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July 21 – Wednesday Upbeat!

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Smetana – Piano Trio in G minor

Bartók – Contrasts

Schumann – Davidsbündlertänze

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Bedřich Smetana

Czech composer Bedřich Smetana (1824-84) was a leader of 19th century nationalism. His father was a violin teacher, and in his early twenties Smetana himself then taught music to the family of a count. A subsequent concert tour was unsuccessful, but some of his works were published, and he also founded a successful piano school. An independent Czech/Bohemian culture began to flourish in 1860, and Smetana then had some success with his first opera. His second opera, The Bartered Bride (1866), was not initially successful, but it ended up being the far more important of the two. Smetana also later had substantial successes with several additional operas. His other works include the orchestral masterpiece My Fatherland (Má Vlast, 1874-79). The nationalist symphonic poems of that work were followed by several more operas. However, by 1874 Smetana was suffering from a severe whistling sound in his ears, which he depicted in his autobiographical String Quartet No. 1 in E minor ("From My Life," 1876). By the end of 1874, he had become deaf—as a symptom of syphilis. By 1882, the disease had spread to his brain and led to the madness of his final two years.

Piano Trio in G minor (Op. 15, 1855-57)

In 1855, Smetana's daughter Bedriska died of scarlet fever, and the devastated composer immersed himself in this piano trio. His supporter Franz Liszt praised the work in 1856, but most critics did not like it. The composer revised it several years later, but it remained unpublished for several decades. Unusually, the work's three movements are all in the same key: G minor. The first movement ("Strictly moderately") is expressive and dark, beginning with quite low violin notes. The movement's main theme then initially descends chromatically, which recalls similar gestures for grief found in Baroque works by Purcell and others. The second theme is less tragic-sounding, but the development is then tentative in character, and the first theme inevitably returns. The second movement ("Quickly, but not agitated") is a kind of Intermezzo. Its main theme is a polka-like dance that may have been intended to evoke happy memories of his daughter. The contrasting sections are pastoral and mournful, respectively. In the third movement Finale ("Very fast"), Smetana provides rhythmic intensity partly by overlapping patterns in two with patterns in three. However, the positive tone is thwarted by mournful cello passages. Later, the secondary theme is transformed into a kind of funeral march.

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Béla Bartók

Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881-1945) had a very full life as a composer, musician, teacher, and ethnomusicologist. After his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he traveled throughout Europe to collect thousands of folk songs. The modal scales and rhythmic energy of such music inspired and influenced him throughout his career. As fascism began to take hold in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, he banned broadcasts of his works in those countries. He and his wife then left Hungary for the US in 1940. However, he began to suffer from leukemia and died in New York in 1945. Bartók's inventive, polychromatic orchestral works include the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and the Concerto for Orchestra. His string quartets and piano music (especially Mikrokosmos) are also staples of 20th century music. Many of his works explored mathematical constructions involving palindromes and/or proportions based on the golden mean (an irrational constant of approximately 1.618). However, his work is also infused with exciting, unusually-structured rhythms. His compositions also include Allegro barbaro, the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (performed on July 28), the Rhapsodies for Violin and Piano (No. 2 on July 19), and Contrasts.

Contrasts (1938)

Violinist Joseph Szigeti suggested to Bartók that he should write a piece the two of them could perform along with jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman (shown). Bartók's resultant composition was rather more extensive than expected and could not fit onto two sides of a 78 rpm record. The work's title indicates the composer's interest in highlighting the timbral and idiomatic differences between violin and clarinet. The first movement ("Recruiting Dance: Moderately, well-balanced") begins with a march-like theme, featuring violin pizzicatos and other playful gestures. Later, a folk-inspired, but texturally quite dense, second theme is also developed. During the fragmented continuation, the clarinet performs an undulating cadenza. The second movement ("Relaxation: Very slowly") is subdued and quite exotic, with the highly-unconventional gestures of the piano part possibly influenced by the earliest recorded Balinese gamelan music. The third movement ("Fast Dance: Quick and lively") includes a deliberately-mistuned violin, performed somewhat in the style of a rural fiddler. The clarinetist also temporarily switches to a differently-tuned instrument. In the movement's middle section, crossing scales and "strangled" moods are at first followed by what is almost a jazz-like version of Baroque music. Once the folk-like character returns, the violinist contributes a virtuosic cadenza. The work ends with a quite schizophrenic coda.

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Robert Schumann

German composer and music critic Robert Schumann (1810-56) was profoundly influenced by literature and by an arduous battle for the love of his life. However, he also increasingly suffered from mental problems, attempted suicide in his early forties, and spent his final years in an asylum. (Program notes for other concerts of this Festival provide additional information about Schumann's life and works. See the Table of Contents .)

In the 1830s, Schumann created a semi-fictional musical-literary society (the League of David, i.e., against the Philistines) and helped to establish Leipzig's New Journal for Music. He wrote detailed discussions of works by other composers and spoke favorably of the new Romantic idioms. He also invented contrasting characters (including fiery Florestan and dreamer Eusebius) to enliven certain debates. His works from this period include the:

• Davidsbündlertänze
• Symphonic Etudes (performed on July 14)

Davidsbündlertänze (Op. 6, 1837)

This work consists of character-piece "dances" suggesting various real and imagined characters from within Schumann's League of David. Prominent among such figures is Clara Wieck: his future wife. The arch-like opening of one of her mazurkas provides the thematic material for the entire collection. The theme's melody also focuses on the third and fifth scale degrees. Eusebius (dreamer) and Florestan (fiery) both also make frequent appearances. Schumann attempted to explain the resultant stylistic disparity in the work's preface: "Along the way we go are mingled weal and woe; in weal, though glad, be grave; in woe, though sad, be brave." Some parts of the work suggest influences from specific, actual dance types, but the composer distorts them. The eighteen short pieces comprise the following stylistic indications, dance allusions, and/or other features:

Book I:

1. "Lively" - Mazurka: triple-beat, long notes, second-beat accents
2. "Heartfelt" - Ländler: combines 6/8 (right hand) and 3/4 (left)
3. "With Humor" - the two hands sometimes seem to get out of sync
4. "Impatiently"
5. "Simply"
6. "Rapidly" - Tarantella: should have its accents on beats 1 and 4
7. "Not Quickly, with extremely powerful feeling"
8. "Crisply" - seven-measure phrases
9. "Lively; Hereupon Florestan stopped and his lips quivered sadly"

Book II:

10. "Ballad-like: rapidly" - combines 6/8 (right hand) and 3/4 (left)
11. "Simply"
12. "With humor"
13. "Boisterous and playful"
14. "Tenderly and singing"
15. "Crisply"
16. "With good humor" - B minor; repeated F-sharps, links to the following piece
17. "As from far away" - B minor; repeated F-sharps
18. "Not quickly; Eusebius thought this quite superfluous" - waltz; C major

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