The Concert - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

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113. Out of Darkness Mar 01, 2011

Show notes

Works for solo piano and string quartet performed by pianist Paavali Jumppanen and the Belcea Quartet.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 13, “Pathétique”
Bartók: String Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 7

Surely the feeling of the catharsis is one of the great gifts of art. The arc from darkness towards light provides an opportunity for the listener to savor a satisfying taste of peace, and perhaps a chance for the creator to work through his or her own demons as well. Bartok’s first String Quartet was likely the product of the composer’s own grieving process, after discovering that his love for the violinist Stefi Geyer was unrequited. Bartok is often quoted as describing the first movement as a “funeral dirge,” and though the entire work has a sort of abiding angst, the propulsive final movement certainly expresses a strong will to go on. First, though, we’ll hear one of the best-known solo piano pieces of the repertoire, Beethoven’s “Pathetique” sonata. A sense of melancholy pervades the piece—which accounts for the title—but the glimmering moments of resolution, particularly in the second and third movements, are so deliciously wonderful that they make it a sort of melancholy worth savoring.

112. Summer Vacation with Brahms Feb 15, 2011

Show notes

Works for violin and piano, and for string quintet, performed by violinist Mayuko Kamio, pianist Pei-Yao Wang, and Musicians from Marlboro.

Brahms: Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Brahms: String Quintet in F Major, Op. 88

Around this time of year in New England, many people are starting to feel ready for a respite from the snowy cold. For today’s podcast we’ll take a musical vacation of sorts, hearing a bit of what Brahms did with his summers. We’ll begin with the composer’s third violin sonata, which Brahms began work on while vacationing in Thun, a beautiful little Swiss lake town with a picture-perfect medieval castle at the foot of the Alps. He put the piece aside for a couple of years, though, and only got to finishing it when he returned to Thun in the summer of 1888. A few years prior, in the spring of 1880, Brahms discovered one of his favorite vacation spots: Bad Ischl, a town high in the Alps that was apparently a popular retreat amongst 19th-century artists, including Strauss and Bruckner. In the summer of 1880, Brahms wrote two chamber works, including the String Quintet in F Major, a luscious, tuneful work.

111. Mozart to Order Feb 01, 2011

Show notes

Works for chamber orchestra and clarinet quintet performed by A Far Cry and Musicians from Marlboro with clarinetist Anthony McGill.

Mozart: Serenata Notturna, K. 239
Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581

Like most composers of his day, Mozart relied on commissions—works written “to order” for patrons and performers. We begin with one of Mozart’s many nocturnes, a sprightly, cheerful style of piece usually commissioned for a special occasion. Written to be played during a party, the nocturne was in a way the “Muzak” of its day, but Mozart turned the form into one of his signatures. It begins with a delightful march, during which the musicians would have likely processed into the room while playing from memory. Second on the program is a piece composed for the virtuoso clarinetist Anton Stadler, a player in the court orchestra in Vienna and a longtime friend of Mozart’s. Stadler often played an instrument called the basset clarinet, which had an expanded low range, and Mozart’s quintet was written with this instrument in mind. The piece has been reworked a bit for the modern clarinet, though some modern musicians have also recorded the piece on instruments created to resemble Stadler’s.

110. The End of French Romanticism Jan 15, 2011

Show notes

Works for piano trio performed by the Claremont Trio.

Debussy: Piano Trio in G
Fauré: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120

Written in 1880, when Debussy was just 18 years old, the Trio in G is undoubtedly the work of a young artist, and it is heavily influenced by the Romanticism that pervaded French chamber music of the day. Of interest to Debussy devotees is the fact that this trio didn’t get its first modern hearing until the 1980s, when various manuscript fragments and parts were assembled into a whole. Also active at the same time, Gabriel Fauré was a major influence on the course of music history. As a composer, his music has at times been given short shrift by history, categorized as relatively conservative. But in 1924, when Fauré wrote the Piano Trio in D minor, he was 78 years old and had seen an incredible span of classical music history. This trio, one of his last works, is undoubtedly his voice, but it exhibits a great deal of musical growth from the style of the earliest days of Fauré’s lifetime.

109. Not Quite What I Was Expecting Jan 01, 2011

Show notes

Works for violin and piano duo, and solo piano, performed by violinist Corey Cerovsek and pianist Paavali Jumppanen.

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96
Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op. 111

Revered as he is, it’s easy to think of Beethoven as somehow staid and a bit predictable. It’s easy to forget just how surprising his music can be. Written when Beethoven was struggling to find love and was just about to begin writing his heavier late works, this sonata is surprisingly serene, with singing, lyrical melody more or less throughout, interrupted only briefly by a more spirited third-movement Scherzo and a fleet little coda to bring it to a close. Then, we’ll hear Beethoven’s last piano sonata. The first movement is in C minor, the same key Beethoven used for the famously stormy Fifth, and it has that same moody, tempestuous feel. Suddenly, though, in the second movement, we find ourselves in C major, with the introduction of an incredible, beautifully simple chorale-like theme. From here, Beethoven proceeds through a set of variations, leading the listener ever deeper into the piece.

108. Schubert's Journey Dec 15, 2010

Show notes

Works for solo piano performed by pianist Seymour Lipkin, and for orchestra performed by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Douglas Boyd.

Schubert: Sonata in C minor, D. 958
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417 ("Tragic")

Today’s podcast takes us on a journey through Franz Schubert’s life. The smaller forces of a chamber ensemble seem a fitting vehicle for this early orchestral work, the second piece on the podcast, which shows more connection to Haydn and Mozart than Schubert’s contemporary, Beethoven. Schubert was still a teenager at the time and, though the composer’s talent is quite evident, the piece hews closely to the traditional classical structure. Written about two months before his death, Schubert’s final piano sonatas offer a tantalizing glimpse of where the composer’s music was headed, had he lived through his 30’s. By turns stark, witty, serene, and driving, the 19th sonata still uses the traditional four-movement form while covering a wide-ranging emotional and harmonic terrain.

107. The Trouble with Folk Music Dec 01, 2010

Show notes

Works for flute and piano and piano trio performed by flutist Dora Seres, pianist Emese Mali, and the Claremont Trio.

Bartók: Three Folksongs from County Csik
Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor, Op. 65

Today we hear two pieces by Eastern European composers heavily influenced by folk music. Many have pointed to the third piano trio as a significant turning point in Dvořák’s style, a moment when his music began to take on the formal heft and cosmopolitan European style of his mentor, Brahms, stepping away from his more folk-inspired earlier works. Before the trio, we’ll hear a brief set by Bartók, another work at the crossroads between folk and art music. One of Bartók’s first experiences with folk music came when he overheard a Transylvanian-born maid singing at a Hungarian resort where he was staying, and decided to write down what he heard. Three years later he traveled to Transylvania to study and transcribe songs there, including the three in this cycle.

106. Looking Back, Looking Forward Nov 15, 2010

Show notes

Works for voice and string quartet performed by Trio Mediaeval and the Orion String Quartet.

Berkeley Castle, Select Roll 55, England, 14th century: Alma mater/Ante thorum; Benedicta es celorum regina; De spineto nata rosa
Beethoven: Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130

On this episode, we look back and forward, as we consider the historical context for two very different works. We begin with three works of 14th-century English polyphony. Soprano Anna Maria Friman writes: “It is impossible to know what this music would have sounded like in the middle ages...The members of Trio Mediaeval feel that performing medieval music today gives us the freedom to let our imagination and ideas flow, as though we are creating contemporary music.” The idea of finding contemporary inspiration in earlier music is certainly not new. Beethoven’s final works reflect this duality, drawing inspiration from the old in order to create something assuredly new. We conclude the podcast with one of his grandest, and last, works--the 13th String Quartet in B-flat Major.

105. The Art of the Commission Nov 01, 2010

Show notes

Works for flute quartet, flute and percussion, and piano trio performed by flutist Paula Robison, percussionist Ayano Kataoka, Musicians from Marlboro, and the Claremont Trio.

Mozart: Flute Quartet in D Major, K. 285
Kirchner: Flutings for Paula
Kirchner: Trio No. 2

Today we explore three pieces intended for a specific patron or performer. Mozart’s Flute Quartet was written at the behest of the wealthy amateur flutist Ferdinand De Jean. Much has been made of Mozart’s purported distaste for the flute, and he struggled to complete the four concertos and six quartets De Jean requested. Listening to this delightful music, though, and the prominent role the flute plays, one can’t help but wonder whether Mozart was being entirely truthful. Kirchner’s Flutings for Paula was originally written for Ms. Robison in 1973. Kirchner reworked it some thirty years later to feature percussion prominently, in the version we’ll hear today. The pairing of flute with vibes and wind chimes creates a verdant, magical mood. Kirchner’s Trio No. 2 was originally written at the urging of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson trio. This work, the composer writes, is evocative of a bygone era of music, a time when form and feeling were of paramount importance, and inextricably linked.

104. Innovating Within Bounds Oct 15, 2010

Show notes

Works for solo piano and piano trio performed by pianist Paavali Jumppanen and the Claremont Trio.

Beethoven: Sonata in E Major, Op. 109
Beethoven: Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1

Beethoven took the musical forms and vocabulary he inherited so far that there was nowhere left to go. We’ll take that conjecture as a jumping-off point for listening to two Beethoven works that demonstrate his innovation within the bounds of classical form. The trio concludes our program, but it comes first chronologically. The work has a firm foothold in the classical style espoused by his teacher, Haydn, but Beethoven’s interest in innovation is evident is the work’s unexpected harmonic shifts. We begin the program at the opposite end of Beethoven’s career, with one of his final piano sonatas, where we see the composer at the height of his compositional powers. In three movements, Beethoven explores familiar structures---sonata form, theme-and-variations, intricate counterpoint---but makes them sound entirely new, with adventurous harmonies, unexpected tempo shifts, and sublime melodies.

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