An Evening with the Brentano Quartet

Hailed as “fiercely intelligent and expressively pristine” (The New Yorker), the renowned Brentano Quartet bring their formidable passion and superb skill to robust interpretations of three masterworks by Haydn, Bartók, and Dvořák.

COME EARLY to visit the food carts or Caffe Mingo near The Reser.

Co-Sponsors:
Acorn Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation
Ellen Macke & Howard Pifer

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
Thursday, 7/21 • 8:00 pm PT

Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

HAYDN String Quartet in B-flat, Major, Op. 33, No. 4

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809) String Quartet in B-flat,  Op. 33, No. 4

I. Allegro Moderato
II. Scherzo: Allegretto
III. Largo
IV. Finale: Presto

For most of his life, Joseph Haydn served as music director for the wealthy Esterházy family at their estate in modern-day Austria. Under the terms of his contract, he was prohibited from publishing his music without the family’s approval. Despite this provision, unofficial editions and manuscripts of his music spread quietly among music aficionados, and by the late 1770s he was known throughout Europe.

Haydn signed a new contract with the Esterházys in 1779. Critically, it allowed him to publish and receive commissions without approval, and he quickly capitalized on the demand for his music, establishing an extensive international business as a composer. One of his first major projects was a new set of six string quartets, his Opus 33 (1781).

In a letter to potential customers, Haydn described Opus 33 as “written in a new and special way.” While it may be tempting to write this off as simple marketing, the Opus 33 quartets are genuinely more mature and well-rounded than his earlier efforts in the genre. Haydn also took the step of replacing the quartets’ traditional minuet movements with quicker, more playful Scherzos, leading some to dub the collection “Gli scherzi.”

The String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 33, No. 4 is somewhat unusual among the Opus 33 quartets in that it has no descriptive nickname. It exemplifies many of the characteristics that make Haydn the quintessential Classical era composer: humorous, transparent, precise, and, above all, imaginative.

© Ethan Allred

 

 

BÉLA BARTÓK String Quartet No. 5, Sz. 102 (1934)

BELA BARTÓK (1881-1945) String Quartet No.5, Sz. 102 (1934)

I. Allegro
II. Adagio molto
III. Scherzo: alla bulgarese
IV. Andante
V. Finale: Allegro vivace

In 1934, Béla Bartók received a long-awaited job offer. Having spent decades working a day job as a teacher, he finally received a position as a full-time ethnomusicology researcher. This life change presented him with an opportunity to finish incomplete research projects, but also to solidify his mature, late-period voice as a composer, starting with the String Quartet No.5, Sz. 102.

In this quartet, Bartók seamlessly combined many of the influences he had explored throughout his career, including folk music, mathematical patterns, and extended instrumental techniques. He structured its five movements into a symmetrical arch form, where four outer movements are arranged around a central third movement like the shape of an arch.

The quartet opens with an energetic Allegro, in which small, accentuated melodic fragments coalesce together to create a feeling of ongoing motion.

The Adagio molto, on the other hand, exemplifies Bartók’s signature “night music” style. A sense of stillness, owing to the cello’s steady drone, is balanced by miniature interjections from the upper instruments.

The keystone to the quartet is the Scherzo alla bulgarese. Here, Bartók draws from his experience in the field studying the uneven rhythmic patterns of Bulgarian folk music. Such rhythms are the basis of a flowing melodic exchange between the instruments, at times abstract and at others capturing the exuberant spirit of an actual folk dance.

The Andante mirrors the second movement in its sparseness, created in this case by periodic moments of silence. The instrumentalists break the quiet with inventive melodic ideas, sometimes utilizing extended techniques such as snapping the strings to create an even more diverse sound spectrum.

In the Finale, Bartók lets loose a stunning display of melodic imitation and rhythmic interplay. Ever the master of contrast, he suddenly interrupts the movement with a shockingly banal folk tune, before finishing the race to the final bar.

© Ethan Allred

DVOŘÁK String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105

ANTONIN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105

I. Adagio ma non troppo — Allegro appassionato
II. Molto vivace
III. Lento e molto cantabile
IV. Allegro non tanto

After spending three years living in the United States, in 1895 Antonín Dvořák returned at last to Bohemia. Back home, he decided to spend his final years exploring musical storytelling, focusing especially on stories from Bohemian folklore.

Before these musical stories, however, Dvořák completed two final examples of absolute music, or music with no external narrative: his String Quartets No. 14 & 15. He began the String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105, while still in the United States, eventually completing it in December 1895 after he returned home.

While many of Dvořák’s recent works, such as the “New World” Symphony, drew inspiration from American culture and folklore, in this quartet he removed the American sound from his tone palette. Following a slow introduction, the first movement’s passionate theme initiates a dramatic musical journey. The second movement, on the other hand, alludes to the Bohemian furiant dance with its halting rhythms, while the third offers a beautifully simple song whose melody gradually transforms through lush chromatic additions. In the finale, a tense cello line precedes a charming collection of dance-like melodies, which bring the quartet to its conclusion.

© Ethan Allred

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