Ravinia 2025 Issue 2

Mozart’s admiration for Haydn was equally pro- found. When the six quartets were published as op. 10 by Artaria later that year, Mozart prefaced the edition with a warm letter of dedication (in Italian) to Haydn: To my dear friend Haydn: A father, having resolved to send his sons into the great world, finds it advisable to entrust them to the protection and guidance of a highly celebrated man, the more so since this man, by a stroke of luck, is his best friend.—Here, then, celebrated man and my dearest friend, are my six sons.—Truly, they are the fruit of a long and laborious effort, but the hope, strengthened by several of my friends, that this effort would, at least in some small measure, be rewarded, encourages and comforts me that one day these children may be a source of consolation to me.—You yourself, dearest friend, during your last sojourn in this capital, expressed to me your satisfaction with these works.—This, your approval, encourages me more than anything else, and thus I entrust them to your care, and hope that they are not wholly unworthy of your favor.—Do but receive them kindly, and be their father, guide and friend! From this moment I cede to you all my rights over them: I pray you to be indulgent to their mistakes, which a father’s partial eye may have overlooked, and despite this, to cloak them in the mantle of your generosity which they value so highly. From the bottom of my heart I am, dearest friend, Your most sincere friend, W.A. Mozart, Vienna, 1st September 1785. The composition of these quartets was unchar- acteristically difficult for Mozart, as the heavily revised manuscripts reveal. Apparently, he took special care in writing these works for Haydn. Mozart produced six tightly wrought works, a fitting tribute to the acknowledged master of quartet composition. Perhaps the most no- torious of the set is the Quartet in C major, K. 465, called “Dissonance” for the chromatic, contrapuntally derived harmonies of the Ada- gio introduction to the first movement. The in- tensive motivic interplay, close imitation, and novel textures found in the Allegro sonata that follows are no less unique. Mozart’s interest in poignant harmonies continues through the An- dante cantabile . Imaginative instrumentation distinguishes the soaring violin theme from an imitative second idea, which is accompanied by a busy cello line. The Menuetto , while con- ventional in form, offers more harmonic and textural delights; the trio takes an impassioned turn to minor. With the rondo finale, controlled in exuberance and striking in harmonic turns, Mozart drew his set of “Haydn” quartets to an imposing completion. HENRI DUTILLEUX (1916–2013) Ainsi la nuit Constructs of time, memory, and sonority, as well as collaborative relationships among music, visual art, and literature, were chief influences over the compositions of Henri Dutilleux. His predisposition toward coloration, movement, and form may have had a hereditary basis: one ancestor, the painter Constant Dutilleux, moved in artistic circles with Eugène Delacroix and Jean Baptiste Camille Corot. Dutilleux’s string quartet Ainsi la nuit (Thus the Night, 1976) con- fronts many of these central aesthetic issues. The score is divided into seven movements with linking passages called parenthèses , “often very short but important because of the organic role that falls upon them. Allusions to what is to fol- low—or to what went before—find their place there and are situated in the manner of as many references.” These parenthèses furnish the ele- mental themes for the surrounding movements, material the composer expands through a myri- ad of variational techniques. Dutilleux applied evocative titles to the seven movements, referring to “a certain poetic or spiritual atmosphere but not in any way to an anecdotal idea.” Nocturne , which he described as a “static period from which movement emerg- es,” emulates Gregorian chant and sounds of na- ture. Miroir d’espace (Mirror of Space) opposes the extreme registers of the first violin and cello; from a central point, this music is presented in retrograde, or mirror, form. Variation and rondo form intertwine in the animated and sonorous Litanies . Chant modality and rhythmic freedom shape Litanies 2 . Sonorous “events” involving soloistic writing direct the music of Constella- tions to a central pitch (A). Nocturne 2 presents a vivacious, mysterious contrast to the first noc- turne. Clockwork time overcomes the initial sta- sis of Temps suspendu (Suspended Time). The Koussevitzky Foundation at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, commissioned Ainsi la nuit in 1976. Dutilleux composed this Henri Dutilleux score in memory of Ernest Sussman and in trib- ute to Olga Koussevitzky, wife of the conductor Serge Koussevitzky. The Quatuor Parrenin gave the first performance on January 6, 1977, at the Théâtre de l’Est Parisien in Paris. Henri Dutilleux spent his childhood in Angers and Douai, studying piano, harmony, and coun- terpoint at the Douai Conservatory. The family moved to Paris in 1933 so that Henri could enter the Paris Conservatory. In the year of his grad- uation (1938), he received a Prix de Rome; un- fortunately, the mounting hostilities in Europe shortened his period in Italy. Following brief military service as a stretcher-bearer, Dutilleux became director of singing at the Paris Opera. He joined the French Radio staff in 1943 and served as director of musical productions for several years (1945–63). Composition was his principal occupation in the years that followed, with the exception of short-term teaching ap- pointments at the École Normale de Musique (1961–70), Paris Conservatory (1970), and var- ious summer schools. A highly regarded indi- vidualist within contemporary French music, Dutilleux communicated through a composi- tional language emphasizing sonority—often combined with a spatial dimension—and free dissonances. MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937) String Quartet in F major The first few years of the 20th century were critical to Ravel’s development as a composer. In 1900, he was forced to withdraw from the Paris Conservatory due to his inadequate grasp of counterpoint and conflicts with the directors over aesthetic issues. Ravel’s interests in Rus- sian music, the works of Richard Wagner, and contemporary French literature coalesced in a compositional style that enraged the more ac- ademically minded faculty. He entered the Prix de Rome competition—whose judges includ- ed Ravel’s opponents at the conservatory—but failed to qualify for the finals. Subsequent ap- plications also met with failure. Ravel continued to attend Gabriel Fauré’s composition classes as an auditor, a privilege that was suspended in 1903. Despite lack of success at the conserva- tory, Ravel established an international reputa- tion through works such as Jeu d’eau (1901) and Shéhérazade (1903). Ravel created the String Quartet in F major—his only work for that instrumental combination— during this crucial period of increasing inde- pendence as a composer. The score was begun in 1902, completed in 1903, and dedicated to Fauré. Ravel believed this work signaled a new mastery of formal procedure: “My string quartet in F reflects a definite preoccupation with musi- cal structure, imperfectly realized, no doubt, but much more apparent than in my previous com- positions.” G. Astruc first published the score in 1904; Durand issued a revised version in 1910. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JUNE 16 – JUNE 29, 2025 68