Contemporary Classics October 17, 2017 - Soprano and String Quartet

Again theopening music was from Nocturne by Kirsten Volness

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

RaphaelCrystal is Director of Musical Theatre for the University of Alabama Departmentof Theatre and Dance. He is active professionally as a theater composer,musical director, and pianist. This work “You Spotted Snakes: a Shakespearesong cycle”. consists of six songs from Shakespeare plays, for soprano andstring quartet.  The six songs areentitled 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 littleboy  6. Now until the break of day

It waspresented at the 2015 Birmingham New Music Festival.   Here is that performance of “You Spotted Snakes: aShakespeare song cycle”. with Emily Herring soprano, and the string quartetconsisting of Dennis and Pei-Ju Wu, violins; Wendy Richman, viola; and LauraUsiskin, 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 Valenteand the Julliard Quartet.

John Harbison wrote that his choice of the four poems by WilliamCarlos Williams was based on 3 things “1) the poems are inadvertentlymemorized, and won’t go away, 2) they begin to run parallel to a musical shapeI have already had in mind, 3) they clarify and enlarge upon what began as apurely musical impulse.”  Hefurther wrote that  “This piece isneither a quartet with a vocal apotheosis, like Schoenberg’s 2nd, nor a songcycle with string accompaniment. It is, instead, a quintet in which the themeof “rewaking” from a winter of spirit is carried forward equally by all fiveperformers.”

Here is a performance of John Harbison’s “The Rewaking” fromthe 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 QuartetsNos 1-3    Naxos

This 5 movement work featuring the lyrics from 3 Spanish Languagepoets Juan Ramon Jiménez, Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti was writtenin 1973 and was inspired by the Schoenberg 2^nd String Quartet whichyou will hear later in this program.  In his review of this albumin The Guardian Andrew Clements wrote “Third Quartet with soprano that’s themost impressive achievement here, a compelling fusion of song cycle andinstrumental work that interleaves settings of Spanish-language poets (Juan RamonJiménez, Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti) within a musical world thatalternates between febrile intensity and expansive lyricism. Lucy Shelton singsthe settings raptly and the Enso Quartet seem an impressively taut and focusedgroup.”  This work is in 5movements   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 StringQuartet from the album Ginastera: String Quartets Nos 1-3

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

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

Egon JosephWellesz was an Austrian, later British composer, teacher and musicologist.   The Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning date from 1934 andare settings of Sonnets 1, 2, 4, 29 and 7 of the Sonnets from the Portuguese inthe 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 happenedto be in Amsterdam, where Bruno Walter was performing one of his compositions,in 1938 when the German army entered Austria as part of the AustrianAnschluss, and he fled to England and eventually was able to secure apost at Oxford, where he spent the rest of his life.   Although he did compose quite a bit after that hisreputation in England rested more on his groundbreaking scholarly work onByzantine music (his position at Lincoln College in Oxford was as Reader inByzantine Music) than on his compositional output. He has over a hundred worksto his credit, including nine symphonies and six operas but like that of somany composers of his generation who, like him, were forced into exile hismusic has been unjustly neglected since his death in 1974.

Here is arecording of Egon Wellesz Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning for soprano andstring quartet by Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet from the albumBerg: Lyric Suite – Wellesz: Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning  Decca

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

This work in four movements was written during a very emotional timein Schoenberg’s life. Though it bears the dedication “to my wife”, itwas 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 stringquartet, as they are set to poems from Stefan George’s collection “The SeventhRing”, 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 differentfrom everything I had written before.”

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

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

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