Four Centuries of Great Music May 15, 2022 String Sextet Episode 2

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music is the second of our episodes on the string sextet.  Today we will begin in the 19th Century and venture into both the 20th and 21st centuries.

The first work on today’s second episode of Four Centuries of Great Music on the string sextet is Antonín Dvořák´s String Sextet in A major, Op. 48,  for two violins, two violas and two cellos  which was composed for the most part in May 1878. It was Dvořák's first work to be premiered outside Bohemia.

The period 1875-1879 was very important in Dvořák's life. The composer received government grants in that time, which enabled him to concentrate solely on composing. A sense of responsibility led him to hard and prolific work, and one of the results of his activity was the String Sextet.   Dvořák's German publisher Simrock offered the work to his friend and collaborator Joseph Joachim (famous violinist and leader of a string quartet), and he together with other artists performed the work privately on 19 July 1879. The composer was present and was enchanted by the performance. The next day he wrote to his friend Alois Göbl: "...Joachim waited with eagerness for my arrival and even organized a soirée for my sake. During the celebration they played my new quartet and sextet. They played with great understanding and enthusiasm..." Joachim and colleagues gave the public premiere of the work in Berlin on 9 November 1879. A few months later they also performed it in London.   The composition was published by Fritz Simrock in 1879.

The composition consists of four movements:   Allegro — Moderato; Dumka. Poco allegretto; Furiant. Presto  and Finale. Tema con variazioni. Allegretto grazioso, quasi andantino
The work was composed at the same time as the Slavonic Rhapsodies (Op. 45) and Slavonic Dances (Op. 46). The work is full of spontaneous invention in the manner of Schubert, and the Sextet’s themes have been described as ‘flowing with Slavonic blood’. Two inner movements are partly stylisations of the dumka and partly of the folk furiant. The first movement is written in the sonata form.   The Slavonic themes  are delightfully deployed in the course of the first movement and well contrasted.  The second theme is based upon the third of the tonic.  There is but a short development section before the recapitulation, which is also not in the tonic key.

To describe the second movement Dvořák uses the Russian term ‘Dumka’, an indication of the employment of strongly contrasted sections, sometimes very sad and sometimes happy. Over a steady march-like rhythm Dvořák’s asymmetrical phrase structure assists in making this one of the composer’s most interestingly novel movements, incorporating slow gypsy music and a tender lullaby. A return to the rhapsodizing gypsies is made in the coda.
Although called ‘Furiant’, the following movement has none of the characteristic cross-rhythmic effects associated with this type of music. But is a vigorous scherzo, which includes in its trio section an allusion to the first Slavonic Dance.

The last movement consists of five variations and stretta on a B minor theme which  combines the meditative with playful  and concludes with a very boisterous finale.

Next is Reinhold Glière's String Sextet in C Major, Op. 11

The reputation of Reinhold Gliere today rests primarily upon his symphonies, ballets and operas, however he was also a composer of superb chamber music.  Gliere was born in the then Russian city Kiev. He began his musical studies in Kiev and then went to the Moscow Conservatory,  He won several prizes for his early works, including his First String Sextet which took the prestigious Glinka Prize.

String Sextet No.3 in C Major, Op.11 dates from 1905. Wilhelm Altmann, perhaps the most famous chamber music critic of all, writes of it    "This magnificent work is packed with a treasure chest of wonderful musical ideas. The writing is so powerful it approaches the orchestral in nature. It is a work with which every friend of chamber music should become familiar."

The joyful themes to the opening Allegro are inspired by Russian folk melody and reminiscent of the tonal coloring of  Borodin. The lyrical, elegiac and emotionally charged second movement, Larghetto, is a real showcase of Gliere's mastery as the singing quality of the strings approaches that of the human voice. The third movement, Allegro, is a very Russian scherzo. with songful melodies alternating with dance episodes which become faster each time they reappear. The superb finale, Allegro vivace, begins in a festive fashion. It is here in particular that the brilliance and richness of the tone Gliere elicits approaches the orchestral in its intensity.