Ying Quartet Plays Bartók, Tchaikovsky and Mozart
These notes appeared in a concert program at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music in 2004.
by Colin Eatock
String Quartet No. 2
Béla Bartók
In the years before World War I, Béla Bartók pursued a dual career as a composer and ethnomusicologist. In his ethnological field trips, undertaken to collect and record folk songs, he traveled throughout his native Hungary, and further afield to other regions of Eastern Europe. His last field trip before the war was to North Africa, in 1913. But World War I made travel impossible, and between 1914 and 1918 Bartók devoted most of his energies to composition. During these years he wrote several songs and piano pieces, The Wooden Prince ballet and his String Quartet No. 2.
Unlike Bartók’s first quartet, which still retains vestiges of post-romanticism, the second quartet is fundamentally modernist in its conception. According to the musicologist and Bartók biographer Halsey Stevens, “the whole direction of Bartók’s later writing might be deduced from this one work.” Indeed, the piece bears many of the characteristics of Bartók’s mature style: highly chromatic, it nonetheless has an underlying tonal structure, with its three movements centred on the tonalities of A, D and A, respectively.
The first movement is in sonata form, although its tempo is moderate, rather than fast. Richly contrapuntal and expressively lyrical, the piece has a brooding, restive mood that culminates in a series of dramatic unison (or rhythmic unison) outbursts, before dying away, ending with a melodic fragment in the cello. In the second movement, a rondo marked “Allegro molto capriccioso,” Bartók draws heavily on his knowledge of folk musics, writing a medley of furious dances. Here, the generally intense level of energy is contrasted with moments of unsettling quietude. The last movement has an air of resigned tranquility. Although its form defies all labels, it is rhythmically straightforward and disarmingly simple in texture.
The first performance of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2 was given on March 3, 1918, by the Waldbaur-Kerpely Quartet – a group of young musicians who first came together in 1910 to premiere the composer’s String Quartet No. 1. None of the established quartets in Hungary were willing (or perhaps able) to play Bartók’s music, and for many years his quartets were given only by the Waldbaur-Kerpely ensemble. Bartók dedicated his String Quartet No. 2 to this group, in gratitude for their commitment to his music.
© Copyright Colin Eatock 2004
String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow to teach at the Conservatory in 1866 – and for the sensitive composer, his first five years in the city were a roller-coaster ride of successes and failures. His first opera, Voevoda, was well received, but his second, Undine, was turned down for production. He received only qualified support from the director of the Conservatory, Nicholai Rubinstein, who praised some of his works while criticizing others. And his Moscow debut as a conductor was such a harrowing experience that it was ten years before he again dared to ascend the podium. During this half-decade he suffered his first nervous breakdown, failed in his suit to marry the singer Désirée Artôt, led a dissipated life of drinking and gambling, and described his financial affairs as “utterly chaotic.”
In 1871 Tchaikovsky took up Rubinstein’s suggestion of presenting a concert to earn some extra cash. Unable to afford an orchestra, Tchaikovsky put together a programme of songs, opera excerpts and piano pieces he had written, and – wishing to include a new work – composed his first string quartet. The quartet was written quickly, during February, and received its premiere at the concert on March 28. By all accounts the event was successful, and raised Tchaikovsky’s stature in Moscow – especially as the celebrated writer Ivan Turgenev graced the hall with his presence.
Based on classical models, the String Quartet No. 1 is in four movements. The first, in sonata form, begins with a chorale reminiscent of a Russian hymn, to which 16th-note filigree accompaniments are soon added. Throughout the movement, these two ideas – one devotional and the other playful – are contrasted and combined. The second movement, the famous “Andante,” was inspired by a folk song: with unusual changes in metre, it is reminiscent of “The Volga Boatmen.” The third movement, a lively scherzo, is like a folk dance, full of “drone” harmonies and offbeat accents. Its middle section is cheerful in character, with a light pizzicato accompaniment in the cello. Concluding the quartet is a lively “Allegro gusto,” featuring a distinctive three-note motif that permeates the whole movement.
Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 soon became popular, and in 1878 the work was given at a concert attended by another famous Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy. “Perhaps I have never been so flattered in my life,” observed Tchaikovsky in his diary, “nor my pride as a composer so stirred as when Leo Tolsoy, sitting beside me listening to the ‘Andante’ of my first quartet, dissolved in tears.”
© Copyright Colin Eatock 2004
Quartet in D Minor K. 421
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
In 1781 Mozart arrived in Vienna with little more than Hope as his ally. Delighted to finally be free of the oppressive Archbishop Colloredo, his employer in Salzburg, he set about establishing himself in the Austrian capital. Initially the 25-year-old composer lodged in the home of musical Weber family (he married Constanze Weber the following year), and he soon entered into a much-publicized piano competition with Muzio Clementi as his opponent and Emperor Joseph II as the judge. The contest was declared a tie, but the event served to raise Mozart’s profile in Vienna. Before long he was invited to the exclusive soirées of Baron van Swieten, where rarely heard works by Handel and J.S. Bach were performed for connoisseurs.
But perhaps Mozart’s most valuable musical contact was with Joseph Haydn. It is not known exactly when the two men first met – but Mozart and the famous composer 24 years his senior became friends sometime in the early 1780s. Playing in quartets alongside Haydn – and also Vanhal and Dittersdorf – Mozart learned much from the “father” of the string quartet, and in 1785 published a collection of six quartets that he dedicated to Haydn. Mozart described these works as “the fruit of long and laborious effort.”
The second of the six – the only one in a minor key – was probably written in 1783, one year after Haydn published his Op. 33 set of quartets. The first movement, marked “Allegro,” begins darkly, but soon finds its way into a warm F major. Although it is not complex in texture, the piece is deceptively asymmetrical in its phrase-structure. In the lyrical second movement, in F major, the first violin rises to melodic prominence, although the other three instruments are by no means relegated to the status of mere accompanists. With a return to D minor, the third-movement minuet takes on a sinister quality. Again, phrases are asymmetrical, although the central trio section, in D major, is more regular in structure. The last movement, a lilting “Siciliana” dance in 6/8 time, consists of a theme and five variations.
Surprisingly, Mozart’s “Haydn” quartets were not universally admired when they were first published: a review in the Magazin der Musik cryptically complained they were “too highly seasoned.” More recently, in 1998, the musicologist John Irving wrote that these quartets “continue to appeal to every time and every taste.”
© Colin Eatock 2004
by Colin Eatock
String Quartet No. 2
Béla Bartók
In the years before World War I, Béla Bartók pursued a dual career as a composer and ethnomusicologist. In his ethnological field trips, undertaken to collect and record folk songs, he traveled throughout his native Hungary, and further afield to other regions of Eastern Europe. His last field trip before the war was to North Africa, in 1913. But World War I made travel impossible, and between 1914 and 1918 Bartók devoted most of his energies to composition. During these years he wrote several songs and piano pieces, The Wooden Prince ballet and his String Quartet No. 2.
Unlike Bartók’s first quartet, which still retains vestiges of post-romanticism, the second quartet is fundamentally modernist in its conception. According to the musicologist and Bartók biographer Halsey Stevens, “the whole direction of Bartók’s later writing might be deduced from this one work.” Indeed, the piece bears many of the characteristics of Bartók’s mature style: highly chromatic, it nonetheless has an underlying tonal structure, with its three movements centred on the tonalities of A, D and A, respectively.
The first movement is in sonata form, although its tempo is moderate, rather than fast. Richly contrapuntal and expressively lyrical, the piece has a brooding, restive mood that culminates in a series of dramatic unison (or rhythmic unison) outbursts, before dying away, ending with a melodic fragment in the cello. In the second movement, a rondo marked “Allegro molto capriccioso,” Bartók draws heavily on his knowledge of folk musics, writing a medley of furious dances. Here, the generally intense level of energy is contrasted with moments of unsettling quietude. The last movement has an air of resigned tranquility. Although its form defies all labels, it is rhythmically straightforward and disarmingly simple in texture.
The first performance of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2 was given on March 3, 1918, by the Waldbaur-Kerpely Quartet – a group of young musicians who first came together in 1910 to premiere the composer’s String Quartet No. 1. None of the established quartets in Hungary were willing (or perhaps able) to play Bartók’s music, and for many years his quartets were given only by the Waldbaur-Kerpely ensemble. Bartók dedicated his String Quartet No. 2 to this group, in gratitude for their commitment to his music.
© Copyright Colin Eatock 2004
String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow to teach at the Conservatory in 1866 – and for the sensitive composer, his first five years in the city were a roller-coaster ride of successes and failures. His first opera, Voevoda, was well received, but his second, Undine, was turned down for production. He received only qualified support from the director of the Conservatory, Nicholai Rubinstein, who praised some of his works while criticizing others. And his Moscow debut as a conductor was such a harrowing experience that it was ten years before he again dared to ascend the podium. During this half-decade he suffered his first nervous breakdown, failed in his suit to marry the singer Désirée Artôt, led a dissipated life of drinking and gambling, and described his financial affairs as “utterly chaotic.”
In 1871 Tchaikovsky took up Rubinstein’s suggestion of presenting a concert to earn some extra cash. Unable to afford an orchestra, Tchaikovsky put together a programme of songs, opera excerpts and piano pieces he had written, and – wishing to include a new work – composed his first string quartet. The quartet was written quickly, during February, and received its premiere at the concert on March 28. By all accounts the event was successful, and raised Tchaikovsky’s stature in Moscow – especially as the celebrated writer Ivan Turgenev graced the hall with his presence.
Based on classical models, the String Quartet No. 1 is in four movements. The first, in sonata form, begins with a chorale reminiscent of a Russian hymn, to which 16th-note filigree accompaniments are soon added. Throughout the movement, these two ideas – one devotional and the other playful – are contrasted and combined. The second movement, the famous “Andante,” was inspired by a folk song: with unusual changes in metre, it is reminiscent of “The Volga Boatmen.” The third movement, a lively scherzo, is like a folk dance, full of “drone” harmonies and offbeat accents. Its middle section is cheerful in character, with a light pizzicato accompaniment in the cello. Concluding the quartet is a lively “Allegro gusto,” featuring a distinctive three-note motif that permeates the whole movement.
Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 soon became popular, and in 1878 the work was given at a concert attended by another famous Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy. “Perhaps I have never been so flattered in my life,” observed Tchaikovsky in his diary, “nor my pride as a composer so stirred as when Leo Tolsoy, sitting beside me listening to the ‘Andante’ of my first quartet, dissolved in tears.”
© Copyright Colin Eatock 2004
Quartet in D Minor K. 421
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
In 1781 Mozart arrived in Vienna with little more than Hope as his ally. Delighted to finally be free of the oppressive Archbishop Colloredo, his employer in Salzburg, he set about establishing himself in the Austrian capital. Initially the 25-year-old composer lodged in the home of musical Weber family (he married Constanze Weber the following year), and he soon entered into a much-publicized piano competition with Muzio Clementi as his opponent and Emperor Joseph II as the judge. The contest was declared a tie, but the event served to raise Mozart’s profile in Vienna. Before long he was invited to the exclusive soirées of Baron van Swieten, where rarely heard works by Handel and J.S. Bach were performed for connoisseurs.
But perhaps Mozart’s most valuable musical contact was with Joseph Haydn. It is not known exactly when the two men first met – but Mozart and the famous composer 24 years his senior became friends sometime in the early 1780s. Playing in quartets alongside Haydn – and also Vanhal and Dittersdorf – Mozart learned much from the “father” of the string quartet, and in 1785 published a collection of six quartets that he dedicated to Haydn. Mozart described these works as “the fruit of long and laborious effort.”
The second of the six – the only one in a minor key – was probably written in 1783, one year after Haydn published his Op. 33 set of quartets. The first movement, marked “Allegro,” begins darkly, but soon finds its way into a warm F major. Although it is not complex in texture, the piece is deceptively asymmetrical in its phrase-structure. In the lyrical second movement, in F major, the first violin rises to melodic prominence, although the other three instruments are by no means relegated to the status of mere accompanists. With a return to D minor, the third-movement minuet takes on a sinister quality. Again, phrases are asymmetrical, although the central trio section, in D major, is more regular in structure. The last movement, a lilting “Siciliana” dance in 6/8 time, consists of a theme and five variations.
Surprisingly, Mozart’s “Haydn” quartets were not universally admired when they were first published: a review in the Magazin der Musik cryptically complained they were “too highly seasoned.” More recently, in 1998, the musicologist John Irving wrote that these quartets “continue to appeal to every time and every taste.”
© Colin Eatock 2004
