The program should include:

String Quartet in C Major
“Dissonance”K. 465

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I. Adagio; Allegro
II. Andante cantabile

III. Menuetto: Allegro

IV. Allegro

Mozart was born January 27,1756, in Salzburg, Austria.  He died December 5, 1791, in Vienna. As is so often the case, the subtitle of this cheerful and generally consonant quartet is not only inappropriate but actually misleading. Music lovers in the 1780s, though, gave it the appellation “Disso­nance” because they thought they heard “wrong” notes in the twenty-two-measure introduction. Some did even more: performers in Italy returned the parts to the publisher for corrections. When Prince Grassalkovics heard the music, he considered it a personal in­sultand ripped up the parts. Even Haydn expressed some shock, although he finally defended the music by saying, “Well, if Mozart wrote it, he must have meant it.” The “Dissonance” Quartet is the last of the set of six that Mozart dedicated to Haydn and is a fitting climax to the series. Mozart finished it on January 14, 1785, four days after completing the A major quartet, K. 464.

String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110

by Dmitri Shostakovich

I. Largo

II. Allegro molto

Ill. Allegretto

IV. Largo

V. Largo

Shostakovich was born on September 25, 1906, in Saint Petersburg (Leningrad). The dedication of Shostakovich’s eighth quartet reads “In memory of victims of fascism and war.” It was completed in about three days during the summer of 1960, while the composer was in Dresden writing the score for a film on World War II, called Five Days, Five Nights. Deeply involved in the film’s subject matter and surrounded by evidence of the dreadful violence and destruction of the war, Shostakovich was moved to compose a frankly autobiographical quartet reflecting on that tragic period. By using the acronym formed from his name, DSCH, as the musical motto to open and sustain the work (in German these four letters stand for the notes D, E flat, C, and B) and by weaving many short quotes from past compositions into the texture, Shostakovich gives the quartet what scholar Norman Kay calls its “overtly programmatic” character. The Beethoven Quartet premiered the String Quartet No. 8 in Leningrad on October 2, 1960. Shostakovich died on August 9, 1975, in Moscow.

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

String Quartet in C Major, op. 59, No. 3
“Hero”

by Ludwig van Beethoven

I. Introduzione: Andante con moto; Allegro vivace

II. Andante con moto quasi Allegretto

III. Menuetto: Grazioso

IV. Allegro molto

Beethoven was born December 16, 1770, in Bonn and died March 26, 1827, in Vienna. Count Andreas Rasoumowsky, Russian ambassador to the Imperial Court at Vienna at the turn of the nineteenth century, although a well-known figure in his time, would rank as little more than a foot­note in the history books were it not for a group of three quartets he had the good sense to commission from Beethoven late in 1805. The count wanted to have the quartets performed at concerts in the lavish palace being built for him in Vienna. Having decided “to devote myself almost wholly to this work,” Beethoven completed the first quartet by July 5, 1806, and on September 3 wrote his publisher that all three were done. The premieres were given in February 1807, probably by Ignaz Schuppanzigh’s quartet, at an unknown site in Vienna, since the Rasoumowsky palace was not yet ready. The reactions to the op. 59 were among the harshest Beethoven had ever received, when violinist Felix Radicati said to Beethoven, “Surely you do not consider this music,” the composer was ready with a prophetic reply: “Not for you, but for a later age.” And of Schuppanzigh, who complained of the difficult parts, written for skilled professionals instead of amateurs as in the earlier chamber works, Beethoven reportedly said, “Does he really suppose I think of his puling little fiddle when the spirit speaks to me and I compose something?” The subtitle “Hero” (or “Eroica”) refers to the last movement of the quartet and acknowledges its truly mighty conception. The grandiose finale of this third “Rasoumowsky” Quartet made all previous string quartets seem modest by comparison, vastly expanding the scope of string quartets.

All three sets of notes above are adapted from Melvin Berger's Guide to Chamber Music.

Time, date, and program subject to change.