Chamber Music Circle Paris
presents
Beethoven String Quartet Project 4
15 November 2024 • 7.30pm • Paris 7th
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Reception & Hosting by:
Alexandra Van Huffelen & Herman Lohman
contents
welcome
Welcome to the opening concert of our 10th season! It’s astonishing to me that, nearly ten years ago, a desire to return to my first love—chamber music—sparked the beginning of what we now know as the CMC. This journey started from frustration with orchestral playing and a longing to curate concerts featuring repertoire I was passionate about. More than that, I’ve always been driven by a love of sharing music with others. And so, the Chamber Music Circle was born.
Through a great deal of hard work, I’m proud of how far we’ve come as an organisation. But, of course, none of this would be possible without you—our audience. You have enthusiastically welcomed us into your homes, celebrated the beauty of this art form, and generously supported this endeavour over the years. For that, I sincerely thank you!
This season’s theme is “Inspiration”. Over the course of four programmes, we’ll explore how composers have inspired one another to create their masterpieces. Tonight’s concert offers a literal example: Mozart’s String Quartet in A major, K. 464, and Beethoven’s String Quartet in A major, Op. 18, No. 5.
Mozart, inspired by Haydn’s Op. 33 Quartets—which we’ve performed in previous seasons—set out to write his own set of six quartets, dedicating them not to a wealthy patron, but to his dear friend and mentor, Joseph Haydn. These quartets represent the pinnacle of Mozart’s string quartet writing. Upon hearing them, Haydn remarked to Mozart’s father, “I tell you before God, and as an honest man, that your son is the greatest composer known to me, either in person or by reputation. He has taste, and moreover, the most profound knowledge of composition.”
The A major Quartet, K. 464, is a hidden gem within this set. In an unusual departure from his typical approach, Mozart uses very little thematic material in this work, a characteristic more often associated with Haydn’s style. What Mozart achieves with this seemingly scant material is nothing short of miraculous. The quartet reveals the mind of a master composer, crafting an elegant and deceptively simple work that is, in reality, rich and intricate. It sounds effortless, but its sophistication is remarkable.
Beethoven’s Op. 18, No. 5, also in A major, mirrors Mozart’s quartet not only in key but also in its movement structure: Allegro—Minuet—Theme and Variations—Allegro. Beethoven admired Mozart’s quartet so much that, upon seeing the score, he exclaimed, “That is a work! Mozart was saying to the world here, ‘Look what I could do, if only you were ready!’” More than any other quartet in Beethoven’s oeuvre, this piece is modelled directly on a specific work. Whilst Beethoven’s admiration is clear, his own personal voice shines through in this quartet. You’ll hear sudden shifts in character, daring harmonic choices, and even touches of Beethoven’s signature humour.
We hope that these two inspired works spark your imagination this evening. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the music!
KYLE founder & director
programme
Marie Salvat & Juliette Leroux violins
Kyle Collins viola
Marie-Thérèse Grisenti cello
Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827
String Quartet in A major, Op. 18, No. 5
Allegro
Menuetto. Trio
Andante cantabile
Allegro
-
Composed: Summer of 1799
Dedication: Prince Lobkowitz
Duration: about 29 minutesWith his first set of six string quartets published in 1801, Beethoven joined the mighty ranks of Haydn and Mozart as an "immediate" master of the classical Viennese string quartet. Clearly in the established mould of his predecessors, the Op. 18 quartets variously evoke both Haydn and Mozart while vividly demonstrating Beethoven's own emerging personality. Of the six quartets, however, it is the fifth quartet in A major that seems to draw the most attention to Beethoven's study of his forebears, specifically of Mozart. In Mozart's own set of six quartets dedicated to Haydn from 1785, the fifth is also in A major and was almost certainly a direct model for Beethoven. From a wide range of options, both quartets use the same rather atypical four-movement plan featuring a second movement scherzo and a third movement theme and variations. Yet despite these wonderful telltale correspondences, each quartet could only have come from its respective composer. With Mozart there is the suave, graceful lyricism, the classical balance and a perfection of construction. With Beethoven, there is the exuberant drive, the extended codas and a kind of imaginative brashness that nearly threatens to burst the seams of the inherited model.
The first movement Allegro is bright, bold and luxuriant. The part writing is superb with a variety of textures from the delicate single instrument imitative lines à la Mozart to the husky two-part canonic pairings of Beethoven. Strong dynamic contrasts, dense worried filigree and stabbing accents project a touch of anxious mania that might have riled the more conservative listener of the time. The Menuetto is light and lilting, a sure homage to Mozart compared with Beethoven's more muscular scherzi. The part writing is delicate and agile while the dramatic use of silence, aborted phrases and off beat accents is signature Beethoven. The trio in particular evokes a kind of rustic folk dance that could only have been Mozart if he were wearing wooden clogs.
Beethoven was undoubtedly the greatest master of the theme and variations of all time eventually leaving Haydn and Mozart far behind by comparison. What is remarkable is how he can eventually make so much out of so little. The third movement begins modestly (almost blandly) but ends with an explosion of fireworks with some rich contrasts along the way. And here the connection with Mozart is not as much the A major quartet as Mozart's sublime Divertimento for string trio, K. 563. The remarkable transformation through variation is remarkably similar and, clearly, Mozart did it first. But Beethoven adds a brilliant coda for a much more interesting conclusion than simply one final variation. Many commentators suggest that the fourth movement finale is perhaps the most Mozartian of the quartet due to the musical materials, Beethoven's deft handling of counterpoint and the relatively calm and gracious ending. But it is all in how the movement is played: a performance can steer the music toward either composer, both of whom had a great ability for tensile, mercurial drama with a kind of shimmering nervousness shot through with electric synaptic responses. The choice of tempo, dynamics and how strongly contrasts are placed in relief can make the difference between gallant elegance and a nascent driving romanticism.
KAI CHRISTIANSEN
Interval
10 minutes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791
String Quartet in A major, K. 464
Allegro
Menuetto. Trio
Andante
Allegro non troppo
-
Composed: 1785
Dedication: Joseph Haydn
Duration: about 35 minutesMozart and Haydn were well acquainted, and each was fully cognisant of the other’s genius – not always the case among great contemporaries in music history. Haydn told Leopold Mozart that his son Wolfgang was the greatest living composer known to him. Mozart, for his part, upon hearing Haydn’s opus 33 string quartets, penned six great quartets of his own which were an explicit homage to the older composer, his so-called “Haydn Quartets”; they are considered to be his first mature works in that genre.
The Quartet in A major, K. 464, is the fifth of these, written in the winter of 1785. It was later to command the admiration of the young Beethoven, and to influence directly his own A major Quartet, opus 18 no. 5. Mozart’s quartet is a paradigm of High Classical style, combining as it does a perfect command of form, a sophisticated sense of counterpoint, and an effortlessly galant demeanour.
The first movement is sunny, engaging, and fluidly paced. Each idea is presented in a simple manner at first, and then revisited at once in a more complex form, with voices overlapping one another contrapuntally. In the central development section, surprising modulations and changes of texture offer a darker contrast to the movement’s essentially radiant character; here the music seems to have more difficulty progressing, halting completely on two occasions and having to feel its way gradually back to familiar ground.
The Minuet is simple and clever at the same time. Its main idea is in two connected parts – a unison statement, and a dancing reply – which are then combined and intertwined all throughout the main section, in every imaginable permutation. The result is a diverting variety of ideas and textures, achieved with great economy of means. A Trio section, in a different key, provides a smoother-textured, less learned contrast.
The slow movement, a theme and variations, begins sotto voce with a tender melody in the first violin, simply accompanied; the theme is largely confined to a low register, which lends it an intimate, whispered quality. Although the shape and texture of this theme are quite simple, the harmonisation is not – replete with chromatic motion, it presents a starting point of great richness. Six extraordinary variations and a coda follow. Each instrument of the quartet is featured in its own variation, and interspersed between these there are two others, one a shadowy, dramatic minor variation, one a luminous return to major which emphasises rhythmic simplicity and imitation. Perhaps the most notable variation is the cello variation, where an almost drum-like bass line supports gently moving upper lines.
The finale lies poised between two worlds, having on the one hand the familiar Mozartian playfulness, on the other a more introverted, gentle sighing character. Marked Allegro non troppo, this ambivalent movement features a falling chromatic figure, followed immediately by a flirtatious reply; amazingly, these two snippets are the sum total of thematic material for the entire movement, a full-length sonata-allegro form. Because they are used in such a variety of ways, in sequences, stretti, over pedal points, combined and recombined, inverted, and so forth, the music is fresh and surprising throughout. Somewhere before the return of the opening material, an extra motif is picked up, a bouncing 8th-note idea, which happily accompanies the original material when it reappears. A hushed, teasing pianissimo brings the movement to a close.
MISHA AMORY
musicians
Marie Salvat violin
Juliette Leroux violin
Kyle Collins viola
Marie-Thérèse Grisenti cello
about the music
Watch our YouTube Series on Beethoven’s Op. 18, No. 5, and discover more about this youthful quartet.
Watch our YouTube Series on Mozart’s K. 464 where we explore the genius behind this marvelous masterpiece.
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Special Thanks
The CMC offers a huge thanks to our hosts and some of our biggest supporters Alexandra and Herman. Thank you for opening your beautiful flat to us and our audience and for providing such a wonderful reception.