Willy Sucre and Friends play String Quartets

Violist Willy Sucre will be joined by

violinists LP How,

and Roberta Arruda

with cellist Sally Guenther.

The program should include:

"Sunrise"

by Franz Joseph Haydn

I. Allegro con spirito
II. Adagio
III. Menuetto: Allegro
IV. Finale: Allegro, ma non troppo

Franz Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732 in Robrau, Austria. After his second immensely successful visit to London, in 1795 he returned to Vienna with several new elements integrated into his writing. When Count Joseph Erdödy asked Haydn for a set of quartets, the sixty-four-year-old composer brought to the task his newly developed musical outlook, along with forty years of continuous growth and maturation in writing for the medium.  Composed in 1796 and 1797, the six quartets of Op. 76 were dedicated to Count Erdödy and published in 1799. 

In the view of many, op. 76, No. 4 is the finest among Haydn’s eighty-three quartets. Rarely, if ever, did he equal its luminous spirituality and depth of feeling. Perhaps Haydn intended this quartet, with its prominent viola part, for his own use, since he was also an avid quartet violist. The nickname, “Sunrise,” widely accepted in America and England but seldom used elsewhere, comes from the very opening of the quartet where the first violin traces a loving curve of ascent above a soft, sustained chord, much as the sun gloriously rises to bathe the earth in its radiance. Haydn died tens years later on May 31, 1809 in Vienna.

Notes adapted from Melvin Berger's Guide to Chamber Music.

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String Quartet in A Major Op. 6, No.6
by Luigi Boccherini

I.  Allegro brillante
II. Amoroso
III. Allegro Maestoso

Luigi Boccherini was born on February 19, 1743, the son of a professional musician who was the first double bassist to perform solo concerts. The elder Boccherini started to give his son cello lessons when the boy was five years old. When the boy made his first public appearance it was conceded that he had already surpassed his teacher's skills and he was sent to Rome. After one year in Rome, Luigi and his father were summoned to Vienna, where they were hired by the Imperial Theater Orchestra.

Boccherini's compositions were first published when he was 17 years old. In 1765 Boccherini and his father went to Milan. It was there that he wrote his first string quartet. In the same year, the ill health that would plague Boccherini all his life began to take its toll. The composer endured a further blow in 1766 when his father died. Boccherini and violinist Filippo Manfredi toured Italy in 1767 and made their way to Paris, where they became a sensation. In Paris, Boccherini published a number of notable works, including a set of six string quartets. Following his successes there, Boccherini began writing and publishing prolifically.

In 1769 Boccherini and Manfredi journeyed to Spain, where the composer enjoyed great acclaim. He became best known for his works, written for string quartet with an additional cello. Now enjoying the benefits of a steady job, Boccherini married in 1771. In 1785 both his wife and his Spanish patron died, leaving Boccherini without a position.

In 1787 Boccherini remarried. In 1796 he entered into an arrangement with publisher, composer, and piano manufacturer Ignaz Pleyel, who both praised and published Boccherini's works while cheating him of income. In 1802 two of his daughters died from an epidemic within a few days of each other. In 1804 both his wife and his only living daughter died. It seems clear that Boccherini, although he continued to compose up to the end, had little interest in living, and died on May 28, 1805 of what was described as pulmonary suffocation.

Notes adapted from the All Music Guide on Answers.com.

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I N T E R M I S S I O N

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by Felix Mendelssohn

I. Adagio non troppo; Allegro non tardante

II. Canzonetta: Allegretto

III. Canzonetta: Allegretto

IV. Andante espressivo

IV. Molto allegro e vivace

Felix Mendelssohn was born on February 3, 1809 in Hamburg and died on November 4, 1847 in Leipzig. Few composers were born with as much musical aptitude, if not genius, as Mendelssohn, and few achieved as much success and recognition during their lifetimes.

Mendelssohn started life as part of a wealthy and cultured family; his father, Abraham, was a prominent banker and his grandfather, Moses, a noted philosopher. When Felix was three years old the family fled French-occupied Hamburg and settled in Berlin, where their lavish home became a gathering place for the world’s most outstanding artists, intellectuals, and social leaders. As a very young child, Mendelssohn displayed amazing musical ability—perfect pitch, the ability to recognize any note or combination of notes that he heard, and a phenomenal musical memory. His mother gave him his first piano lessons, and at age nine he made his concert debut. In the same year, his choral setting of the Nineteenth Psalm was performed in public. From that time on, he began composing in earnest.

He started his three-year past-university tour of Europe by sailing to England in April 1829. In a letter written to his sister Fanny on September 10, he said, “My quartet [Op. 12] is now in the middle of the last movement, and I think it will be completed in a few days.” The work carries the lowest opus number of his quartets because it was published before Op. 13, which was actually written two years earlier.

Notes adapted from Melvin Berger's Guide to Chamber Music.

The music playing is an excerpt from the first movement of Haydn's “String Quartet in B Flat Major, op. 76, No. 4, Sunrise” recorded at the September 24, 2006 Willy Sucre and Friends concert with violinists Krzysztof Zimowski & Jonathan Armerding, and cellist Adam Gonzalez. If the music is not loading, click the play button (►). Recorded by Leland H. Bowen.

Time, date, and program subject to change.