Programme Notes – String Sextets

Programme Notes – String Sextets

String Sextet from Capriccio (Op.85) —  Richard Strauss  (1864-1949)

Capriccio was Richard Strauss' final opera, written in the early years of the 2^nd world war. Sublitled "A Conversation Piece for Music", the opera is long, conversational, and theoretical, as it discusses the relative merits of words, music (and dance), and in consequence it has not proved poplar. Countess Madeleine has to choose (as a future husband) between a composer and a poet. The sextet is the work of the former and is heard in its entirity early in the 1^st act. (The opera ends with the Countess secretly wishing to retain both the magic of words and music.)

String Sextet (Halbr. 224) — Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)

i. Lento/Allegro, ii. Andantino/Allegro scherzando/ Andantino, iii. Allegretto poco moderato

Martinů’s sextet was written in less than a week in 1932, which may to some extent explain its organic unity, if not its structural originality. His catalogue for that year contains 22 other compositions.  It was awarded first prize in a competition funded by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, but Martinů initially ignored the telegram announcing his success, assuming it to be a joke. It was first performed in Washington the following year. Martinů, born in a provincial town in Bohemia, impressed his fellow citizens who raised enough money to send him to study at the Prague Conservatoire, where (however) he did not thrive and was eventually dismissed at the age of 19 for "incorrigible negligence". At the age of 33 he left Prague, which he found too conservative, for Paris, where he married, took lessons with Roussel, and stayed till the Germans invaded. Though formally this work is in 3 movements, the pulse goes: slow/fast//slow/fast/slow//fast. It begins in C minor in a mood of 'uncertain pessimism', but concludes in an extrovert D major.

"String Quintet in C major " —  Luigi Boccherini (1743 – 1805); arr. Johann Christoph Lauterbach (1832 – 1918)

The first thing to remember about Boccherini is that he was himself a cellist; and clearly enjoyed the richness achieved by adding an extra cello to the classical (Haydn) quartet.  It is strange to reflect that 120 years ago the music of the Baroque was so thoroughly neglected that it was possible for musicians such as Lauterbach to 'discover' these rich and 'unknown' archives and attempt to present them to the public in the best light he could. Today's arrangment takes movements from 4 different Quintets of Boccherini (indicated below by their Gérard numbers and dates) written between 1779 (Boccherini, happily married, with 2 daughters and enjoying royal patronage in Madrid), and 1789 (Boccherini widowed and his daughter and his royal pupil dead). 

1. Andante con moto (G 349, 1789); 2. Menuett (G 314, 1779), and trio (G 318, 1779);
3. Grave (G 325, 1780); 4. Rondo (modified from G 310, 1779).

String Sextet in G major Op.36  —–  Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)

i. Allegro non troppo; ii. Scherzo (Allegro non troppo/Presto giocoso); iii. Adagio; iv. Poco allegro

Very few string sextets were written between those of Boccherini and those of Brahms. However, the rich and bass-heavy modification of the classical quartet, with its extra viola and extra cello, obviously appealed to Brahms. This sextet (Brahms' 2nd), was written during the summers of 1864/65 in the country near Baden-Baden, when Brahms was still only 31, but living now in Vienna and finding his mature voice. His devotion and enduring fondness for Clara Schumann is well know; less well known is the fact that (in 1858/9) he passionately loved and was briefly engaged to Agathe von Siebold. The engagement ended and rings returned when the bad reception of Brahms' 1^st piano concerto (in 1959) induced feelings of inadequacy. To escape, Agathe left Germany (in 1864) to become a governess in Ireland while this G major sextet seems to be Brahms' attempt at catharsis. There is a Clara-based motif that pervades the meditative and complex slow movement, but, at the passionate climax of the 1^st movement, Joachim points out the notes A-G-A-D-H-E. (An excellent essay can be found at http://www.onyxclassics.com/sleevenotes.php?ID=72)