Ravinia 2019, Issue 2, Week 3

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) String Quartet No. 3 in D major, op. 18, no. 3 Beethoven composed his first string quartets, the six works of the op. 18 collection, between 1798 and 1800, a relatively late debut in this tra- ditional chamber music genre. The quartets were published in two volumes, each containing three pieces, in June and October of 1801 by the Vien- nese firm of T. Mollo. The published sequence of quartets differs from the order in which they were composed, although there is considerable disagreement over the original arrangement. On June 25, 1799, Beethoven presented a man- uscript copy of the Quartet No. 1 as a farewell gift to his friend Karl Amenda, who was leav- ing Vienna, with a personal note overflowing in brotherly affection: “Dear Amenda! Accept this quartet as a small token of my friendship, as of- ten as you play it remember our days together, and, at the same time, how tenderly kind-heart- ed to you was and ever will be your true and warm friend Ludwig van Beethoven.” None- theless, the printed score contains a dedication to Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz (1772–1816), the Bohemian aristocrat living in Vienna to whom Beethoven also dedicated the String Quartet No. 10; the Symphonies Nos. 3, 5, and 6; the “Triple” Concerto; and the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte . The Quartet in D major, op. 18, no. 3—possi- bly the first quartet composed by Beethoven— demonstrates a confident handling of the string resources. This finely crafted work is firmly root- ed in the Classical quartet tradition of Mozart and, more particularly, Haydn. Beethoven also admired, and may have been influenced by, the quartets of Emanuel Aloys Förster (1748–1823). The dramatic, extroverted character found in abundance in Beethoven’s later compositions is noticeably lacking in this quartet. The Allegro commences with an upward-leaping D-major theme in the first violin, set against a gentle, chordal backdrop. The second idea, with its off-beat accents, begins boldly in C major be- fore modulating to A minor. The Andante con moto is a rondo built around a simple, lyrical theme in B-flat major and two contrasting melo- dies. The place of the minuet or scherzo is taken by an Allegro , whose sections are identified only by mode: maggiore (major) and minore (minor). The finale is a sonata movement in a mercurial 6/8 meter. LEMBIT BEECHER (b. 1980) One Hundred Years Grows Shorter Over Time The child of an Estonian mother and American father, Lembit Beecher spent his youth in Santa Cruz, CA, nestled north of Monterey Bay with views of the Pacific Ocean and the nearby red- wood forest. The respect for nature developed in these early years remained with Beecher after his move east and has left an imprint on com- positions such as Limestone (2016) for cello and percussion quartet; The Conference of the Birds (2017), a string-ensemble work for A Far Cry; and Sophia’s Forest (2017), a chamber opera for voice, string quartet, percussion, and electroni- cally controlled sound sculptures. Notions of memory pervade many of Beecher’s work. Reflections on his Estonian heritage, the political turmoil that forced his grandmother’s escape from Estonia during World War II, and his personal journeys in Estonia background the orchestral fantasy Kalevipoeg in California (2013; Kalevipoeg is the hero of the Estonian national epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald), the documentary oratorio And Then I Remem- ber (2009), and An Estonian Diary (2015) for chorus and strings. Several recent works con- front memory loss and ageing, notably his highly acclaimed chamber opera Sky on Swings (2018) about two women suffering from Alzhei- mer’s disease, roles created by mezzo-sopranos Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson. The passage of time has inspired other com- positions, including Beecher’s recent string quartet One Hundred Years Grows Shorter Over Time , commissioned for the centennial of South Mountain Concerts, founded in 1918 in the Berkshires by wealthy music patron and Chica- go native Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The Juil- liard String Quartet gave the world premiere on September 23, 2018, at South Mountain Concert Hall in Pittsfield, MA. In this composition, time becomes a malleable phenomenon, at one mo- ment relentlessly pushing forward and at others suspended by episodes of repetition, variation, and reflection. “As I began writing,” Beecher remarked, “I thought about the span of 100 years: how, over time, our lives turn into stories told by our chil- dren, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, the complications and subtleties of life crystal- izing into anecdotes as actual memories fade. The three movements of this quartet are like successive generations retelling the same story. Musical material is passed from movement to movement, but along the way it is reinterpret- ed and reshaped into something quite different. The movements all share a similar obsessiveness of character, moments of exuberance, and a tendency for long lines to emerge out of faster, restless music, but each movement is shorter, slower, and more focused than the previous one. “As I wrote, a melody kept coming into my mind: a waltz written by my Estonian grand- uncle Ilmar Kiiss, now in his mid-90s. He had written the waltz in the 1950s after the Soviet occupation of Estonia, and I had first played this music with my violinist brother [David Il- mar] when we were teenagers. Over the years, we have kept returning to it, and it felt right to let this little bit of my granduncle’s life that had meant so much to me into my piece. The waltz is hidden or just hinted at in the first two move- ments, but in the third it appears fully realized if a bit scratchy, as if an old recording, a piece of the past both beautiful and out-of-context, was rediscovered by a future generation.” ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841–1904) String Quartet No. 12 in F major, op. 96 (“American”) The 1892–93 academic year at the National Con- servatory of Music in New York, which Dvořák served as director, came to a close in late May. Lacking any professional commitment until Au- gust and wanting to escape New York, he and his family traveled to Spillville, IA, a Czech commu- nity in the northeastern corner of the state. The companionship of fellow Czechs—their simple lifestyle, the charming accents of their native tongue, and their nostalgic recollections of the Czech countryside—only intensified Dvořák’s longing for his fatherland. Despite his immersion in this transplanted Czech culture, Dvořák wrote two of his most “American” works during the summer of 1893— the String Quartet in F major, op. 96, and the Pencil drawing of Ludwig van Beethoven by Louis Letronne (1814) Lembit Beecher (photo: Jamie Jung) JUNE 17 – JUNE 23, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 93