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Our 2010--2011
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PROGRAM NOTESWe hardly think of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a musical revolutionary in the same way we think of Beethoven, yet his first piano quartet was considered avant-garde and exceedingly difficult difficult both to play and to listen to with understanding when it was first performed and published in Vienna in late 1785. In October of that year, in the midst of writing what many consider his greatest opera, Le nozze di Figaro, Mozart dashed off this and a second piano quartet (in E flat major, K.493) to be parts of a set of three suggested by his publisher, fellow-composer, and Masonic lodge brother, Franz Anton Hoffmeister. The projected third piano quartet was never written because of the poor sale and disappointing reception of the first. Hoffmeister stopped engraving the score of the second at that point and made a gift of the plates and royalty advance to Mozart who subsequently had it published by Artaria. At that time the piano trio, a genre perfected by Haydn, held sway in Vienna but only Johann Schobert, a German composer working in Paris, had written a quartet for piano and strings and evidently only Mozart was familiar with Schobert's work. In the succeeding two centuries, however, Mozart's two piano quartets achieved a place among his most popular and his most frequently performed and recorded chamber music compositions. In accounting for this, the Mozart scholar H. C. Robbins Landon recently wrote: "The G minor quartet begins in the stern, uncompromising style which is also to be found in the D minor String Quartet (K. 421) and which is part of Mozart's fascination with minor keys: G minor was, in his hands, a key of both ferocious power and noble resignation." Mozart's most popular symphony (No. 40, K. 550) is in this key, and Alfred Einstein, in his outstanding book on Mozart, says it is the composer's "key of fate," and describes the opening bars of this piano quartet as "the fate theme", quite as powerful and trenchant as the comparable fate themes announced in the openings of Beethoven's fifth symphony and Tchaikovsky's fourth. After a passionate expansion and development of this theme with variations, the Andante offers a melancholy melody for contrast, and then a quick, lively Rondo concludes the piece in a coda of unison.
While the multifaceted Marc Neikrug is primarily a composer, he is also well known and respected as a pianist, conductor, and as the Artistic Director of the world-renowned Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. His works have been performed by major orchestras, festivals and performers around the world. He has also expanded his creativity into the theater and opera, writing his own scripts and librettos. As a pianist, Mr. Neikrug's performances and recordings with his long time collaborator, the great violinist Pinchas Zukerman, have garnered international praise for over thirty years. He is married to the highly regarded Pueblo potter, Dolly Naranjo, and they live in New Mexico. The first movement of this evening's work was commissioned by and dedicated to the festival, Music from Angel Fire, where Mr. Neikrug was the 2007 Composer-in-Residence. It was made possible through the generosity of the Bruce E. Howden American Composers Project. Music from Angel Fire celebrated its 25th Anniversary Season in 2008, continuing a long-standing tradition of dedication to the works of American composers. The Howden Project has helped to bring numerous new works into the chamber music literature by well-established as well as rising composers. Mr. Neikrug added the second and third movements with a commission received from Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in 2009, where he was Composer-in-Residence. He wrote the entire piece for OPUS ONE. DVORÁK. Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 87As it was to Mozart, chamber music was also extremely important to Dvorák, both as a composer and as a performer. The Quartet in E-Flat was written when he was at his creative peak in 1889. From the first bold statement of the strings in octaves to the rousing final notes, this work is filled with the joy, excitement, depth of feeling and distinctive character that can only be Dvorák. This is the second of his two forays into this combination of instruments. Though his earlier piano quartet, Op. 23 also contains these typical qualities, the second quartet is the work of a mature compositional genius, brilliantly and tightly constructed. When he wrote this work, Dvorák had not yet had his stint in America as Director of the National Conservatory in New York City, with the summers spent in the Czech community of Spillville, IA. Those years in America produced works that were "New World" in character. Tonight's work however, is thoroughly Bohemian in style and feeling. After the distinctive unison opening material, the first movement brings the greatest of contrasts including the most explosive piano writing with supporting punctuation from the strings, to the most tender, intimate sections, this time punctuated by soft heartbeats. The movement builds up with great intensity, again employing unison playing before coming to an exciting close. In the second movement, Dvorák shows his deep love for the cello in one of the great solos in the chamber music literature for that instrument, subtly accompanied by gentle chords and pizzicati in the piano and upper strings. There are two passionate, turbulent sections but the movement finishes the way it began, calmly and sweetly. The graceful third movement is almost waltz-like in feeling, but with a lilting, uniquely Bohemian folk-type character and a trio section of contrasting material. Dvorák even writes in a cimbalom (a large dulcimer) style for the piano to achieve this wonderful flavor. The Finale is filled with tremendous spirit, employing a fournote motif throughout. The closing of the piece is both thrilling and satisfying, providing the listener with the feeling that they have journeyed along with the musicians through much of Dvorák's magical world.
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