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About the Program (Printable Version)
The Antares Quartet has prepared an unusual
program on the theme of War and Peace. Thus we hear music composed
during World War I (Stravinsky) and World War II (Shostakovich and Messiaen).
None of these chamber pieces attempts to depict the violence of war in, say,
the manner of Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony, although that
composer's Trio No. 2 is certainly a tragic piece. Stravinsky's
"Tale of a Soldier" was a product of his own considerable personal
inconvenience, but Messiaen, as a POW, had perhaps the most direct
experience, notwithstanding Shostakovich's ordeal in Leningrad under siege.
Marooned in Switzerland by the chaos of
World War I, Igor Stravinsky found himself cut off from his major sources of
income in Russia. Anticipating the Hollywood tradition (in which he himself
later became a player), he and his Swiss writer friend C.F. Ramuz decided to
put on a show, and indeed to take it on the road. Thus in September,
1918 in Lausanne the unique piece of "chamber theater", titled
"The Soldier's Tale" received its first performance. The
influenza epidemic promptly cancelled the road trip. With music by
Stravinsky and words by Ramuz, the piece required seven musicians (plus
conductor), a narrator, a dancer and two mime actors. The very
Faustian story involves a wandering soldier, his magical violin, a princess,
and of course, the Devil. Stravinsky soon devised a purely musical
suite for chamber ensemble from this material, and then went on to arrange
five numbers (about half of the original music) for a trio of piano (which
was not used in the original setting), violin and clarinet. By this
point, the third incarnation of the music, the connection with the original
narrative had become pretty thin, so what we have is a set of pieces and
dances, very like a Baroque suite, which can be enjoyed on its own, purely
musical, terms. Particularly interesting is Stravinsky's juxtaposition
of three dances of very diverse origin: Argentina, central Europe and the
United States.
Dmitri Shostakovich made his initial
reputation as a composer of symphonies, ballets and operas, some of which
got him into hot water in Stalin's Soviet Union. Beginning in
mid-career, however, he turned increasingly to chamber music as a more
personal means of expression. The
Trio in E minor was written in 1944 in remembrance of his closest friend,
the musicologist Ivan Solertinsky who had died suddenly of a heart attack.
While it is a reponse to a personal loss, the music also seems influenced by
the composer's wartime experiences. There are some unusual features in
this trio, starting at the very beginning, where the cello, playing solo in
very high harmonics, is then joined by the muted violin playing at a much
lower pitch. The piano writing throughout is exceptionally lean, and
the two hands are often separated by three or even four octaves.
Following the elegiac Andante introduction, the first movement, according to
another friend of the composer, Dmitri Rabinovich, is "a clear poetic
picture of everyday Russian life." The marvelously vigorous
scherzo, over all too soon, seems like a further celebration of life.
The Largo, however, is obviously a requiem, built over a solemn succession
of eight chords in the piano which repeat throughout the movement. The
finale, which follows without a break, "is where the real tragedy is
unfolded," says Rabinovich. Again there are dances, but of death
rather than life. The somber tolling of the Largo recurs just before
the quiet close.
Oliver Messiaen followed a highly
individualistic path in composition, profoundly influenced by mysticism and
devout Catholicism. The Quartet for the End of Time, probably his most
famous work, was written in 1940 while Messiaen was a prisoner of war in
Stalag VIII in Germany. The choice of instruments was dictated by what
was available in the camp: violin, cello, clarinet and piano. The
scherzo-like fourth movement (Interlude) was written first and performed as
an independent piece. His fellow prisoners asked for more, and the rest of
the Quartet, quite different in nature and much more programatic, followed.
The entire work received a famous and ecstatic premiere in the prison camp
in January, 1941. The Quartet is Messiaen's response to Chapter 10 of the
Revelation of John, in which an angel announces, "There shall be time
no longer. but on the day of the trumpet of the seventh angel the mystery of
God shall be finished."
The full ensemble plays in only four of the
eight movements of this suite-like piece. Messiaen provided a detailed
program. The opening movement (full ensemble) depicts awakening of birds in
the morning, representing the harmonious silence of heaven. Next (full
ensemble) the mighty angel is described, one foot on the sea and one foot on
the earth. The third movement (clarinet solo) portrays the contrast between
the Abyss of Time and the joy of bird songs (desire for eternal light). Use
of bird songs was an important facet of Messiaen's compositional style.
Then comes the abstract Interlude, in which the piano is silent.
Cello and piano next provide Praise to the Eternity of Jesus. The sixth
movement (full ensemble) is the rhythmically complex Dance of Fury, for the
Seven Trumpets. The seventh movement (cello and piano, then the full
ensemble) is related to the second. Again the focus is on the mighty
angel, but particularly the rainbow that envelops him, symbol of peace and
wisdom. The final movement (violin, accompanied by piano) is related
to the fifth, again praising the immortality of Jesus, to the Word made
flesh, raised up immortal from the dead. Messiaen concludes, "All
this is mere striving and childish stammering if one compares it to the
overwhelming grandeur of the subject."
Edwin
Daley
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