Concert on 2 Jul 93 8:00pm

at Theatre, City Hall

Programme

Dmitry Shostakovich: String Quartet No.6 Op.101

Antonin Dvorak: String Quintet in E flat major Op.97 B.180

Sound clip (23 seconds): IV. Allegro giusto RealAudio 5.0 file (95kB)

Antonin Dvorak: String Quartet in D minor Op.34 B.75

Programme Notes

String Quartet No.6 Op.101 (1956)
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Shostakovich wrote 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets. This numeric balance is however somewhat misleading. His entry to the string quartet world was rather late. By the time he wrote his sixth string quartet in 1956, he had completed 10 symphonies. This quartet is one of his happiest works. The music is straight-forwardly lyrical and relaxed.

The exposition of the first movement speaks of the pure and carefree world of childhood. The lilting and playful first theme and deliberately naive second theme, while contrasting, combine to evoke a single mood of calmness and tranquillity. In the middle of the development of the first theme, the music bursts into an astringent torrent of a polyphonic episode. After recapitulation of the two themes, there comes a lucid coda and the movement ends with a cadence in the bass harmonica. The cadence (F - A flat - E flat - D - G) is used to end all the subsequent movements.

The second movement is a rondo. The first theme in the first harmonica resembles a classic minuet. The second theme in the unison tenor and bass harmonicas is waltz-like. The third theme again in the first harmonica is gliding and chromaticized and has an Oriental flavour. The themes alternate, creating a fairy-tale picture.

The third movement is a passacaglia, whose variations are built over a ground bass. The familiar cadence forms the bridge to the final movement.

While the first theme of the finale is waltz-like and the second theme in the bass is in duple time, both themes are based on the motif at the opening of the quartet. At the climax, the bass theme of the passacaglia is presented by the tenor harmonicas canonically. Towards the end of the work, a quiet atmosphere is established and the cadence is heard for the fourth and the last time.

String Quintet in E flat major Op.97 B.180 (1893)
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

From September 1892 to April 1895, Dvorak was the Director of the newly founded National Conservatory of Music in New York. During the first seven months of 1893, he produced his finest works in symphonic music and chamber music. May/June was an exciting month for him as he was about to start his first summer vacation in America. On 21 May, his wife and four childrens departed Bohemia and reached Southampton on 24 May, the day when the finishing touch was given to the "New World" Symphony. The party landed in New York on 31 May, the family reunited, and left on 3 June for vacation at Spillville, a Czech community in Iowa. As there were no 'hobbies' to pursue, Dvorak quickly settled down to composition. In just two week's time, the great "American" Quartet was completed and given an inhouse premiere with his assistant's family members. Excited by the swiftness and ease of composition, he began work on a string quintet almost immediately on 26 June and finished almost as quickly on 1 August. The King's Harmonica Quintet has the pleasure and honour to present this work at its centennery.

All the three works mentioned were termed "American" by their place of composition and premiere. Musically, however, the American association has induced hot debates. Trace of Negro and Red Indian music can be found. But with Dvorak's ingenious transformation, these have become truly Bohemian music. A good example is the second theme in the first movement of the quintet. It originated from a two-bar fragment of a Red Indian melody that Dvorak heard in Spillville. Other characteristics of the music like flattened sevenths, pentatonic melodies and rhythmic syncopation all bear an American feel but they can also be found in Bohemian music and Oriental music.

The work opens with Dvorak's favourite trick - a solo in the second tenor harmonica which foreshadows the main theme. The second movement is characterized by the drum like rhythm and the soulful theme in the middle section played by the third harmonica. The Larghetto is the most arresting movement. It is a set of theme and five variations. The theme, played by the first tenor harmonica, is in A flat minor while the variations are in A flat major. The finale returns to the clear outlines of the earlier movements. Dotted quavers and triplets are extensively used. The work concludes in a strictly delightful mood.

String Quartet in D minor Op.34 B.75 (1877)
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Dvorak was strongly drawn towards chamber music, for he was a distinguished viola player. But more importantly, the Classical and Romantic masters whom he admired: Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert all produced the finest chamber music. It is then hardly surprising that his op.1 and op.2 were string quintet and string quartet. By the time he wrote his ninth string quartet op.34 in 1877, he was already a seasoned practitioner of this form of music and firmly established his personal style: fine texture of the individual parts, strong yet unschematic and rhythmic polyphony, Bohemian colouring of the melodic ideas.

This quartet was the pedal point for over 20 years of friendship between Brahms and Dvorak which dated back to 1874. Brahms was on the jury which awarded the Austrian State Grant for distinguished musicians to Dvorak. Since then, their special relationship was both on friendship and the assistance Brahms generously provided to Dvorak's career. Dvorak dedicated this quartet to Brahms and in reply, Brahms commented, "It would be good to look a little more closely at the notes themselves and at the voice parts etc. Forgive me, but it is very desirable to point out such things to a man like you. ... I consider myself honoured by the dedication of the quartet". Several days later, Brahms recommended Dvorak to Simrock, his publisher, "I do not care to recommendations because I have only my eyes and my ears and they are altogether my own... The best that a musician can have Dvorak has and it is in these compositions (string quartets op.80 and op.34)."

In this work, one can easily feel the grief of Dvorak on the death of his second daughter and his eldest son in less than one month in Aug/Sep 1877. The first movement is plaintive and Schubertian in style. The development is a beautiful shift in key and rises to an unexpected climax.

For the first time, Dvorak made a polka serve as the scherzo movement. Coincidently Smetana did the same in the contemporary quartet "From My Life". The scoring of the deeply impressive slow movement is rather orchestral. There is a certain amount of 5-part and even 6-part harmony.

Programme Notes by Lau Chun Bong