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What we now recognize as the string quartet spent most of its early years in the drawing room, and only in the 19th century did established groups begin presenting public concerts with any regularity. Toronto’s Eybler Quartet brings to life the relatively obscure music of Vanhal and Asplmayr, early apostles of this genre, and trace a line to the treasured works of Haydn and Beethoven that became the backbone of the string quartet repertoire for generations to come. This event is a collaboration with the Friends of Chamber Music.
Supported by Sharon E. Kahn
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Programme
FRANZ ASPLMAYR (1728-1796)
Quartet in D, Op. 2 No. 2 (publ 1769)
Vivace
Minuetto
Andante cantabile
Allegro ma poco
JOHANN BAPTIST VANHAL (1739-1813)
Quartet in C, Op. 6 No. 3 (c 1770-1)
Allegro
Andante
Presto
FRANZ JOSEF HAYDN (1723-1809)
Quartet in B minor, Op. 33 No. 1 (Hob.III:37)(1781)
Allegro moderato
Scherzo: Allegro di molto
Andante
Finale: Presto
INTERVAL
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
String Quartet in D, Op. 18 No. 3 (1798-1800)
Allegro
Andante con moto
Allegro
Presto
Programme Notes
Austrian composer and violinist Franz Asplmayr ranks high among those who can claim some part in the paternity of the earliest true string quartet. His apprenticeship to the craft was served writing divertimentos for two violins and bass throughout the 1740s and 50s. These trios were more than the Baroque trio sonata minus continuo and were part of an Austrian tradition of divertimento writing. From there it was a logical next step for Asplmayr and his colleagues to add a viola to the ensemble, making the string quartet the instrumental medium of choice in the Austrian territories by 1770 – and throughout Europe shortly thereafter. Asplmayr’s Op. 2 collection of quartets is believed to date from the 1760s and was published in Paris as Six Quatuors Concertantes in 1769. There are, of course, other strands to the making of the string quartet, not the least of which would be the practice of playing one to a part in four-part orchestral string music.
Asplmayr was the Linz-born son of a dance-master. One of his earliest positions was as Secretarius at the court of Count Morzin for two years, from 1759. This was when Haydn, five years his senior, was already serving as Kapellmeister and writing his earliest symphonies. By 1761, the Count had overspent his budget and was forced to disband his musical retinue. Haydn then began four decades serving the Esterházy family; Asplmayr succeeded Gluck writing ballets for the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna. Then, over the following three decades, he continued working as a violinist while composing many ballet scores and Singspiele, building a high reputation for both the quality and innovation of his scores. Asplmayr’s D major quartet, Op. 2 No. 2 has become the best known of his 46 string quartets, partly because it was printed many times in the 18th century and in more recent times, following another printing in 1907. In the favoured Viennese tradition of four movements rather than two or three, the music strikes a serious note from the beginning as the opening theme is presented in alternating major and minor keys. The short theme – a forward-propelled chord plus a turn, repeated on the dominant, then followed by a sighing phrase – essentially provides the main thematic ingredients of the opening movement. The Minuetto follows, with the two violins playing its subdued theme in unison, in a three-part texture; there’s a contrasting minor key trio. An expressively yearning slow movement leads to a brief rondo finale. Its main melody is given to the first violin, with a somewhat lean texture as accompaniment, but with three contrasting episodes to add momentum.
JOHANN BAPTIST VANHAL (1739-1813)
Quartet in C, Op. 6 No. 3 (c 1770-1)
Bohemia-born composer and violinist Johann Baptist Vanhal was one quarter of that legendary 18th century dream quartet who gathered in 1784 at the Vienna home of the composer Stephen Storace for an evening of quartet playing. Haydn was on first violin, Dittersdorf, another composer, on second, Mozart was the viola and Vanhal, cello. “I was there,” the tenor Michael Kelly reported, “and a greater treat, or a more remarkable one, cannot be imagined . . .” At the time, Vanhal was well-established in Vienna, published throughout Europe and best known for his 75 or so symphonies, a genre he had already stopped composing in response to the changing Vienna economy and taste. Vanhal was a pioneering freelance musician in the Habsburg capital two decades before Mozart took on a similar challenge. His skill as a musician and ability to move comfortably in aristocratic circles allowed him to, first, buy his freedom (Vanhal’s father was a bonded serf in the small Bohemian town of Nechanicz), then rise to become a figure of some standing in Vienna. He was even head-hunted by an aristocrat from Dresden, who then sponsored two years of travel so that Vanhal might absorb the Italian style of composition. Returning to Vienna in 1771 and turning his back on the idea of being Kapellmeister at a Dresden court, Vanhal then turned out reams of piano music for the rapidly growing amateur market, publishing sonatas, variations, dances and many other short pieces. His deep religious faith led to an unusually large output of church music. Like Haydn, Vanhal excelled when negotiating with music publishers; more than 700 printed works bear his name. None is dated or catalogued by the composer and, indeed, with an estimated total of 1377 compositions in all, Vanhal is a cataloguer’s nightmare.
By the year 1787, Vanhal had no fewer than 60 string quartets in print out of a total of the 74 now believed to be by him. Tonight’s quartet is part of a collection of six published in Paris in 1771 by Anton Huberty, a publisher who subsequently moved his business to Vienna. Its three movements are tailored to the French preference for music that is pleasing to the ear and relatively easy on the bow. But Vanhal also combines this with some of the more finely-worked features of the Viennese quartet. All three movements fall into a simple binary form, with each half repeated and some elements of sonata structure in the outer movements. Violin and viola share a graceful melody in the central Andante over a steady bass line and busy second violin triplets. Much of the momentum of the Presto finale is brought about by its off-the-beat rhythmic drive.
FRANZ JOSEF HAYDN (1723-1809)
Quartet in B minor, Op. 33 No. 1 (Hob.III:37)(1781)
When Haydn published his six Op. 33 quartets in April 1782, they immediately created a stir amongst a music-loving public hungry for new music. He hadn’t written a string quartet for almost ten years. He declared, in a famous phrase, that the quartets were “in a completely new and different style.” Mozart, just launching a career as a freelance composer in Vienna when the quartets were first published in 1782, admired their compactness, their perfect balance of character, form and technique, and the way in which Haydn gives all four instruments equal importance. He painstakingly composed a set of six in emulation of Haydn’s Op. 33, with several of Haydn’s movements clearly used as direct models. The popularity of Haydn’s six quartets is reflected in the various nicknames that have become attached to the music. An early German publication included the picture of an attractive young woman on the frontispiece; the name Jungfernquartette or Maiden Quartets has stuck ever since. In English-speaking countries, however, the name Russian Quartets tends to be used. That’s because the quartets were performed at the Vienna Hofburg on Christmas Day 1781 in honour of Grand Duke Paul, the future Russian Tsar. (Franz Asplmayr, of whom there is more to come after the intermission, played second violin on this occasion).
Yet another nickname, Gli Scherzi, reflects one of the innovations found in all six quartets. In them, Haydn replaces the traditional, stately minuet movement with the newer, more folk-like scherzo (Italian for ‘joke’). But the mood of the B minor quartet is the most serious of the collection and it is the only quartet composed in a minor key. A Parisian publisher, not Haydn himself, put the B minor quartet as the first of the set in 1783 and it has kept this number ever since. It opens ambiguously, hovering between D major and B minor. Three of its four movements, including the passionate finale, are in full sonata form. The compact Scherzo anticipates Beethoven in its innovation and imagination.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
String Quartet in D, Op. 18 No. 3 (1798-1800)
“There are portraits of Handel, Bach, Gluck, Mozart and Haydn in my room,” Beethoven wrote in his diary. “They promote my capacity for endurance.” Only one of these composers, Joseph Haydn, was still alive when Beethoven began work on his six earliest string quartets, his Op. 18, shortly after completing his earliest set of violin sonatas. And Haydn is clearly the composer whose music was uppermost in Beethoven’s mind when he wrote the collection. Both composers prefer genial, witty themes underlined by a certain urgency. Both favour graceful phrases without superficiality, lyrical slow movements and a desire to push the music to ever distant keys. Op. 18 was the beginning of Beethoven’s remarkable exploration of the medium. He constantly revised the collection and only released it to the world at large when he was ready.
The String Quartet in D, Op. 18 No.3 was the first of the set to be written. It is the only Beethoven quartet in D major and the most lyrical and subtle of the six. Dramatic contrasts are rare and a mood of contemplative reverie hangs over the music. The quartet opens with a question: a wide, slow jump of a seventh, followed by a smooth flow of quicker notes that only gradually reveal themselves as part of a quick movement. It is one of the most striking openings to any of Beethoven’s string quartets. A secondary theme disturbs the calm progression of the music and is introduced by the first violin, the dominant instrument throughout the quartet. The quietly rising theme of the slow movement is introduced by the second violin. It will reappear five times throughout this gently argued, mellifluous movement. The scherzo, even with its off-the-beat accents, is more graceful than many of the dynamic, idiosyncratic, often aggressive scherzos that Beethoven was soon to develop. Ebullience in the quartet is saved for the finale. This is a brilliant, tarantella-like movement of great energy, with a witty throwaway ending, in which Beethoven begins to explore the possibilities of moving the weight of the quartet to its final movement.
— Program notes © 2017 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca
Eybler Quartet
The Eybler Quartet came together in 2004 to explore the works of the first century and a half of the string quartet, with a healthy attention to lesser known composers such as their namesake, Joseph Leopold Edler von Eybler. The group plays on instruments appropriate to the period of the music it performs. Photo credit – Brain Farm
The Toronto-based ensemble’s live performances have consistently garnered praise as “glowing and committed”, “spirited” and “lively and energizing”. Their recording with clarinetist Jane Booth won praise from Gramophone for being “totally engaging performances that breathe life into Backofen’s music”; their Haydn Op. 33 garnered this praise in Early Music America: “The Eybler Quartet’s rendition of Op. 33 by Joseph Haydn… is simply a treasure. The sound of the strings is warm but not overly vibrated or assertive; the articulation is clear but not didactic; the tempos are beautifully chosen, the ensemble perfect, and the intonation absolutely pure. This is music-making that reflects the deeply human and attractive qualities found in Haydn the composer…”Violinist Julia Wedman and violist Patrick G. Jordan, are both members of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Violinist Aisslinn Nosky is a former member of Tafelmusik and currently Concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society and Principal Guest Conductor of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra. Aisslinn and Julia are also members of I FURIOSI Baroque Ensemble. Cellist Margaret Gay, Artistic Director of the Gallery Players of Niagara, is much in demand as both a modern and period instrument player; she also a founding member of the innovative and genre-bending Ensemble Polaris.The Eybler Quartet harnesses a unique combination of talents and skills: razor-sharp ensemble skills, technical prowess, expertise in period instrument performance and an unquenchable passion for the repertoire. The group’s three other recordings feature world premieres of Eybler’s Opus 1, world premieres of Backofen quintets coupled with Mozart’s clarinet quintet featuring Jane Booth and Haydn’s six quartets Op. 33, complete on 2 CDs
