Beethoven, Hesketh, & Glinka

Beethoven, Hesketh, & Glinka

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Piano Trio No. 5 in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost”
Sergiu Schwartz, violin • Daniel McDonough, cello • Tao Lin, piano

KENNETH HESKETH (b. 1968)
Two Epitaphia
Jeffrey Zeigler, cello

MIKHAIL GLINKA (1804–1857)
Grand Sextet in E-flat Major
Mikhail Kopelman, YooJin Jang, violin • Phillip Ying, viola • Keiko Ying, cello • Tracy Rowell, bass • Tao Lin, piano

Program Notes

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Piano Trio No. 5 in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost” (1808)

Beethoven undertook work on this Piano Trio during the summer of 1808, on retreat in the Viennese suburban village of Heiligenstadt. He had just completed his Symphony No. 6 (the “Pastorale”), and proposed to send his publisher a bundle of works, including the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Mass in C Major, a Cello Sonata, and two Piano Trios — justifying the inclusion of the latter, since, in Beethoven’s words, “There is a lack of them.” It had been twelve years since Beethoven’s previous trios, the set of three which had been his first published works in 1795.

Although 1808 saw the composition of several of Beethoven’s most beloved symphonic and chamber works, it was also a difficult year. Beethoven was struggling to secure stable patronage, his living situation was precarious, and he was considering leaving Vienna. The Countess Marie von Erdődy, who hosted Beethoven at her residence while he completed the Op. 70 Trios, endeavored to prevent his departure by arranging for Prince Lobkowitz, Prince Kinsky, and the Archduke Rudolf to jointly assure Beethoven a yearly stipend — upon the contractual condition that he permanently remain in Vienna. As a gesture of thanks for this successful negotiation, Beethoven dedicated the pair of trios to the Countess Erdődy, and it was at her palace that the trios were premiered.

The “Ghost” moniker was attached to the Trio following a comment from Beethoven’s eminent pupil, Carl Czerny, who wrote in 1842 that the slow second movement evoked the image of Hamlet’s encounter with the ghost of his father in the opening act of Shakespeare’s play. The movement contains some of the slowest music Beethoven ever composed, with long, sustained melodies supported by increasingly minute subdivisions flickering in the keyboard part, contributing to a stirring sense of unease.

Program Note by Peter Asimov

KENNETH HESKETH
Two Epitaphia (2012/2024)

IMMH is a short, imagined shamanic ritual marking the passage from life to death. Beginning with a single note repeated in contrasting rhythms, fragments of melody emerge and proliferate evermore elaborately. The player taps rhythms, drum-like, on the body of the cello and sings alternately ecstatically and percussively as the music proceeds in a slow, dance-like cortège that gives way to ethereal harmonics at the close. The impression is of charting a path across a vast expanse. IMMH is dedicated to the memory of Michael Harrison, director of Kettle’s Yard from 1992–2011.

Athene Noctua (little owl) is a small owl with a flat-topped head, a plump, compact body and a short tail. The facial disc is flattened above the eyes giving the bird a frowning expression. The plumage is grayish-brown, spotted, streaked and barred with white (Handbook of British Birds, Witherby, H. F., ed. 1943).

Mythologically the bird is associated with the Greek goddess Athena representing wisdom and knowledge. The call of the little owl was thought to have heralded the murder of Julius Caesar, and in Bulgarian and Romanian folklore the little owl is said to be a harbinger of death.

Athene Noctua was written for Anssi Karttunen and affectionately in memory of Oliver Knussen (1952–2018).

Program Note by Kenneth Hesketh

MIKHAIL GLINKA
Grand Sextet in E-flat Major (1832)

Mikhail Glinka spent much of his life struggling with infections, nervous afflictions, and wrenching bouts of food poisoning. In the early 1830s, he left Russia for several years, seeking warmer climates and a cure for his ailments. He temporarily settled in Milan, where a trusted doctor, Giuseppe de Filippi, prescribed him “warm baths” and “doses of opium” that in the end did little good. In the spring and summer of 1832, Glinka developed a fondness for de Filippi’s daughter, Angela, who was an excellent pianist. He described her in his memoir as “a very tall woman with a pleasant, expressive face…I naturally visited de Filippi’s daughter frequently — the similarity of our upbringing and our passion for the same art could not but bring us together.” She was married, and his regular trips to her home caused some public suspicion. That summer, he started a piece for piano, two violins, viola, cello, and bass for her, but when he finished it that autumn, he felt pressure to instead dedicate it to a friend of hers, Sofia Medici de Markesi de Mariniano.

There is no hint of melancholy or convalescence in this good-natured Sextet. Glinka’s tunes are generally pleasing and quite operatic. He had recently written a pastiche of melodies from Vincenzo Bellini’s La Sonnambula for the same six instruments, and though he was careful to clarify that the Sextet in E-flat was a “sestetto originale,” one could easily mistake the Allegro’s jolly secondary theme, first introduced by the cello, for an actual bel canto aria. The slow movement is an homage to Mozart with a sultry interlude in the middle that features touching counterpoint between the two violins. The Finale’s extroverted chromatic figures, which burst straight from the end of the Andante, restore the operatic flair of the opening movement and provide a vehicle for a number of delightful, vertiginous, hairpin modulations.

Program Note by Nicky Swett