North York Moors Chamber Music Festival - De profundis A journey into light
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North York De profundis Moors A journey into light Chamber Music Festival 11 - 24 August 2019
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival Contents Introduction 1 Programme 2 North York Moors 4 Visitor Information 5 Pickering 6 Fylingdales 10 Helmsley 14 Lythe 18 Egton Bridge 22 Danby 28 Boosbeck 32 Kirkbymoorside 38 West Cliff, Whitby 42 Lyrics 46 Biographies 50 Acknowledgements 60
Introduction or play safe in order to achieve the
ubiquitous ‘accessibility’ factor. In fact in
many ways it’s insulting to do just that
for a musical narrative; an emergence
from the profound depths of war into
a brighter space (whether in life or
Welcome to our festival’s eleventh and if I didn’t believe in those who listen death). Classical music offers us plenty
season. Last year we all shared in a to the music we put on, we wouldn’t of riches here and each concert takes
tumultuous musical experience covering programme as we do. I admit that when us to profoundly dark places before a
400 years of British music which, I released last year’s theme, one which transposition towards light, almost like
stretched over a fulsome two weeks, Paul Ingram and I spent many months a release. Bookended by that most
must have felt intense. This was an devising, we did wonder how on earth emotionally powerful of composers -
audaciously defined theme (deliberately the festival would be received but felt a Schubert - this is a programme which
so for our tenth anniversary) but strong conviction not to compromise. speaks to the heart.
in some ways the most rewarding, It was a test of many things - but in
testing musical boundaries and stamina, hindsight I should not have remotely Jamie Walton
discovering hidden masterpieces, doubted anything, or anyone.
The advantage of holding back on
Artistic Director
exploding myths surrounding the English
‘pastoral’ scene; I do not think there was the classics (as we know them) is that
a musical cow - nor gate - in evidence. there’s likely to be a subsequent appetite
A recent biography on Michael Tippett (!) for getting back to the great masters
by Oliver Soden has elicited some high - and we hope that you enjoy the
profile publicity, particularly on Radio concerts lined up for you this year. The
4, which perhaps suggests a newfound main inspiration behind the theme takes
appreciation for Tippett’s immense us back to 2009 when we launched the
contribution to the British music scene. very first festival with the music of J S
In 2018 we revealed an episode from Bach. In 2019 I wanted to touch base with
his life in Boosbeck, hitherto unknown, the original ‘feel’ of that groundbreaking
which gave us the opportunity to year: the stark moorland imagery, the
unearth British repertoire from this scaled-down finale, the intimacy in the
period alongside other works in a style presence of great German composers
which expressed similar tension. such as Schubert, Mozart, Bach and
I wanted to thank you back then for Brahms. I can only hint at the reasons
opening your minds and hearts to our behind holding back with the music of
musical vision and so this year’s festival Beethoven, as we head towards 2020 . . .
(more easy on the ear but perhaps no Some of you will remember that we
less challenging) is a way of thanking launched this year’s theme during the
you now. The success of last year’s Armistice weekend back in November,
‘difficult’ programme demonstrates the concerts interspersed with poetry
very touchingly where we’re at and how from Wilfred Owen (who briefly lived
unusual this all is - we buck the trend, in North Yorkshire before his tragic
proving that you don’t have to dumb death). One hundred years after the
down in order to attract audiences Great War provided our inspiration
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 1
Programme Week one
Sunday 11th August St Peter & St Paul's Transcendence
3 pm Pickering SCHUBERT Notturno in E flat major D897 (10')
BRAHMS Piano Trio in B major Op 8 (33')*
PÄRT Mozart-Adagio (7')
SCHUMANN Piano Quartet in E flat major Op 47 (29')
Monday 12th August St Stephen’s Searching
7 pm Fylingdales SHOSTAKOVICH Elegy (4')
(Robin Hood’s Bay) MOZART String Quintet No 4 in G minor K516 (34')*
STRAVINSKY Three Pieces for string quartet (7')
BEETHOVEN String Quintet in C major Op 29 (‘Storm’) (32')
Wednesday 14th August All Saints’ Transfiguration
7 pm Helmsley PÄRT Pari intervallo (6')
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No 2 in E minor Op 67 (29')*
SCHUBERT Piano Trio No 2 in E flat major D929 (41')
Friday 16th August St Oswald’s Reflection
7 pm Lythe STRAUSS Capriccio: Prelude (12')
MOZART Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major K364/320d (33')*
WEBERN Langsamer Satz (9')
SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht Op 4 (28')
Saturday 17th August St Hedda’s Memory
7 pm Egton Bridge TABAKOVA Fantasy Hommage to Schubert (11')
STRAUSS Metamorphosen (27')*
MOZART Adagio and Fugue in C minor K546 (7')
SCHUBERT String Quartet in D minor D810 (Death and the
Maiden, arranged by Mahler) (40')
2 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019
Programme Week two
Sunday 18th August St Hilda’s Together alone
2 pm Danby J S BACH Violin Sonata No 1 in G minor BWV 1001 (16')
PROKOFIEV Sonata for two violins in C major Op 56 (16')
J S BACH Violin Partita No 2 in D minor BWV 1004 (31')
Tuesday 20th August St Aidan's Reverence
7 pm Boosbeck BRAHMS Two Songs Op 91 (12') L
STRAUSS Morgen Op 27 No 4 (4') L
FAURÉ Piano Quintet No 2 in C minor Op 115 (32')*
FAURÉ Songs selection) (12') L
BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor Op 34 (43')
Thursday 22nd August All Saints' Introspection
7 pm Kirkbymoorside MOZART Oboe Quintet in C minor K406 (24')
MAXWELL Pibroch (12')*
STRAVINSKY Three Pieces for clarinet solo (5')
BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op 115 (36')
Saturday 24th August St Hilda’s Resurrection
5 pm West Cliff, Whitby BUXTEHUDE Praeludium in G minor BuxWV 149 (8')
J S BACH Ich habe genug BWV82 (24') L
J S BACH Brandenburg Concerto No 5 BWV 1050 (10')*
J S BACH Komm, Heiliger Geist (Herre Gott) BWV 651 (6')
SCHUBERT Octet in F Major D803 (62')
Figures in brackets indicate length in minutes
* denotes interval follows
The letter 'L' after the length indicates the lyrics are on
pages 46-49.
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 3
Nor th Yor k Moor s
The designated area of the The National Park encompasses
The North York Moors is a National Park covers an area of 1,436 two main types of landscape: green
national park in North Yorkshire. square km (554 square miles) and areas of pasture land and the purple
has a population of about 25,000. The and brown heather moorland. These
The moors are one of the largest North York Moors became a National two kinds of scenery are the result of
expanses of heather moorland in the Park in 1952, through the National differences in the underlying geology
Parks and Access to the Countryside and each supports different wildlife
United Kingdom. Act 1949. communities. There are records of
4 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019
Visitor Information
12,000 archaeological sites and features Many visitors to the moors engage
in the North York Moors National Park, in outdoor pursuits, particularly Venue postcodes
of which 700 are scheduled ancient walking; the parks have a network of
monuments. Radio carbon dating of rights-of-way almost 2,300 km (1,400 BOOSBECK
pollen grains preserved in the moorland miles) in length, and most of the areas TS12 3AY
peat provides a record of the actual of open moorland are now open access
species of plants that existed at various under the Countryside and Rights of DANBY
periods in the past. About 10,000 years Way Act 2000. YO21 2NH
ago the cold climate of the Ice Age
ameliorated and temperatures rose
above a growing point of 5.5˚C. Plant life Car Parking EGTON BRIDGE
YO21 1UX
was gradually reestablished and animals The churches in Danby and Lythe
and humans also returned. have large car parking facilities. Those in FYLINGDALES
Fylingdales, Boosbeck and Egton Bridge YO22 4RN
have local village and verge parking. In
Helmsley, Pickering and Whitby West HELMSLEY
Cliff there are local car parks and YO62 5YZ
on-street parking.
KIRKBYMOORSIDE
Toilets YO62 6AZ
The churches in Fylingdales, Boosbeck, LYTHE
Kirkbymoorside and Pickering have their YO21 3RW
own facilities. Egton Bridge, & Helmsley
have village facilities. The churches at PICKERING
Danby, Lythe and Whitby West Cliff have YO18 7HL
portable toilets.
WHITBY, WEST CLIFF
Refreshments YO21 3EG
Refreshments are available for a
suggested donation of £1 for soft drinks
and £2 for a glass of red wine or white
wine.
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 5
St Peter & St Paul's, Pickering - Transcendence 11th August
1876-1879 and while this degraded
some architectural features it led to
the permanent uncovering of its most
notable feature; the medieval frescoes.
Dating from about 1450 these are
“one of the most complete series of
wall paintings in English churches”
(Pevsner). The function of paintings,
to inspire faith and inform an illiterate
congregation, is largely understood.
Here in Pickering we have major
Christian figures and events but we
also have notably English twists on
the theme – St George, St Edmund,
King & Martyr, and Thomas à Becket.
Although the artistic quality is merely
vernacular they represent a vivid
glimpse of a pre-Reformation English
parish church interior. During the
16th century such paintings came to
be viewed as icons of superstition; the
Reformation abjured the role of saints
and their intercessionary powers. The
result was that images were often
whitewashed then overwritten with
Biblical texts so that church interiors
instead resembled “a giant scrapbook
of the Bible” (Diarmaid MacCulloch).
The whitewashing of the Pickering
The 14th century spire of St Peter all the major orders of ecclesiastical images ultimately saved them. There
& St Paul's asserts the location of the Gothic architecture. The 14th century was no systematic iconoclasm here;
church from all directions. A substantial triple sedilia, with its crocketed a fate which often occurred in
cruciform building, the church is lofty gables springing from sculptured tumultuous periods of protestant zeal,
and expansive; it demonstrates what heads (including monsters, bishops such as the 1530s or 1640s. The result
Pevsner calls “complex” development and a priest), is a particularly fine is this building has much to offer in
from its Norman origins. There are example of Decorated craftsmanship. explaining key features in the history
notable examples to be found here of The church was heavily restored in of the English Church.
6 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 7
Wilde, the man who could resist New Year 1854. The initial creative
SCHUBERT everything but temptation, had consequence, a ‘richer cadence’ was a
Notturno in E flat major D897 succumbed. A great wit was in jail, trying large Piano Trio in B major, referencing
(1827) to find the positives in the depths of the new, three-way relationship. Brahms
human experience, good and bad. As we and Clara could not have known that
all know, the great works of chamber Robert, while clearly unwell, would
BRAHMS music own a long lease on this territory. attempt suicide during those creative
Piano Trio in B major op 8 (1854 Our festival is an inquiry through three weeks in early 1854, or that in February
original version) centuries into the nature and mystery of that year young Brahms would have
of chamber music itself. For composers, to help Clara place her husband in the
Allegro con moto the mystery of creation starts where institution where he would die. Thirty
Scherzo: Allegro molto imitation ends, as Wilde says, and the five years later Brahms made a radical
Adagio non troppo history of music itself can weigh as revision to all the movements of the
Allegro molto agitato significantly as life. For Franz Schubert, Trio, bar the Scherzo, cutting themes,
Interval the beginning of his Notturno may have adding others, pruning by more than
been Beethoven’s funeral in March 1827. ten minutes overall. However, Brahms
There the mortally ill Schubert carried did not suppress the very personal
PÄRT a torch: he was 30 and halfway through first version which we hear tonight.
Mozart-Adagio (1992 revised writing Winterreise. The next year was The young composer must have been
2005) his last. This short E flat movement proud of the first theme, here with
written a few months after the funeral violin figures as well as the familiar
is a slow procession for piano trio, ‘cello sonata’ texture of the revision.
SCHUMANN possibly a discarded slow movement for The rest of the twenty minute Allegro
Piano Quartet in E flat major the Trio in B flat. It summarises the late contains wild variety, Schumannesque
op 47 (1842) Schubert aesthetic: spare beauty of line, at times, at others skittish, discursive or
with pizzicati as an expressive texture contrapuntal. The Scherzo alternates B
Sostenuto assai - Allegro ma non troppo creating a mood of seductive stasis, as minor and major with confidence, and
Scherzo: Molto vivace though this could go on forever. The recalls Schubert, whose Am Meer, a tale
Andante cantabile contrasting sections that put on a braver of being alone on the beach with a tearful
Finale: Vivace face find, inevitably, a quiet sleeping close. woman, Brahms quotes as the B major
Johannes Brahms was younger Adagio’s second theme. The Finale in B
still, just 20, when he began in 1853 to minor, ending in tragic turmoil, brings
network with the musical gods of his the same Beethoven quote (from An die
'Art only begins where imitation ends, time. Like a young rock star, he had ferne Geliebte) that Schumann had used
but something must come into my work, been wowing European music circles in in his Fantasy in C: “Take these songs,
of fuller memory of words perhaps, of his late teens. Young Brahms met Liszt, then, my love/That I have sung to you.”
richer cadences' Berlioz and of course the Schumanns, Reaching back, Schumann and Brahms
Robert and Clara, first on 30 September expressed a transcendental, lasting
Oscar Wilde - 'De Profundis' 1853 in Dusseldorf (“sent straight from version of the present, mixing intimate
God” said Clara), then in Hanover after moments with public gesture.
8 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019Estonian Arvo Pärt reached back of masterpieces of his own, including year of chamber music had been
further, to Mozart, to make a public three Quartets, the Piano Quintet hampered by depression in the winter
expression of grief and a lasting and a Piano Quartet in E flat. Some and unease/insecurity/creative block
monument to the great violinist, Oleg of Op 47’s discourse echoes that of when Clara was away touring. The
Kagan. Mozart - Adagio takes the slow the Schubert Trio in the same key (in composing was done in intense, short
movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata our third concert), and Beethoven’s bursts. Like Schubert, Schumann found
in F K280 and rearranges it intact as Quartet Op 127 (also E flat) though the act of writing music to offer in
a celestial concert with an imagined the ebullient contrapuntal Finale is itself one way out of the depths, into
Kagan on violin. The result is wholly echt-Schumann. Before that the openly light and understanding. Through the
Pärt, wholly Mozart and very moving, melodic first Allegro is followed by a eloquent musical poetry of his Op 47
while again evoking the mood of late spooky Scherzo, with two trios and a Schumann seems one of the greatest
Schubert. In 1842 Schumann had love-song Andante (one of Schumann’s composers, transcending life, always
himself channelled the work of Mozart, best tunes), featuring tuned-down inventing, as Wilde insisted an artist
Beethoven, Schubert, all the great cello and slow anticipations of the last must, rather than simply chronicling
chamber music masters, into a series movement’s melodic cells. Schumann’s the rough journey.
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 9St Stephen’s, Fylingdales (Robin Hood’s Bay) - Searching 12th August
revolutionised English Christianity
in the mid 19th century. The new St
Stephen’s church, where the concert
is to be held, is a bold statement of
design as influenced by a generation
of architects raised on the tenets of
the Oxford Movement: Pevsner calls
it "big, earnest and rather stern". This
time the emphasis is sacramental,
with special detailing such as the large
four-light west window and the rib
vaulting in the apsidal chancel, leaving
the worshipper in no doubt as to the
focal point for their devotions; namely
the altar. The building was designed by
George Edmund Street, whose most
notable building is the Royal Courts of
Justice in Strand, London. Street was
much in demand as an ecclesiastical
architect. He was Diocesan Architect
to the cathedrals of Oxford, York,
Winchester and Ripon and also
undertook considerable commissions
abroad. Use of such an eminent
ecclesiastical architect with high
ideals, inevitably increased the cost
of the building to a sizeable sum of
£6,000. The work was financed by
the long-standing incumbent, Robert
Confusingly there are two churches simple if somewhat crowded interior Jermyn Cooper, and local landowner,
dedicated to St Stephen within the dedicated to the spoken word. Further Robert Barry. Their munificence
civil parish of Fylingdales. The old down the hill is the new church of ensured a high standard of design and
church of 1822 is situated on a hillside 1868-1870. Barely fifty years separate execution; in particular the stained
overlooking Robin Hood’s Bay, itself the two churches, yet the contrast glass designed by Henry Holiday
built on the site of a much older in architecture and interior design is is especially meritorious, ranking
chapel. It conformed to the style immense; a beautiful illustration of alongside the best examples of late
of worship common at that time, a the powerful forces unleashed that Victorian stained glass in the county.
10 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 11
Rossetti spoke from the depths of Quintet K515. The concluding G major
SHOSTAKOVICH contained passion, a lesbian writer in Allegro brings some light, the composer
Shostakovich - Adagio (Elegy) Victorian England, and as an informed, rethought his first plan for an all tragic
Op 36a (1931) if sceptical critic of the role of women end. The preceding three movements
in her time. She was at the centre of a are darkly expressive in a way new
male milieu, surrounded and celebrated for chamber music, looking ahead to
MOZART by pre-Raphaelites, proposed to three Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann.
String Quintet No 4 in G minor times. Her own search for hope and This is Rossetti’s ‘bleak midwinter’ of
K516 (1787) fulfilment found expression in faith, the heart. The Allegro is inconsolable,
and in her direct, controlled, private anticipating Schubert’s ‘Death and the
Allegro poetic language. Katerina Ismailova, in Maiden’ Quartet (in our Egton Bridge
Menuetto & Trio: (Allegretto) Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of concert), while the Minuet is jagged
Adagio ma non troppo the Mtsensk District, confronts a stifling, and disturbing. The muted Adagio opens
Adagio - Allegro violent male world with frank sexuality, with a serene mask, but explores inward
Interval moral ambivalence and violence of her grief through chromatic harmony and
own. In Act One she sings an aria of fragmented melody passed between the
poetic, searching intensity, though the instruments. Near the end, a B flat major
STRAVINSKY subject is sexual frustration and self-pity, duet for violin and viola brings some
Three Pieces for string quartet ending in nudity. Acclaimed by the light into the dark room, then it is gone.
(1914, revised 1918) public then silenced by the Soviet state, Mozart’s G minor Quintet proved
the opera changed the composer’s life, a radical compositional move, widening
Danse traumatically, and altered his composing the medium’s expressive range. Perhaps
Eccentrique outlook. In 1931, before Lady Macbeth’s the most revolutionary work in quartet
Cantique completion, Shostakovich arranged history though was one of the shortest,
Katerina’s aria for quartet and called it Stravinsky’s Three Pieces, first completed
an Elegy, which it is, for Katerina’s own during a few days in 1914, a year after the
BEETHOVEN unlived life. There are hints of Satie, of premiere of the Rite of Spring. It was a
String Quintet in C major Op 29 paths not taken, in a work which, paired stressful time, the composer, recovering
(1801) with an arrangement of the Polka from from typhus, was busy completing his
The Age of Gold, proved the first entry opera Le Rossignol (the fake nightingale’s
Allegro moderato in the 20th century’s most important song is echoed in the second of the
Adagio molto espressivo body of quartet music. Pieces), as well as retrieving his most
Scherzo: Allegro Shostakovich had made both quartet important possessions from Russia,
Presto arrangements in one night and in the as war broke out. Searching as ever
Elegy echoed the tragic, extended slow for something new, personal and
introduction to the Finale of Mozart’s distinctive, Stravinsky disregarded
'I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
Quintet K516. This G minor work the whole Viennese quartet canon.
And catch at hope'
dates from the time of the illness and He wrote three miniscule character
death of the composer’s father. It pieces: bare, modernist distillations
Christina Rossetti - 'De Profundis'
forms the dark ‘double’ of the C major of the St Petersburg quartet salon
12 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019tradition, notably Belaiev’s Les Vendredis the late quartets, whose only two-viola development. The resulting sonata
frequented by Stravinsky’s teacher Quintet Op 29 was written in 1801, movement was the most expansive the
Rimsky-Korsakov. As written, the pieces between the first two symphonies composer had yet constructed. The rich,
had no titles. Later orchestrated, they and fourteen years after the Mozart Mozartean Adagio is also conceived on
became: Danse (Satie-esque again, with G minor Quintet. Beethoven chose C a new and large scale, a sonata form
an Eastern flavour and related to The major, and his expansive work saves its structure with fragmented textures in
Soldier’s Tale); Excentrique (a study in own short emotional storm for a long the middle section, as with Mozart, but
orchestral effects but for quartet - Little final Presto which mixes 6/8 with 2/4 with pizzicati and sensuality rather than
Tich was quoted as an influence by time, tremolandi and ‘lightning’ figures grief.The Scherzo is an outgoing country
the composer and you can still see his in the violin before an Andante section dance with hints of both the poor
antics on YouTube); Cantique (liturgical which recurs later and sounds a bit weather to come in the Presto, and of
homophony but close to the Andante of drunk, more so the second time, with the future Pastoral Symphony. Perhaps
the Brahms Third Symphony). fortissimo interjections. The first Allegro the coda of the work reveals the search
In the seven minutes of his begins with a calm walking theme that to have been for the wit and drama
Three Pieces, Stravinsky proved as anticipates the start of the Archduke of Beethoven’s teacher, Haydn, whose
revolutionary as Beethoven had been in Trio, and offers infinite capacity for music we hear only in spirit this year.
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 13All Saints’, Helmsley - Transfiguration 14th August
undertaken by the London firm of
Barry & Banks with the overall effect
being “big and self-confident” (Pevsner).
Whereas the Victorian fascination for
medieval forms of art and architecture
is well known, All Saints’ offers a good
example of another obsession: that of
continuity and lineage. The north aisle
wall is covered with a large colourful
mural to demonstrate the roots and
development of Christianity in the local
area. The story of St Columba and St
Aidan in the south transept is even
more audacious. Here we see St Aidan
attempting to convert the inhabitants
of Helmsley to Christianity; a scene
high in drama but without any actual
documented justification. Much of this
interior detailing was the result of
Helmsley’s most famous incumbent,
Charles Norris Gray. He was a classic
activist clergyman whose zeal and
vision was employed in every aspect of
his role. He oversaw the development
of several churches in far off hamlets
while giving moral leadership to issues
such as education, sanitation and
the dangers of women wearing tight
lace. He died from overwork in 1913
Restore, rebuild or start completely scalloped capitals, while the chancel having significantly advanced the social
afresh? This was the dilemma for church arch is a supreme example of playful infrastructure of Helmsley. The massive
architects and patrons in the mid 19th detailing. Close examination shows four marble altar and reredos in the side
century. At All Saints’ the wise decision orders with the outer ring being a series chapel were installed by Gray as a
was to restore and integrate a sizeable of hoodmasks; 28 vernacular faces memorial to his father who was Bishop
portion of the original medieval fabric. tending towards the jocular or even of Cape Town. The fine woodwork in
The south door contains delightful grotesque. The remainder of the church the chancel is by Robert ‘Mouseman’
Norman zigzag decoration and largely dates from an 1860s restoration Thompson of Kilburn.
14 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 15
re-presenting the most basic sonic are transfigured, the cello in its highest
PÄRT materials, intervals and lines, as though register, like a violin, the fiddle low like a
Pari intervallo (1976) heard for the first time. The 1976 cello.The world is topsy-turvy, but in the
version presents four very sparse lines Andante and the third movement Largo
that maintain an equal distance and (a passacaglia) the tone, especially on
SHOSTAKOVICH relation (the meaning of the title). There piano is severely Classical, then Baroque;
Piano Trio no 2 in E minor is no indication of instrumentation - order amid chaos. In between comes a
Op 67 (1944) tonight we hear the organ arrangement short Allegro led by the violin, starting
from 1980. This is another heartfelt out as apparent light relief and leading
Andante - Moderato - Poco più mosso elegy, this time for the composer’s late to jolly piano figuration, growing more
Allegro con brio stepfather. exaggerated in gesture near the end.
Largo Shostakovich dedicated his Trio The final Allegretto heads straight for
Allegretto - Adagio Op 67 to the memory of his friend Jewish music, expressionist klezmer
Interval Ivan Sollertinsky, but it has come to be without the clarinet. The Nazi camps
heard as an elegy for a whole epoch. It were being uncovered just then, but
is also the most popular piano trio since Soviet anti-semitism was also rife, and
SCHUBERT Brahms. Shostakovich was writing during would erupt after the war. The state
Piano Trio No 2 in E flat major World War II in late 1943, and then murdered many Jews, including friends
D929 (1827) mainly in 1944, Bernstein was writing On of Shostakovich and Sollertinsky. Plus,
the Town, Tippett A Child of our Time, string chamber music has so often
Allegro and Bartòk his Concerto for Orchestra. reached its peak in the hands of Jewish
Andante con moto Shostakovich’s Trio communicates as performers. This finale is often called a
Scherzo: Allegro moderato directly as any of those works, but his dance of death, but it is as though the
Allegro moderato expressive means are very different. To whole work is revealed as having been
understand that, it helps to understand rehearsed in the entry halls of hell.
'The Mystical in Art, the Mystical in Life, his relation to Sollertinsky. They had The brief, warmer references to earlier
the Mystical in Nature - this is what I met in 1927, and Shostakovich had movements do not offer escape; the end
am looking for' found the closest friend he would ever feels like it really is the end.
have, a real equal, intellectually, a man of Some of the Shostakovich Trio’s
Oscar Wilde - 'De Profundis' great humour and one of those people textures, especially pizzicati with piano
who just know everything. He had and some thematic character, seem to
Wilde did not call his epistle De become a musicologist (he introduced derive from the E flat Trio of Schubert,
Profundis, that was a publisher’s conceit. Shostakovich to Mahler’s work) but his especially the later stages of its second
Psalm 130, which opens “De profundis background was in literature, theatre, movement, and the third. This, together
clamavi,” is titled in Hebrew ‘A Song of philosophy and with the Russian with the Octet (in the finale), is one
Ascents’, it’s about the journey up, not Formalists and linguists. So the real of the longest chamber works in the
the miserable depths we are leaving. By tribute in the Trio lies in its structure, standard repertoire; a big challenge,
1976 (the year of Pari intervallo's first something the composer’s friend would especially for the pianist. Schubert was
completion), Arvo Pärt had emerged have been proud to hear and study. From writing a few months after the Notturno
from musical modernism and was the start, the instruments themselves (in our opening concert) and had less
16 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019than a year to live. Here the piano trio oversight. The quiet end seems only a second theme on the way. The final
is transfigured not into a deathly vision pause to possibility. The Andante’s C sonata-rondo Allegro is also at a
but into a large symphony for three. minor cello theme has the directness steady pace, revisiting the Andante’s
In the Allegro, a confident opening of a spiritual, perhaps sung by the tune (cf Shostakovich) with new
theme gives way to quieter material trudging protagonist of the just accompaniments almost like a jazz
based on repeated note piano figures completed Winterreise. Whatever jam. It is a large movement despite
(a feature of all four movements). The its folk roots, the tune takes the Schubert’s cuts of nearly one hundred
genial (if dramatic) patterning in the three players through distant keys bars, the original survives. Fortunately,
first movement seems to have no limit, and wild moods settling on stasis, Schubert heard his Trio performed
with Schubert thinking on a scale that hypnotic, before an Allegro moderato at his successful benefit concert of
looks forward to Bruckner and beyond which weaves between minuet, 26th March 1828, the anniversary of
to Feldman and the minimalists but scherzo and over-the-top country Beethoven’s death. Eight months later
with better tunes and long structural dance. It meets the first movement’s Schubert was gone.
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 17St Oswald’s, Lythe - Reflection 16th August
(who began his ecclesiastical career
as assistant curate here), 37 fragments
of carved stone were found built
into the walls of the Norman church.
These are Anglo-Danish gravestones
from, most likely, a Christian burial
ground established following the Viking
invasion of the neighbourhood in
867. Many more fragments have been
stored within the tower and several are
mounted in an attractive display which
illuminates the transitions of settlers
towards early Christianity. Of special
note are the hogback tombstones
which were fashionable from around
900 AD and a particular feature of
Viking heritage within northern Britain.
The 1910 restoration was overseen
by Sir Walter Tapper, a distinguished
member of the Arts and Crafts
movement, renowned for his attention
to detail. The pews, pulpits, rood
screens and organ lofts in the many
churches he restored were always
of the best quality, and the acoustics
were, almost without exception, fine.
This is true of St Oswald’s at Lythe,
where Tapper created an elegant, calm
and airy space in great contrast to
The church of St Oswald dominates drawn to the east, to the sea and south, the fury of the sea and winds outside.
the headland above the village of down the steep bank and along the beach The architectural critic H S Goodhart-
Sandsend. Its solid Early English tower to Whitby Abbey, founded in 657. The Rendel called Tapper’s work at Lythe
with small spirelet stands stark against earliest written record of St Oswald’s "his best church." There are several
the North Sea beyond. Inland, to the occurs in 1100; but in 1910, during a splendid memorials relating to the
north, west and south lie the vast open major restoration carried out under Normanby marquisate whose main
spaces of the North York Moors but at the auspices of the Vicar, the Reverend residence is at Mulgrave Castle within
the church the eye and the mind are the third Marquess of Normanby the parish.
18 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 19
at the opening: the Prelude is a rehearsal musical future (Schubert, Mahler and
STRAUSS of a composition for string sextet by beyond) and it dominates the Sinfonia.
Prelude to ‘Capriccio’ Flamand, one of two suitors in the plot The concluding Presto could be a duet
op 85 (1942) for Madeleine, the other being Olivier a from Figaro. Immediately popular, the
poet. It is really a short, beautiful sextet work has been arranged for differing
by Strauss of course. A warm beginning trios, for piano and for string sextet.
MOZART and end enclose a stormy centre, which The latter anonymous arrangement
Sinfonia Concertante in E flat evokes some Schubertian dread and was published in 1808, as Grande
major K364/320d (1779) anticipates Metamorphosen (in our Sestetto Concertante. The parts are
Egton Bridge concert). The Prelude distributed among all the instruments,
Allegro maestoso was first heard at a private ‘thank though some editions give more
Andante you’ concert for Baldur von Schirach, prominence to the cello. The music,
Presto who would later spend twenty years even without the rich wind colours of
Interval in Spandau Prison for crimes against the original, survives everything.
humanity. He had deported 65,000 Jews Also in E flat, Webern’s Langsamer
from Vienna, but had helped Strauss’s Satz, a magnificent late Viennese quartet,
WEBERN family. During the writing of the opera, was complete in 1905 but not heard
Langsamer Satz (1905) around 200,000 Jews were rounded up until 1962, in Seattle. Webern was in
from German territories bound for the love with his first cousin, Wilhelmine,
death camps. The idea for Capriccio’s apparently the only love affair of his
SCHOENBERG plot came from Stefan Zweig, a Jew life, they would marry in 1911, and she
Verklärte Nacht Op 4 (1899) and arguably the most cultured man in outlived the composer. They managed
Europe. Forced into exile, Zweig and his a few days walking in the countryside
Sehr langsam - second wife committed suicide in early together in 1905. Webern was in heaven,
Breiter - 1942, at about the time this music was but one night, it seems things went
Schwer betont - first heard at Schirach’s Viennese villa. further: “Our love rose to infinite
Sehr breit und langsam - Back in 1779, during the real heights and filled the universe. Two
Sehr ruhig Rococo period and three years souls were enraptured… Two souls had
before he relocated to Vienna, Mozart wed.” The Langsamer Satz was a direct,
composed a short ‘opera’ for violin, passionate reaction which remained
“Live and let live” was the famous viola and orchestra in his early 20s, the private for half a century.
motto of Vienna Sinfonia Concertante in E flat K364. Webern’s piece was also a tribute
Singing, entwined solo lines respond to the impact of his early studies
Stefan Zweig - 'The World of to the opera buffa orchestral tuttis of with Schoenberg. Webern’s romantic
Yesterday' the Allegro. The tone turns to tragedy experiences reflect Schoenberg’s with
and pathos in the unprecedented Mathilde, Zemlinsky’s sister, just a few
Strauss’s last opera Capriccio emotionalism of the Andante, which years before in 1899. There was an idyllic
(1940-41) is an extended reflection on may or not be a reaction to the country holiday with the Zemlinskys
the relative merits of words and music death of the composer’s mother. This at Payerbach, Austria in September;
in opera.The self-reflection is right there movement is a projection into the Mathilde was on the rebound from a
20 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019failed engagement which had left her marriage, when she met the poet. Like memories; the D major of the man’s
threatening suicide. During the holiday, an Zweig, Ida killed herself in1942, the response; the bright, shimmering night
extended tryst, Schoenberg conceived year of Capriccio. In Dehmel’s poem of of the poem’s end. The music was
and mostly completed an instrumental 1896, a woman confesses to her lover, first heard in Vienna in March 1902.
setting of Richard Dehmel’s poem, walking at night, that she gave in once Composer Franz Schmidt played cello.
Verklärte Nacht. The story grows from to another man. She regrets it, but she Music, poem, circumstance and cast of
D minor to a D major transfigured is pregnant. Expecting condemnation, characters form an accurate reflection
close. The result was the best string instead the woman hears her lover of the convoluted soap opera among
sextet ever written. There had been say they will raise the child as their Viennese artistic circles; Zweig’s ‘World
nothing like it in chamber music history, own, and they walk calmly together in of Yesterday.’ Schoenberg missed the
and only Smetana’s quartets had offered the “high, bright night”. Schoenberg’s premiere of Verklärte Nacht, he had
such specificity of personal narrative. piece is in five sections: the D-minor taken a job in Berlin. Mathilde had fallen
Dehmel’s poem reflects (or refracts) night of the introduction; the woman’s pregnant by 1901, they had married
his own experience with Ida Auerbach, confession led by viola; the intense, and there was now a family to support.
who he married, but who was pregnant traumatised development, representing Vienna proved hostile to Schoenberg’s
by her husband, and in an unhappy the woman’s doubts and fears and new work.
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 21St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge - Memory 17th August
whom the local inn is an eponymous
reminder. He discreetly ministered
across Yorkshire for fifty years, until he
fell victim to the hysteria of the Popish
Plot of 1678 and was hanged, drawn
and quartered in York the following
year. English Roman Catholicism was at
its lowest ebb in the 18th century yet
the first church was built in 1798; this is
now the school next door. Within the
next fifty years both legal emancipation
and the influx of labourers from Ireland
created a rising demand. In 1859 the
priest in charge, Fr. Callebert, set
about trying to raise funds for a much
larger church building. Unlike many
large Catholic churches of the period
(one immediately thinks of Pugin’s
neo-gothic apotheosis at Cheadle) this
project did not rely upon a wealthy
patron; instead, all the costs were
defrayed by small donations. Volunteer
aid was enlisted in every task including
quarrying the stone. The building itself
was designed by Hadfield & Son of
Sheffield in a simple French style with
lancet windows and an apsidal chancel.
However, at 114ft by 47ft with a height
of 43ft it was a triumph of volume
Many features of the story of 17th centuries. This RC tradition was over expense. The present church
Roman Catholicism within England aided by gentry families, such as the opened in 1867, while furnishings such
since the Reformation can be found in Smiths of Bridgehome in the village, as the altar from Messrs Mayer & Co
the history of St Hedda’s Church. The who were able to provide a safe haven of Munich and the Lady Chapel were
village and the surrounding population for priests to live and for Mass to be added over the subsequent ten years.
have long maintained a Roman Catholic said. Probably the most notable priest, The Lady Chapel now contains the
tradition, even when under extreme and later martyr, was Nicholas Postgate Postgate Relics and several of these
official disapprobation in the 16th and who was also born in the village and of are on display.
22 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 23
for viola and strings, starting with a 2004 restoration of the septet version of
TABAKOVA arrangement of the Arpeggione Sonata, Metamorphosen was heard for the first
Fantasy Hommage to Schubert and continuing with 2013’s Fantasy time, four years after the rediscovery
(2013) Homage to Schubert. This short work of the manuscripts. Before the blackest
is a creative reaction to the opening of endings, much of the piece is like
bars of the Fantasy in C for violin and appreciating an elaborate Art Nouveau
STRAUSS piano, written in the same period as the painting. There are thematic links to
Metamorphosen (1945) Trio in E flat (in our Helmsley concert), Strauss’s far from grave First Sonatina
Interval and itself centred on one of Schubert’s for winds and, surely, to the Wagner
own songs.The harmonic implications of Siegfried Idyll. The work’s meaning has
Schubert’s rippling piano are atomised always been held to be elegaic, a farewell
MOZART into clouds of chords and quietly jabbing to the best parts of Germanic culture,
Adagio and Fugue in C minor figures for the strings. After a few and the bombed Munich Opera House
K546 (1788) minutes the restless surface coalesces in particular. Strauss was reading again
into passionate melody, before moving the whole of Goethe from start to
Adagio in and out of reach, all over again. Then, finish, as he composed Metamorphosen,
Fuga (Allegro) like the discovery of a new star, the viola while thinking of setting some of the
at last finds the opening violin phrases Zahme Xenien verses which Goethe
of the Schubert, now infinitely precious wrote with Schiller. Yet most of the
SCHUBERT and touching, like the possibilities of life. piece is as engaging as an early Strauss
String Quartet in D minor D810 A Londoner in her 30s, Tabakova was symphonic poem. There is some regret
(Death and the Maiden arranged born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Heir to the but the war is not in the music.Two main
by Mahler) (1824 arranged 1894) mid-European tradition, she has always motifs derive from the Beethoven Third
been a determined composer of openly (Funeral March) and Fifth (the opening
Allegro communicative music, like Schubert. bar) Symphonies. Two other themes
Andante con moto Strauss’s Metamorphosen is one are more upbeat: they interact with
Scherzo: Allegro molto direct antecedent of the Tabakova, an the Beethovens to produce, broadly,
Presto extreme fantasy for strings that finds an introduction, fantasia with huge
music of the past (a couple of bars from climax, recap and coda. Performances
'What he is, what he was, the Eroica Symphony) at the end, before of Metamorphosen have slowed down
What he can and might be' a quiet close. Strauss had a Schubert since 1946, by between five and eight
homage in mind too for a time, in the minutes. This may add weight, but can
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - sketches for Metamorphosen. He began also misrepresent. The subject matter
'Zahme Xenien' composing it a couple of years after is Strauss and his fecund musical alter
Capriccio, first thinking of eleven strings, ego another in his long series of musical
The great chamber works of the then seven. The septet was completed in self-portraits. One clear antecedent
past live each day in the memory of any March 1945, even as Strauss began the of Metamorphosen is the 1788 Adagio
composer. What to do now? Dobrinka expansion to 23 solo players first heard dashed off by Mozart to precede a C
Tabakova has made conscious responses in January 1946 under Paul Sacher, after minor Fugue he had composed in 1783,
to the music of Schubert in two pieces WWII’s end. In 1994, Rudolf Leopold’s while buried in the study of counterpoint.
24 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019Both Adagio and Fugue possess Bachian creative activity were compressed and the Maiden’ from 1817 for the Andante’s
severity but anticipate late Beethoven, as Schubert’s positive musical inspirations variations, also so close thematically to
well as late Strauss and mature Schubert. were mixed with regret, panic and the Allegretto of the Beethoven Seventh
The String Quartet in D minor uncertainty. This regular unease is Symphony from 1812. Mahler conducted
D810 from 1824 takes Schubert’s own expressed in the mood-swings of the his own string orchestra arrangement of
life situation as its inspiration, and its Allegro, the intensity of the Scherzo Schubert’s Andante in Hamburg in 1894,
antecedents are the composer’s own and the concluding Presto which is a he was in dead man’s shoes, filling in for
earlier works, a memory of his younger Tarantella, a dance of death. Unnervingly, Hans von Bülow who had passed away
self. As he was still in his mid-20s, the it gets faster still at the end. The work’s in Cairo. Mahler’s indications in his copy
memories were very recent, but the key emotional discourse lies in its of the score enabled David Matthews
composer had lost hope of living much engagement with Schubert’s earlier and Donald Mitchell to reconstruct the
longer after receiving a grim medical music, a recent ländler for the Scherzo’s four movement arrangement we hear
prognosis, a death sentence. So time and later section, and the song ‘Death and tonight.
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 2526 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 27
St Hilda’s, Danby - Together alone 18th August
Danby village. Arriving at a time when
the Methodists had the ascendancy
over the Anglican church in the area,
he believed the solution lay in returning
among the people. In 1863 he caused
an iron church to be commissioned in
Castleton (the Tin Tabernacle); this was
later replaced by a stone church built
in 1924. Yet under Atkinson’s regime
St Hilda’s was no longer neglected; the
year after he arrived a new chancel
was designed by the architect, William
Butterfield. This was only the latest
among many alterations since the
church was founded. There are possible
traces of Danish occupation in the
burial ground, and Saxon remains in the
church. The tower is 15th century and
two of the bells are marked 1698.There
was a major restoration in memory of
Atkinson in 1903 in the Early English
style by Temple Moore. It might have
been a muddle, yet the impression
nowadays is of a most harmonious
building, glowing under 21st century
lighting; a sanctuary brought back
to life, standing on the promontory
below what Pevsner called "the noble
line of the moor". The installation of a
Nestled in the heart of Danby Dale, Years in a Moorland Parish’ by Canon lavatory and the recent arrangement
St Hilda’s can easily be seen from the John Atkinson, in which he famously of the west end to create an adaptable
high moors which surround it on three described how his first sight of the meeting space shows how tradition can
sides despite its diminutive tower. The interior in 1845 was of shocking neglect, be blended with modern expectations.
remote location of the church reflects dirt and an almost total absence of We are delighted that members of
the history of dispersed hamlets that worshippers. He believed this was due the church will offer concert goers
make up this parish. This is the church to its remote position in the middle afternoon tea and cakes in the glorious
that inspired the cult book ‘Forty of the dale, one and a half miles from setting of the churchyard.
28 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 29
Seventeenth century poetry can go The best way in to Bach’s solo fiddle
J S BACH deep and direct, thought and language music is via the seventeenth century,
Violin Sonata for solo violin no married. For Anne Bradstreet, a puritan, the violin works of Biber, Legrenzi and
1 in G minor BWV 1001 (1720) marriage was a direct gift from God. especially the sonatas of Schmelzer.
Her family left Northampton for New When Prokofiev wrote a short Sonata
Adagio England in 1630, and within six years for Two Violins while in the south of
Fuga (Allegro) they were helping found Harvard. She France in 1932, mainly as a challenge to
Siciliana had eight children. Bach and his first wife himself, he based the overall form on
Presto Maria Barbara had seven. Four survived, Bach’s Sonatas. The work opens with
including two composers. Doing well quite a severe Andante Cantabile, leading
after a rough end to the Weimar years, to an Allegro that begins as an aggressive
PROKOFIEV Bach took an extended trip from Scherzo and develops into a fast
Sonata for two violins in C Köthen in 1720 in the company of his ensemble piece, for two. The Commodo
major op 56 (1932) employer Prince Leopold. When he is quietly lyrical, but the Allegro con
returned in July, he found his wife was brio has full scale Prokofiev character,
Andante cantabile dead and buried. We can only imagine wit and profundity. Near the end, after
Allegro the effect. Or, according to some, we can a Haydnesque false conclusion, there
Commodo (quasi allegretto) listen to the Chaconne for solo violin, is a reference to the work’s opening,
Allegro con brio and find out. Bach’s three Sonatas and amid quiet scurrying. The music recalls
three Partitas (dance suites) for solo very distantly the composer’s great D
violin were assembled and copied later major Violin Concerto. He had written
J S BACH in 1720. We do not know exactly when an excellent String Quartet in 1930
Violin partita no 2 in D minor (some time since 1717) or why he wrote and it’s a great shame we do not have
BWV 1004 (1720) these works ‘without bass,’ or for whom more Prokofiev chamber music. Within
they were written. The first Sonata in a couple of years he would be back in
Allemanda G minor is in four movements, slow- the USSR, in part to flee gambling debts.
Corrente fast-slow-fast. The Adagio’s expressive The steel doors locked behind him.
Sarabanda tone is immediately weighty, implying Bach’s Partita in D minor is really
Giga a range beyond the norm for a single two works. The first four movements
Ciaccona string player. The Fugue, engrossing, asks (all in the same key) conform to the
the violin to sustain or imply multiple standard instrumental dance suite of
lines in a large contrapuntal structure, the time: an Allemenda, originally a fairly
later transcribed for organ. In the slow lively dance but by Bach’s time in the
Siciliana, the G string accompanies the memorial tradition; a Corrente, lively
two upper lines, as though this were but serious; a Sarabanda, more chordal
three instruments, not one. The Presto and heartfelt; and a Giga which dances
'If ever two were one, then surely we'
is in a joyous G minor, not Mozart’s with lively melodic eloquence. When
heartrending use of the same key. It is a that movement ends, we know what
Anne Bradstreet - 'To my Dear and
more Italianate display piece, sustained is coming, though the first players and
Loving Husband'
by a single swirling line. audiences must have been dumbfounded.
30 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019The closing Chaconne lasts a quarter Symphony; Busoni’s virtuoso piano
of an hour, sixty four variations and two transcription is a success; and the
hundred and fifty six bars. It is one of unrestrained Stokowski orchestration
Bach’s major inspirations, summarising is a masterpiece if many miles from
the virtuoso violin tradition while Bach. The theory that it is a conscious
raising the level of sustained expressive tribute to Maria Barbara Bach was
possibility in instrumental music. further developed by Helga Thoene,
Tragic, transcendent D minor sections who posited Bach Chorales which
enclose a series of D major variations could be made to ‘go’ with the
which strive for ecstasy. This may be a Chaconne. They have been recorded,
monument to Bach’s marriage, dashed sung with violin as yet another
off in grief and addressed to God, accompaniment to the one piece that
or a celebration of compositional needs none.The Chaconne is a timeless
potential. We do not know. The achievement of drama and feeling and
Chaconne has commanded and technique, but the arrangements miss
questioned musicians since the 1802 the point. This is chamber music, for
publication: Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue a solo player. When all the sound has
is unthinkable without it; Schumann turned to silence, and the music has
and Mendelssohn arranged it for violin turned back to its beginning without
and piano;. Brahms, genuinely in awe, solace, the player alone, then the work
transcribed it for piano left-hand and makes its profound point. It is for us,
seven years later made his own tribute the audience, to reflect and restore
in the last movement of his Fourth the warmth of togetherness.
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 31St Aidan's, Boosbeck - Reverence 20th August
1850s Boosbeck was simply a bridge
with a few houses, a small and remote
part of the Skelton parish. Between 1850
and 1870 over thirty ironstone mines
were prospected within the Cleveland
area and with it came the need for
cheap housing and the provision of
social and spiritual infrastructure. Non-
conformism, unencumbered by Erastian
constraints, was generally more agile
at getting into places like Boosbeck.
Although a Primitive Methodist chapel
was established in 1877 the Church of
England was not far behind. By 1900 a site
for the church was donated by W.HA.
Wharton of Skelton Castle, and the
adjacent site for the vicarage by Robert
Petch, a local farmer who also owned a
seedcake and manure enterprise.
St Aidan’s cost £4,000 and it opened
in 1901. It was built to a lofty, cruciform
arrangement which moved Pevsner
to comment that ‘one is impressed by
[its] respectable height and transeptal
chapels’. The church was designed by
William Searle Hicks who was a great
nephew of Sir Charles Barry. Hicks was a
middling architect who failed to achieve
any notable public profile but he did
The development of industrial Commission started by force in the become architect to the newly created
communities in the 19th century 1830s grew into its own movement as Diocese of Newcastle. Examples of his
laid down a challenge to a Church of the century progressed. work reflect a confused and derivative
England which was still largely funded St Aidan’s can be counted as amongst style and his only other local church
by engrained property rights: how to the final products of that Anglican at Carlin How is described by Pevsner
liberate some of those resources and imperative to establish new churches as ‘a pathetic sight’. Recently St Aidan’s
use them in places with the greatest and parishes closer to emerging has suffered from the modern curse of
need? That which the Ecclesiastical industrial communities. Before the vandalism and lead theft.
32 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2019 33
were a wedding present to his own wife
BRAHMS 'Out of the deep, my child, out of the Pauline. The last song, ‘Morgen’ portrays
Two Songs op 91 (1884) deep, lovers in quiet worship of each other,
From that great deep, before our world and of nature. We hear it tonight with
Gestillte Sehnsucht begins' violin and piano, as originally devised by
Geistliches Wiegenlied Strauss and later arranged by him for
Alfred Tennyson - 'De Profundis' orchestra. Strauss would not surpass the
stilled beauty of ‘Morgen.’
STRAUSS A passionate, mystical Englishman, Gabriel Fauré strived to beat each of
Morgen Op 27 No 4 (1894) Tennyson contrasts with the irascible his major musical achievements, saying
eternal bachelor we see as Johannes “one must try to do even better,” after
Brahms. In his Two Songs with Viola Op the successful premiere of his large Piano
FAURÉ 91 published four years after Tennyson’s Quintet No 2 in 1921. The composer
Piano Quintet No 2 in C minor De Profundis, Brahms goes deep into a was close to total deafness and had been
Op 115 (1921) corresponding area of feeling.The second vacating his long-time position as head
song, mostly composed twenty years of the Paris Conservatoire as he worked
Allegro moderato earlier in 1863, was meant as a wedding on this C minor piece, dedicated to
Allegro vivo present for Joseph and Amelie Joachim. Dukas. Fauré began by writing the inner
Andante moderato The newly written first song aimed movements: a short Allegro vivo, Moto
Allegro molto to help soothe relations between the perpetuo with a very dark edge, and an
Interval couple, who were by the 1880s heading extended Andante which sounds like a
for divorce. Brahms supported Amelie’s French version of late Beethoven. It also
FAURÉ (songs) side of the argument, hence the quiet, possesses some of the single breath
reverent tone of this tiny but complex romance of ‘Morgen.’ Fauré moved on
La Papillon et le fleur op 1 in C major opus. ‘Gestillte Sehnsucht’ takes the to write a big Allegro moderato to open
En sourdine op 58 in E flat major lovers into a Tennysonian landscape, his Quintet. Piano arpeggios and opulent
Les berceaux op 23 in B flat minor consciousness fading into nature. Brahms viola melody imply the largest scale,
Le secret op 23 in D flat major could not surpass the vocal melody he’d like the start of Brahms Op 8 (in our
Notre amour op 23 in D major written for ‘Geist-liches Wiegenlied’ but first concert) and the movement’s arch
the rocking viola tune at the beginning of lyrical ensemble drama is unbroken.
of that second song is not by Brahms. The final Allegro molto (gradually
BRAHMS Joachim and the audience would have getting faster) opens with another viola
Piano Quintet in F minor Op 34 known it as the folk tune ‘Josef, lieber, theme, but more uneasily, finding its way
(1864) Josef mein,’ a tribute to the composer’s via the mood of the work’s opening
friend. The tune is in fact older still: it is to an upbeat, not overblown ending.
Allegro non troppo ‘Resonet in laudibus,’ a chant which saw Fauré’s chamber music forms the most
Andante, un poco adagio many choral and instrumental settings consistent body of work in the genre
Scherzo: Allegro through the Renaissance. between Brahms and Shostakovich, still
Finale: Poco sostenuto – Allegro non Written ten years after the Brahms insufficiently known or appreciated.
troppo – Presto, non troppo Op 91, Strauss’s Four Songs Op 27 Each performance is precious.
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