collective vision in the second half of the 19th century: to produce a Russian music based on the Russian experience and identity, and to rid Russian music of pale, stale imitations of Italian opera, German formalism, and traditionalism. Of the five who took on this mission, only one, Milay Balakirev, had a “real job” as a professional musician. Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a naval officer, Cesar Cui was a fortification expert, and Modest Moussorgsky was a civil servant. But they are without exception only remembered as composers. The problem of maintaining creative activity under the burden of heavy career demands was most acute in the case of Borodin, who was a professor of chemistry at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, as well as a research chemist who made significant academic contributions in that field. He also championed the cause of equal education for women and women’s rights (in Czarist Russia!) and was in demand as a public speaker in this regard.
Despite all this, Borodin managed to write a very significant body of music that still lives today in the operatic, orchestral, and chamber music repertory. The String Quartet No. 2 is one of the most beloved works in the entire quartet literature. It was composed over a period of just two months near the end of the summer of 1881, and may have owed its inspiration to the occasion of his twentieth wedding anniversary. This claim is supported by Borodin’s acknowledgement (in letters) that his wife, Ekaterina Protopova, was “highly sentimental” and appreciated romantic gestures. In any case, he dedicated the final score to her. The Imperial Russian Music Society presented the world premier on January 26, 1882, in St. Petersburg. Well-received during Borodin’s life, this music has endured; indeed, two of its most prominent tunes even managed to cross over into the popular realm, appearing as songs in the 1953 Broadway musical Kismet.
The first movement is in D major and begins with a flowing, tender theme in the cello. After it is repeated in the first violin there is a transitional figure, more rhythmic, which evolves from the character of the principal idea. A second theme, marked cantabile is then introduced by the first violin in the key of F#, above a light pizzicato accompaniment outlining the harmony. A more rhythmic closing theme ends in a descending chordal pattern. Fragments of this theme and the second idea are explored in the next section, featuring accents and shifting rhythms, and creating increased excitement and passion. The cello enters again with the second theme, this time in D. The transition to the development section is signaled with a relaxation of tempo and a long pedal point in the cello on A, leading to the key of D minor.
The development begins with the cello and the opening theme, but emphasis is soon shifted to the second theme, which is fragmented and developed fully, along with the transitional theme and closing theme. In the recapitulation, the ideas return in original order, but now with brief yet striking uses of canonic imitation. There is an Animando, increasing the music’s motion, and yet not contributing to further complexity of thought. A final Tranquillo section serves to bring the music back to the original key of D major and also to settle the listener into a calmer state.
This “calm” is strikingly shattered by the Scherzo: Allegro that follows. Part Mendelssohn, part Ravel, this movement opens with tensile agility. It also goes against convention in its form: closer to a free sonata form rather than displaying the ternary form with Trio, as would have been more in line with classical practice. The opening theme is a series of running eighth notes, organized in different sequences. The second theme enters with subtle gentleness in the violins; it is slower and marked molto cantabile e dolce, giving the high instruments (in duet) the free range needed to embrace a lush, romantic sentiment in the new key of G Major. (This theme is will be familiar from Kismet’s song “Baubles, Bangles and Beads”). The ensuing music is perfumed with swaying motion and chromatic changes, shifting back and forth between the two main ideas; in the recapitulation they are contrasted and often combined in further chromatic exchanges. There are intentional jumps from pizzicato (plucked) to arco (bowed) playing, adding to the textural contrast. At the end of the closing Vivace section, the extended arpeggiation passes through all the voices, the pizzicato effect being that of a feather whisked up into the air by a light breeze.
The third movement is a graceful Nocturne set in A major. The rich and eloquent principal theme (made famous on the stage in the song “And This Is My Beloved” from Kismet) starts off in the cello, marked cantabile ed espressivo, and is gently supported with a flowing stream of syncopation in the middle two voices. When the first violin takes over the theme, the compliment changes; the second violin and cello have a chordal role and the viola has running eighth notes. A restless contrasting section ensues (piu mosso), marked by prominent rising scales, exotic ornamentation, and subtle key changes. Later in the movement, the four instruments freely exchange melodic fragments; finally the first violin and cello, in an extended canon, spin out the theme in the home key of D, powerfully evoking a scene of two lovers outdoors enjoying a clear night sky. Later, the two violins also engage in similar canonic duet, made even more poignant by the cello’s plucked chords and the viola’s tremolando evoking twinkling stars. At the movement’s close, each voice actively reaches upward one more time with a fragment of the main theme, beginning in the low cello and expanding magically into a high A major chord that dies away.
The Finale begins with an Andante introduction that is mysterious in character. There are two contrasting phrases, the second of which is marked pesante (heavy), and is in direct, ominous contrast to the first phrase’s upward, questioning quality. This whole section creates an unsettled feeling and acts both as a motto and a point of division in the music. Suddenly a brisk Vivace section opens with staccato pulsing in the cello. Quick imitative entrances in the upper three voices finally give way to a more cheerful, unified mood, set in D major – at last, the tonal center of the movement, considerably delayed. A sweet, lyrical theme is heard in the first violin and later passed to the viola. It quickly becomes more nervous and chromatic. Musical discussion is restricted to the upper three voices; the cello only becoming active again after the music quickens to the pace of the opening eighth-note thematic figure. The introductory Andante section makes another entrance, and is again repeated twice. The extended Vivace section which follows develops the themes again and serves as recapitulation. The Andante figure comes back for a third go-around, launching another section of repeating the thematic material. The movement closes, somewhat anti-climactically, on a long D major. by Robert Molison
Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57, by Dmitri Shostakovich
Prelude – Lent – Poco piu mosso – Lento
Fugue - Adagio
Scherzo – Allegretto
Intermezzo – Lento – Appassionato
Finale – Allegretto
The year 1940 found most of Europe in the grip of war. However, because of a non-aggression pact signed by Stalin and Hitler, the Soviet Union found itself (briefly) in a relatively calm time. The revolution of 1917 had led to famine and death of millions in the late 1920s, trials of the mid 1930s and much more. The great composer Shostakovich was almost a victim of the times in 1936 when Stalin and others angrily walked out of a performance of his opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.” A subsequent article in Pravda said ominously, “Things could end very badly for this young man.” After withdrawing public performances of his works, he ultimately redeemed himself in the eyes of the Stalin regime with his Symphony No. 5 (1937). He again became officially acceptable. Other significant works soon followed.
In the temporary quiet of 1940, the Beethoven Quartet, a group based in Moscow that would eventually premiere most of the composer’s 15 string quartets, asked Shostakovich to write a quintet featuring that ensemble with Shostakovich on piano. (The composer was a fine pianist as well as a prolific composer.) He agreed and the quintet saw its premiere in Moscow on Nov. 23, 1940. The work was a great success and it received the first Stalin Prize from the Soviet government in 1941. The prize included 100,000 rubles cash, which Shostakovich promptly returned to benefit Moscow’s impoverished citizens. The wildly popular quintet was actually a reflection of the times historically. The situation changed drastically in Europe soon thereafter when, in 1941, the Nazis turned on their sometime allies. During those war years Shostakovich left Leningrad and was sent to an area outside Moscow (with some other Russian composers) for safe-keeping. Periodically those composers found it necessary to write pieces with a propaganda flavor. Shostakovich, for example, wrote a hymn to the Stalin reforestation program. Prokofiev, to appease the regime, later wrote his classic “Ode to the End of the War,” scored for 8 harps, 4 pianos, military band, percussion ensemble and double basses. But these were difficult times and the threatened musicians did what was needed to survive (with tongue in cheek, no doubt).
Back to the temporary calm of 1940 and the Shostakovich quintet. The work uses fairly traditional forms but with the composer’s characteristic twists and occasional sarcasm. The five instruments are not often simultaneously active. Inspired by Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, (Shostakovich later composed a cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues), the opening two movements are a prelude and fugue, beginning on the piano with dramatic statement followed by the same from the strings. The Poco piu mosso part of the first movement is more lilting. The fugue has four voices, beginning with each of the muted strings, then piano (keeping the texture fairly sparse). This leads to the Scherzo, finally utilizing all five instruments at once, in waltz time, clearly a Shostakovich atmosphere, with a rather wild coda. The beautiful Intermezzo movement is rather sad and tranquil, beginning with violin melody and pizzicato cello, with others joining gradually. The triumphant Finale has themes traded back and forth between strings and piano, evolving into a pseudo-march section in the middle. The quintet resolves with a quiet and pleasant ending. by Roberta Mielke
Program notes draw on open-access web resources.
Allegro Moderato
Scherzo: Allegro
Notturno: Andante
Finale: Andante – Vivace
Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) was a member of group of Russian composers labeled “The Five” by the rest of the musical world. They shared a collective vision in the second half of the 19th century: to produce a Russian music based on the Russian experience and identity, and to rid Russian music of pale, stale imitations of Italian opera, German formalism, and traditionalism. Of the five who took on this mission, only one, Milay Balakirev, had a “real job” as a professional musician. Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a naval officer, Cesar Cui was a fortification expert, and Modest Moussorgsky was a civil servant. But they are without exception only remembered as composers. The problem of maintaining creative activity under the burden of heavy career demands was most acute in the case of Borodin, who was a professor of chemistry at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, as well as a research chemist who made significant academic contributions in that field. He also championed the cause of equal education for women and women’s rights (in Czarist Russia!) and was in demand as a public speaker in this regard.
Despite all this, Borodin managed to write a very significant body of music that still lives today in the operatic, orchestral, and chamber music repertory. The String Quartet No. 2 is one of the most beloved works in the entire quartet literature. It was composed over a period of just two months near the end of the summer of 1881, and may have owed its inspiration to the occasion of his twentieth wedding anniversary. This claim is supported by Borodin’s acknowledgement (in letters) that his wife, Ekaterina Protopova, was “highly sentimental” and appreciated romantic gestures. In any case, he dedicated the final score to her. The Imperial Russian Music Society presented the world premier on January 26, 1882, in St. Petersburg. Well-received during Borodin’s life, this music has endured; indeed, two of its most prominent tunes even managed to cross over into the popular realm, appearing as songs in the 1953 Broadway musical Kismet.
The first movement is in D major and begins with a flowing, tender theme in the cello. After it is repeated in the first violin there is a transitional figure, more rhythmic, which evolves from the character of the principal idea. A second theme, marked cantabile is then introduced by the first violin in the key of F#, above a light pizzicato accompaniment outlining the harmony. A more rhythmic closing theme ends in a descending chordal pattern. Fragments of this theme and the second idea are explored in the next section, featuring accents and shifting rhythms, and creating increased excitement and passion. The cello enters again with the second theme, this time in D. The transition to the development section is signaled with a relaxation of tempo and a long pedal point in the cello on A, leading to the key of D minor.
The development begins with the cello and the opening theme, but emphasis is soon shifted to the second theme, which is fragmented and developed fully, along with the transitional theme and closing theme. In the recapitulation, the ideas return in original order, but now with brief yet striking uses of canonic imitation. There is an Animando, increasing the music’s motion, and yet not contributing to further complexity of thought. A final Tranquillo section serves to bring the music back to the original key of D major and also to settle the listener into a calmer state.
This “calm” is strikingly shattered by the Scherzo: Allegro that follows. Part Mendelssohn, part Ravel, this movement opens with tensile agility. It also goes against convention in its form: closer to a free sonata form rather than displaying the ternary form with Trio, as would have been more in line with classical practice. The opening theme is a series of running eighth notes, organized in different sequences. The second theme enters with subtle gentleness in the violins; it is slower and marked molto cantabile e dolce, giving the high instruments (in duet) the free range needed to embrace a lush, romantic sentiment in the new key of G Major. (This theme is will be familiar from Kismet’s song “Baubles, Bangles and Beads”). The ensuing music is perfumed with swaying motion and chromatic changes, shifting back and forth between the two main ideas; in the recapitulation they are contrasted and often combined in further chromatic exchanges. There are intentional jumps from pizzicato (plucked) to arco (bowed) playing, adding to the textural contrast. At the end of the closing Vivace section, the extended arpeggiation passes through all the voices, the pizzicato effect being that of a feather whisked up into the air by a light breeze.
The third movement is a graceful Nocturne set in A major. The rich and eloquent principal theme (made famous on the stage in the song “And This Is My Beloved” from Kismet) starts off in the cello, marked cantabile ed espressivo, and is gently supported with a flowing stream of syncopation in the middle two voices. When the first violin takes over the theme, the compliment changes; the second violin and cello have a chordal role and the viola has running eighth notes. A restless contrasting section ensues (piu mosso), marked by prominent rising scales, exotic ornamentation, and subtle key changes. Later in the movement, the four instruments freely exchange melodic fragments; finally the first violin and cello, in an extended canon, spin out the theme in the home key of D, powerfully evoking a scene of two lovers outdoors enjoying a clear night sky. Later, the two violins also engage in similar canonic duet, made even more poignant by the cello’s plucked chords and the viola’s tremolando evoking twinkling stars. At the movement’s close, each voice actively reaches upward one more time with a fragment of the main theme, beginning in the low cello and expanding magically into a high A major chord that dies away.
The Finale begins with an Andante introduction that is mysterious in character. There are two contrasting phrases, the second of which is marked pesante (heavy), and is in direct, ominous contrast to the first phrase’s upward, questioning quality. This whole section creates an unsettled feeling and acts both as a motto and a point of division in the music. Suddenly a brisk Vivace section opens with staccato pulsing in the cello. Quick imitative entrances in the upper three voices finally give way to a more cheerful, unified mood, set in D major – at last, the tonal center of the movement, considerably delayed. A sweet, lyrical theme is heard in the first violin and later passed to the viola. It quickly becomes more nervous and chromatic. Musical discussion is restricted to the upper three voices; the cello only becoming active again after the music quickens to the pace of the opening eighth-note thematic figure. The introductory Andante section makes another entrance, and is again repeated twice. The extended Vivace section which follows develops the themes again and serves as recapitulation. The Andante figure comes back for a third go-around, launching another section of repeating the thematic material. The movement closes, somewhat anti-climactically, on a long D major. by Robert Molison
Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57, by Dmitri Shostakovich
Prelude – Lent – Poco piu mosso – Lento
Fugue - Adagio
Scherzo – Allegretto
Intermezzo – Lento – Appassionato
Finale – Allegretto
The year 1940 found most of Europe in the grip of war. However, because of a non-aggression pact signed by Stalin and Hitler, the Soviet Union found itself (briefly) in a relatively calm time. The revolution of 1917 had led to famine and death of millions in the late 1920s, trials of the mid 1930s and much more. The great composer Shostakovich was almost a victim of the times in 1936 when Stalin and others angrily walked out of a performance of his opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.” A subsequent article in Pravda said ominously, “Things could end very badly for this young man.” After withdrawing public performances of his works, he ultimately redeemed himself in the eyes of the Stalin regime with his Symphony No. 5 (1937). He again became officially acceptable. Other significant works soon followed.
In the temporary quiet of 1940, the Beethoven Quartet, a group based in Moscow that would eventually premiere most of the composer’s 15 string quartets, asked Shostakovich to write a quintet featuring that ensemble with Shostakovich on piano. (The composer was a fine pianist as well as a prolific composer.) He agreed and the quintet saw its premiere in Moscow on Nov. 23, 1940. The work was a great success and it received the first Stalin Prize from the Soviet government in 1941. The prize included 100,000 rubles cash, which Shostakovich promptly returned to benefit Moscow’s impoverished citizens. The wildly popular quintet was actually a reflection of the times historically. The situation changed drastically in Europe soon thereafter when, in 1941, the Nazis turned on their sometime allies. During those war years Shostakovich left Leningrad and was sent to an area outside Moscow (with some other Russian composers) for safe-keeping. Periodically those composers found it necessary to write pieces with a propaganda flavor. Shostakovich, for example, wrote a hymn to the Stalin reforestation program. Prokofiev, to appease the regime, later wrote his classic “Ode to the End of the War,” scored for 8 harps, 4 pianos, military band, percussion ensemble and double basses. But these were difficult times and the threatened musicians did what was needed to survive (with tongue in cheek, no doubt).
Back to the temporary calm of 1940 and the Shostakovich quintet. The work uses fairly traditional forms but with the composer’s characteristic twists and occasional sarcasm. The five instruments are not often simultaneously active. Inspired by Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, (Shostakovich later composed a cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues), the opening two movements are a prelude and fugue, beginning on the piano with dramatic statement followed by the same from the strings. The Poco piu mosso part of the first movement is more lilting. The fugue has four voices, beginning with each of the muted strings, then piano (keeping the texture fairly sparse). This leads to the Scherzo, finally utilizing all five instruments at once, in waltz time, clearly a Shostakovich atmosphere, with a rather wild coda. The beautiful Intermezzo movement is rather sad and tranquil, beginning with violin melody and pizzicato cello, with others joining gradually. The triumphant Finale has themes traded back and forth between strings and piano, evolving into a pseudo-march section in the middle. The quintet resolves with a quiet and pleasant ending. by Roberta Mielke
Program notes draw on open-access web resources.
