Mendelssohn, Williams, & Fauré

Mendelssohn, Williams, & Fauré

FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58
Edward Arron, cello • Jeewon Park, piano

AMY WILLIAMS
Cineshape 3   
Ellen Hayun Lee, flute • Emma Fisher, cello • Luke Rinderknecht, percussion

AMY WILLIAMS
Switch                                                               
Nabeel Hayek, Shuguang Gong, piano

GABRIEL FAURÉ
Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 15
Sergiu Schwartz, violin • Ivo-Jan van der Werff, viola • Edward Arron, cello • Jeewon Park, piano

program notes

FELIX MENDELSSOHN

Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58 (1843)

When he composed for cello and piano, Felix Mendelssohn had his younger brother Paul, a banker and amateur cellist, in mind. Mendelssohn wrote Paul a set of variations in 1829 and also a first sonata in 1838, both very much in the fashion of works that Beethoven had created for these instruments. In 1842–43, Mendelssohn worked on a second large-scale cello piece. He referred to this Sonata in D major as “your sonata” in one letter to his brother, though, perhaps for strategic reasons, the composer ultimately dedicated it to Count Matvei Wielhorski, a Russian cellist and patron of the arts.

Mendelssohn wrote the D major sonata during a difficult period for him and his siblings. Their mother died in December 1842, an event that was painful, though not unexpected. He wrote to Paul shortly after lamenting that they had lost a primary point of familial union and he proposed exchanging letters more frequently as a means of staying close. One can surmise that this sonata, which he completed over the ensuing months, was another valuable way to maintain a connection to his cello-playing sibling.

In the opening movement, which follows sonata form, Mendelssohn skips the traditional repeat of the exposition section — a formal elision he employed in many of his later compositions. In this case, he seems to do this not to trick the listener with the arrival of the development, as was sometimes the aim when Beethoven (or later, Johannes Brahms) did the same thing, but to create a sense of breathless continuity for the entire eight-minute movement. At the heart of the sonata is a stunning Adagio, which begins as an angelic chorale of rolled chords in the keyboard, develops into a mournful cello recitative, and ends with Mendelssohn combining these ideas. In the final measures, the piano takes up the cello’s churning tune, while the cello holds a drone and simultaneously plucks an open string, creating a mood of funereal calm and acceptance.

Program Note by Nicky Swett

AMY WILLIAMS

Cineshape 3 (2008)

Amy has provided the following note to accompany Cineshape 3:

Cineshape 3 is the third in this series of pieces inspired by films. The film, in this case, is “The Lives of Others” by German filmmaker Florian Kenckel von Donnersmarck from 2006. Perhaps more programmatic than other pieces in the series, the translation of the three main characters of the film into three instruments is clear. The piece is concerned, just as the film is, with the manipulation and transformation of established identities. The soloistic cello at the beginning is subtly enhanced by the percussion and flute. The flute becomes more interfering, affecting the cello’s thematic materials. The percussion, despite attempts at independence, always conforms to and supports the other two, but is eventually expelled.

AMY WILLIAMS

Switch (2014)

Amy has provided the following note to accompany Switch:

The term “switch” has multiple meanings that are relevant to this piece for piano duet: a device for making and breaking the connection in an electric circuit; a sudden change; a shift in direction or focus; a thin, flexible rod or twig; to exchange or swap; to jerk or swish abruptly.  It can also be onomatopoetic. The pairing of two players at one piano is central to the construction of the piece. One shadows the other, or interrupts with dissimilar music, or coexists with a contrasting but complementary texture, or cooperates in search of common ground (which is only reached at the end of the piece). The inside and the outside of the piano interconnect, as do normal and prepared notes. The physical position of the players is also flexible, as there is no “normal” register for the top and bottom parts. All this illustrates some of the challenges and certainly the joy of playing four-hands.

GABRIEL FAURÉ

Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 15 (1876–1879)

Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor is among the composer’s earliest chamber music compositions. Having returned to Paris in 1871 following the Franco-Prussian war, Fauré established himself in Parisian musical circles on several fronts. He found work as an organist, first at Saint-Sulpice, then at the Madeleine where he filled in for Camille Saint-Saëns; however, he was more deeply attached to the piano, and maintained his organist posts primarily for income. That same year, he and Saint-Saëns formed the Société Nationale de Musique, an organization committed to the promotion of French music and living French composers. In 1877, the Société premiered Fauré’s first Violin Sonata, Op. 13, which was hailed as his first great masterpiece. It is difficult to consider this piano quartet in isolation from the events in Fauré’s personal life during this period. Throughout the 1870s, Fauré frequented the salon of the celebrated mezzo-soprano and composer Pauline Viardot, where he fell in love with her daughter, Marianne. After a five-year courtship, the two became engaged in July 1877, only to have Marianne break off the engagement after four months, for reasons which remain unknown and which broke Fauré’s heart. Listeners, including those close to Fauré, have frequently heard the quartet’s Adagio movement as an outpouring of the composer’s anguish. On the other hand, his friend and biographer Émile Vuillermoz has denied this association. 

Meanwhile, other events in Fauré’s life may equally have fed into the composition of this first Piano Quartet. It was also in 1877–78 that Fauré traveled to Germany, where he met Franz Liszt and saw productions of Wagner operas for the first time. While there, Fauré presented Liszt with the score to his Ballade, Op. 19, which Liszt claimed to find too difficult to play. Indeed, Fauré’s writing for the piano is always virtuosic, featuring an abundance of musical lines passed between the two hands, testifying to Fauré’s notable ambidexterity — the pianistic writing in this quartet is no exception.

Program Note by Peter Asimov