Mainstage Chamber Concert 1: Thursday, July 7, 2022 - 7:30 pm, arkell pavilion, svac
Paul Juon (b. Russia | d. Switzerland; 1872– 1940)
Trio-Miniaturen for Piano Trio (composed 1901)
Paul Juon’s prolific chamber music output has recently gained appreciation in the west. Many of his works could be aptly described as character pieces based upon descriptive pictorial elements; in fact, the Trio-Miniaturen is a collection of four such pieces that Juon recycled from two previously published opuses to create this new work. The first movement is entitled Rêverie (Op. 18 No. 3), and it unfolds in a series of slow melodies that escalate in intensity before receding into dreamy quietude. The ensuing Humoreske (Op. 18 No. 7) presents a witty exchange of folksy dance motives, and this is followed by an expressive Elegie (Op. 18 No. 6). Juon concludes the set with Danse phantastique (Op. 24 No. 2), a valse that calls to mind the joie-de-vivre of 19th-century Viennese dance halls.
Aleksandr Borodin (b. Russia | d. Russia; 1833 – 1887)
String Quartet No. 2 in D Major (composed 1881)
Aleksandr Borodin endures securely in the pantheon of great composers, all the more extraordinary given the fact that he was essentially a hobbyist. His full-time profession was that of chemist, yet his talent was recognized by composer Mily Balakirev, who recruited Borodin into a select group of musicians dedicated to the task of cultivating a distinctive Russian musical language, a group dubbed the “Mighty Handful,” or “The Five.” The cross-pollination of its members’ ideas bequeathed a productive period in music history that would come to define the quintessential Russian sound.
The String Quartet No. 2 in D major is one of Borodin’s masterpieces. Thought to be dedicated to his wife, Ekaterina Protopopova, as a 20th wedding anniversary gift, some scholars view the cello part as a representation of Aleksandr himself (he was an amateur cellist) while the first violin part may be an idealized metaphor for Ekaterina. The work overflows with romantic yearning, and the third movement – entitled Notturno – contains one of Borodin’s signature tunes. The composition’s warmth and abundance of memorable melodies has rendered it one of the most popular string quartets in the literature.
César Franck (b. Belgium | d. France; 1822 – 1890)
Piano Quintet in F minor (composed 1879)
This explosively emotive piano quintet was written at a time when it appears that César Franck became infatuated with a young student in his class at the Paris Conservatoire. Perhaps this accounts for the unbridled intensity of its outer movements – as a compensatory repository for the composer’s lust – and it may also explain why Franck’s wife always regarded the quintet with patent disgust. What is abundantly clear is that Franck drew from the chromatic harmonic language of his musical hero, Richard Wagner, to create a work of kaleidoscopic coloristic variety, while deploying to great effect the Wagnerian technique known as cyclic form (the recurrence of pivotal motives across separate movements).
Unlike most 19th-century piano quintets, this work contains only three large-scale movements (instead of the usual four) in a fast-slow-fast configuration, though the first movement alternates between halting improvisations and areas of driving forcefulness. The middle movement begins and ends in a somewhat disturbed meditative state, rising to dizzying heights in the middle, though even the highest peaks remain shaded by a baleful haze. The third movement is a perpetual motion that commences with undulating tremolos (repeated notes) in the strings, and these quivering figurations remain a constant presence that dominates the finale. Taking another cue from Wagner, Franck permits the work to turn aside from its dark overtones only at the bitter end, abruptly capping this composition with a triumphant coda.