Contemporary Classics October 17, 2017 - Soprano and String Quartet

Again the opening music was from Nocturne by Kirsten Volness

This show features music for string quartet and soprano and was inspired by a work by Alabama composer Raphael Crystal entitle “You Spotted Snakes: a Shakespeare song cycle”.   You would be amazed how few works fit in this category.  And we will be playing many of them tonight.  All of which are just marvelous even though the sound this evening will be more luscious than edgy.

Raphael Crystal is Director of Musical Theatre for the University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance. He is active professionally as a theater composer, musical director, and pianist. This work “You Spotted Snakes: a Shakespeare song cycle”. consists of six songs from Shakespeare plays, for soprano and string quartet.  The six songs are entitled 1. You spotted snakes    2. Come away, death   3. Come unto these yellow sands   4. Sigh no more, ladies  5. When that I was and a tiny little boy  6. Now until the break of day

It was presented at the 2015 Birmingham New Music Festival.   Here is that performance of “You Spotted Snakes: a Shakespeare song cycle”. with Emily Herring soprano, and the string quartet consisting of Dennis and Pei-Ju Wu, violins; Wendy Richman, viola; and Laura Usiskin, cello. 

Next is John Harbison's "The Rewaking"

The Rewaking is a setting of four poems by William Carlos Williams, all from his last years (1956-61).  commissioned by the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society for Benita Valente and the Julliard Quartet.

John Harbison wrote that his choice of the four poems by William Carlos Williams was based on 3 things “1) the poems are inadvertently memorized, and won’t go away, 2) they begin to run parallel to a musical shape I have already had in mind, 3) they clarify and enlarge upon what began as a purely musical impulse.”  He further wrote that  “This piece is neither a quartet with a vocal apotheosis, like Schoenberg’s 2nd, nor a song cycle with string accompaniment. It is, instead, a quintet in which the theme of “rewaking” from a winter of spirit is carried forward equally by all five performers.”

Here is a performance of John Harbison's "The Rewaking" from the album John Harbison: The Rewaking  featuring the Lydian String Quartet with Dominique Labelle Musica Omnia

Next is Alberto Ginastera, String Quartet #3  Lucy Shelton Enso String Quartet Ginastera: String Quartets Nos 1-3    Naxos

This 5 movement work featuring the lyrics from 3 Spanish Language poets Juan Ramon Jiménez, Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti was written in 1973 and was inspired by the Schoenberg 2^nd String Quartet which you will hear later in this program.   In his review of this album in The Guardian Andrew Clements wrote “Third Quartet with soprano that's the most impressive achievement here, a compelling fusion of song cycle and instrumental work that interleaves settings of Spanish-language poets (Juan Ramon Jiménez, Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti) within a musical world that alternates between febrile intensity and expansive lyricism. Lucy Shelton sings the settings raptly and the Enso Quartet seem an impressively taut and focused group.”  This work is in 5 movements   I. Contemplativo, II. Fantastico, III. Amoroso, IV. Drammatico, V. Di nuovo Contemplativo

So here is Alberto Ginastera’s String Quartet #3  Lucy Shelton, soprano and Enso String Quartet from the album Ginastera: String Quartets Nos 1-3

We are opening this hour of Contemporary Classics with music featuring soprano and string quartet with Egon Wellesz Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning for soprano and string quartet or large string ensemble, op. 52 (1934). 

As I mentioned earlier this show was inspired by a work by Alabama composer Raphael Crystal and his work entitled “You Spotted Snakes: a Shakespeare song cycle”. 

Egon Joseph Wellesz was an Austrian, later British composer, teacher and musicologist.   The Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning date from 1934 and are settings of Sonnets 1, 2, 4, 29 and 7 of the Sonnets from the Portuguese in the German translation by Rainer Maria Rilke published in 1900.    1. "I thought once how Theocritus had sung..."    2. "But only three in all God's universe..."    4. "Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor..."    29. "I think of thee!”    7. "The face of all the world is changed, I think..."

Already recognised and widely performed as a composer, Wellesz happened to be in Amsterdam, where Bruno Walter was performing one of his compositions, in 1938 when the German army entered Austria as part of the Austrian Anschluss, and he fled to England and eventually was able to secure a post at Oxford, where he spent the rest of his life.   Although he did compose quite a bit after that his reputation in England rested more on his groundbreaking scholarly work on Byzantine music (his position at Lincoln College in Oxford was as Reader in Byzantine Music) than on his compositional output. He has over a hundred works to his credit, including nine symphonies and six operas but like that of so many composers of his generation who, like him, were forced into exile his music has been unjustly neglected since his death in 1974.

Here is a recording of Egon Wellesz Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning for soprano and string quartet by Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet from the album Berg: Lyric Suite - Wellesz: Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning  Decca

Next is the work that was the inspiration for this genre Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet #2

This work in four movements was written during a very emotional time in Schoenberg's life. Though it bears the dedication "to my wife", it was written during Mathilde Schoenberg's affair with their friend and neighbor, artist Richard Gerstl, in 1908.

It is in 4 movements 1. Mäßig (Moderate), F sharp minor, 2. Sehr rasch (Very brisk), D minor, 3. "Litanei", langsam ("Litany", slow), E flat minor, 4. "Entrückung", sehr langsam ("Rapture", very slow), No key

But the third and fourth movements are quite unusual for a string quartet, as they are set to poems from Stefan George's collection “The Seventh Ring”, which was published in 1907.  Schoenberg wrote in 1937 "I was inspired by poems of Stefan George, the German poet, to compose music to some of his poems and, surprisingly, without any expectation on my part, these songs showed a style quite different from everything I had written before."

Here is a performance of Arnold Schoenberg  ’s String Quartet #2 Op. 10 by Evelyn Leer, soprano and the New Vienna String Quartet from the album Schoenberg The Complete String Quartets Universal International Music

We will be closing tonight with a performance of Ron McFarland Windows for String Quartet and Soprano  from the album “Chamber Works” with Sara Ganz soprano The Alexander String Quartet 

Composer from California’s bay area Second String Quartet with lyrics from writings of Cavafy Con Molto Music