Four Centuries of Great Music May 22, 2022 String Sextet Episode 3

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music we conclude our 3 show arc of string sextets with music from the 20th and 21st centuries.

We are beginning with Philip Glass’ String Sextet.

Philip Glass has written a wide range of music for strings.  There are a large number of solo string works such as Partita for Solo Violin (2010–11) and two partitas for solo cello, from 2007 and 2010.  There is also Sonata for Violin and Piano (2008), Pendulum for Violin and Piano (2010), and Sarabande in Common Time (2016). There are also two cello concertos, completed in 2001 and 2012, and two Violin Concertos written in 1987 and 2009.  

Then there are the 9 string quartets, of which the 5th Mishima remains one of my favorites.  An acquaintance of mine, Nick Cords, violist in the string quartet Brooklyn Rider, reminds us that Glass’ music  to this day remains divisive in some quarters. “There are some string players out there who just don’t touch it.” “There are certainly major symphony orchestras that have never programmed a piece by Philip Glass, and he’s written 12 symphonies. But on the other side, his music does seem to relate to so many other worlds and that’s why it has such a hugely influential voice.”  Brooklyn Rider has recorded 8 of the 9 string quartets and a string arrangement of the saxophone quartet.  

But one of the most interesting string works was his symphony No. 3 for 19 piece string orchestra consisting of ten violins, four violas, three cellos and two basses.  This work written in 1995 has been arranged by Michael Riesman for string sextet in 2009.  This is a wonderful work combining symphonic scale with the intimacy, clarity, and focus of a chamber music ensemble.

The work is in 4 numbered movements.  The first movement is elemental in nature, initially based on pulsing Cs but giving way before long to contrasting scales. It is soft and brief, evocative of the composer's earlier string quartets, and acts as a prelude to the faster and more lively second movement, which begins with running quavers that immediately signal a change in texture and harmonic breadth. The movement progresses to a series of abrupt metrical changes, and ends when it moves without transition into a new closing theme with pizzicato counterpoint. The third movement forms the core of the piece, taking the form of a dark, slow-building chaconne beginning with a ground bass in the cellos and violas. The rest of the ensemble joins the pattern with each repeat, setting in place a layered effect before a solo violin introduces a high, keening cantabile melody over the accumulated rhythmical tissue. The melody passes to between the violins with each repeat, as the other instruments continue to build the underlying structure. The melody is eventually subsumed beneath contrapuntal filigrees and trills of the violins disappearing almost entirely within the texture, and the movement ends abruptly once the theme has reached its peak and all instruments have been included. The energetic fourth movement recapitulates and develops material from the end of the second, with brisk chords intersected by short chromatic runs. These chromatic sequences come to dominate as the movement progresses, taking over from the earlier chord stabs and steering the movement into its closing theme.


Next is Erwin Schulhoff’s String Sextet:

Schulhoff had already completed the first movement of his String Sextet in 1920 but he then put the work aside.  It then took four years for him to return to the work to complete it which he did in the Spring of 1924.  It was premiered in July of that year at the Donaueschingen Music Festival after Paul Hindemith agreed to perform the premiere of the work (as the second violist) with the Zika Quartet and Hindemith’s brother Rudolf as the second cellist.  After the success of the premiere, Schulhoff sent the manuscript to Universal-Edition, Vienna in order to have it printed, but asked for it to be returned for revision. This revision never materialized, and seemingly no further performances ensued during his lifetime.  The first printed version of the sextet was appeared in 1978 and since the mid-1980s, the work has finally found its way back into the concert hall.  Credit must be given to Gidon Kremer, who was the first to campaign for its revival as well as many other works by Schulhoff.

In Dresden while working on the first movement, Schulhoff had made a deep study of Schoenberg’s music: the strongly chromatic nature of the Sextet’s first movement reveals such study, although it is not consciously atonal.

The work is in 4 movements
I.  Allegro risoluto
II. Tranquillo (Andante)
III. Burlesca: Allegro molto con spirito
IV. Multo Adagio

In spite of the work’s deep emotional state and seeming absence of tonality, it is derived from, and virtually underpinned throughout the four movements by, the chord of C–Db–G. These three notes are specially significant throughout the piece. They begin the work, and form an ostinato for the main themes in the first movement. In its initial shape and in its constantly fluid transformations, the three-note cell permeates the entire Sextet, lending it a monothematic character.

The repeating C–G opens the second movement in a calmer and more peaceable mood dominated by a yearning, long-breathed cantilena, which is heard three times. In this movement the texture of the work assumes a greater structural function, revealing the influence of late Debussy, in particular his late sonatas.

The Burlesca is an incisive 5/8 movement of tempestuous character, and fiendishly virtuosic for the players.

The finale also shows the influence of late Debussy, being a lyrical meditation upon earlier material which, constantly descending, eventually returns to, and ends with, a muted chord of C–Db–G.

Schulhoff dedicated the sextet to Francis Poulenc. It is unclear whether the two ever met, but it is safe to assume that Schulhoff was familiar with the French composer's oeuvre and Schulhoff wrote about Poulenc’s music in a music journal of the time.

Korngold’s String Sextet in D Major, Op. 10

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was one of music history’s greatest prodigies, whom Mahler declared to be a genius. His 1920 opera, Die tote Stadt (“The Dead City”), was one of the most widely performed modern opera reaching more than 80 stages. However with the rise of the Nazis in his native Austria, Korngold, a Jew,  was forced to leave his native Austria. Settling in Los Angeles, he where he became “the father of Hollywood Film Music,” with scores such as Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Sea Hawk (1940), and Kings Row (1942).

The String Sextet in D Major, Op. 10 was completed by the 17-year-old Korngold on the eve of the First World War. Glancing back at the Sextets of Brahms (the second of which we heard here last week), this is music which basks in the twilight of Romanticism. As with the works of late Strauss and early Schoenberg, it pushes the harmonic language to its chromatic limits, yet always falls back into the sensuous grandeur of tonality. At moments, melodic threads emerge that will remind you of the most beautiful and transcendent passages of Mahler. It feels youthful and vigorous, yet there is also a sense of autumnal nostalgia.

The first movement (Moderato-Allegro) begins with a triplet line in the second viola that later forms the subject of a fugue. This is followed by a warm, expansive melody which develops over constantly shifting harmony. The quietly passionate second theme emerges over ghostly, atmospheric sul ponticello in the middle voices.

Haunting bi-tonality with two harmonic keys occurring, simultaneously of the second movement (Adagio) continues to stretch romanticism into the 20^th century.  This restless and lamenting music grew out of an unpublished song by the Korngold. It seems to anticipate some of the most dramatic moments from his operas.

The buoyant Intermezzo (Moderato, con grazia) is filled with the sounds, atmosphere, and swing of prewar Vienna. The main theme contains a series of rising fourths that became Korngold’s musical “signature,” known as “the motif of the cheerful heart.” You can hear this motif in the opening of Korngold’s Sinfonietta Op.5, throughout the film score for The Adventures of Robin Hood, and in other works. The final bars drift off into wistful nostalgia.

The final movement (Presto) erupts with vivacious, cheerful energy. It revisits themes from the previous movements before culminating in a final, euphoric flourish.

We are going to close tonight’s show on string sextets with  Charles Wuorinen:  String Sextet.