2025 Concert Set 4: Music for Strings
- loonlakelive
- May 11
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 16
July 31 7:30pm Loon Lake Irish House
Aug 1 5pm Church of the Ascension
Aug 2 7:30pm Historic Saranac Lake Laboratory
PROGRAM
Quartet Op 14 by Emilie Mayer (1812-1883)
Allegro appassionato
Scherzo: Allegro assai
Adagio con molta espressione
Finale: Allegro molto
Sonya Stith Williams and Aaron Packard, violins
Catherine Beeson, viola
Heidi Hoffman, cello
Breathing Statues by Anna Clyne (1980- )
Aaron Packard and Sonya Stith Williams, violins
Catherine Beeson, viola
Heidi Hoffman, cello
Quartet Op 135 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Allegretto
Vivace
Lento assai, cantabile e tranquillo
Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß. (The difficult decision) Grave, ma non troppo tratto (Muss es sein?, Must it be?) – Allegro (Es muss sein!, It must be!)
Aaron Packard and Sonya Stith Williams, violins
Catherine Beeson, viola
Heidi Hoffmann, cello
MUSICIANS
Catherine Beeson, viola
Heidi Hoffman, cello
Aaron Packard, violin
Sonya Stith Williams, violin
(Shown above in alphabetical order)
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Click on the name of the piece below to skip right to it!
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a German composer of the Romantic era. Even though she was one of the most prolific and published women composers of the 19th century, she was maddeningly often referred to as the “female Beethoven” rather than simply being known and described in her own right. Mayer got a relatively late start to composing, beginning her studies at age 29, but still managed during her lifetime to compose 8 symphonies, 15 orchestral overtures, and numerous works for small ensemble. Through sheer persistence and undeniable talent she bucked convention by achieving professional success as a composer with public performances throughout Germany during a time when opportunity was extremely limited for women in general. Largely forgotten after her death, now in the 21st century her works have been rediscovered and are being celebrated for their excellence in relation to their Romantic era origin. Maybe we should think of Beethoven as the “male Mayer”. ;)
Quartet, Opus 14 in G minor is a composition in four movements, or musical chapters, for two violins, viola, and cello. The first movement, Allegro appassionato, is in a lively tempo which flows with stormy passion. The second movement, Scherzo: Allegro assai, is a super quick paced, light and charming dance form with a singing middle section. The third movement, Adagio con molta espressione, offers a reflective and somewhat operatic melody driven expressive reprieve from the frenetic energy of the Scherzo. The final movement, Finale: Allegro molto, is a return to muscular, driven, and passionate expression.
A typical performance lasts about 28 minutes.
Anna Clyne (1980- ) is a British composer of electronic and acoustic music, currently living in New York. She began composing music at the age of 7. Now just in her mid 40s she has nearly 90 published works and over a dozen recordings to her name, and is highly sought after for new commissions.
Anna Clyne composed Breathing Statues in 2019. It is a single movement work for string quartet. In her own words:
“Breathing Statues draws inspiration and musical quotes from Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartets No. 13 in B-flat major Op. 130, No. 16 in F major Op. 135, and the Grosse Fuge Op. 133. It also draws inspiration from On Music, a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke. The concept for Breathing Statues came from a poignant moment in the Grosse Fuge where the music stops and, in between moments of silence, breathes as it shifts from a root position E-flat major chord to a first inversion C major chord. This idea of the music breathing reminded me of another poignant moment in Beethoven’s B-flat Major Quartet when the lower strings provide a pulsing accompaniment to a violin melody that is marked beklemmt (oppressed, heavy of heart) and the voice almost stutters as if out of breath. I also found other quotes that have a similar feeling of breathing or sighing, such as a moment in the Adagio of the B-flat Major Quartet; and quotes that would strongly contrast, such as the descending rhythmic lines in the lower strings in the Grosse Fuge, and a violent outburst in the last movement of the F-Major Quartet. Breathing Statues begins with a quote from the opening of the last movement of Beethoven’s F-major quartet, which is originally accompanied by text – Beethoven writes: Muss es sein? Es muss sein! (must it be? It must be!). His notation of these statements are also marked by significant pauses between them. This musical quote builds the foundation for Breathing Statues. The concept of breath – of the music and musicians breathing – sometimes together and sometimes apart, reminded me of Rilke’s poem On Music, from which Breathing Statues derives its title.”
A typical performance lasts about 15 minutes.
On Music
Music: the breathing of statues. Perhaps:
the silence of paintings. Language where
language ends. Time
that stands head-up in the direction
of hearts that wear out.
Feeling...for whom? Place where feeling is
transformed...into what? Into a countryside we can hear.
Music: you stranger. You feeling space, growing
away from us. The deepest thing in us, that
rising above us, forces its way out...
a holy goodbye:
when the innermost point in us stands
outside, as amazing space, as the other
side of the air:
pure,
immense,
not for us to live in now.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer who was born into the Classical Era, broke those conventions during his middle compositional period, and paved the way for the Romantic Era in his late compositional period. He's like three composers for the price of one! Beethoven is one of the most instantly recognizable composers of Western European classical music, and together with Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, templated the compositional style known as the First Viennese School. In Beethoven's final years he concentrated on the string quartet, a medium he hadn’t revisited for about 15 years. The five late quartets (Op. 127, 130, 131, 132, and 135) completed a cycle of sixteen that define his Classical, middle, and Romantic stylistic periods as a composer. The late quartets go beyond the early Romantic era writing of his contemporaries. They are positively transcendent, envelope busting works, which continue to challenge and thrill listeners even today 200 years later.
Quartet, Op. 135 is the last complete work Beethoven wrote, composing it in 1836 about 6 months before his death. He never heard it performed live as it was premiered a year later. The quartet is in a standard 4 movements structure of the time - up tempo start, rip roaring dance, slow lyrical cool down, and a deep waters up tempo finale with drama. The drama of that final movement is underscored by a phrase Beethoven included to go along with the primary melodic fragment which he turns from a searching question in a minor key to a triumphant answer in a major key, “Muss es sein?” (Must it be?) becomes “Es muss sein!” (It must be!). Of his set of late quartets it’s the shortest and possibly the most accessible or traditional sounding to listeners.
A typical performance lasts about 25 minutes.
Comments