Bright Virtuosi
Zoltan Kodály, Duo for Violin and Cello, op. 7
Carl Maria von Weber, Quintet in B-flat Major, op. 34
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, String Sextet in D Minor, “Souvenir de Florence,” op. 70
Zoltán Kodály, Duo for Violin and Cello, op. 7: Kodály (1881-1967) was a Hungarian nationalist composer, a fast friend of Béla Bartók and a professional colleague of Ernst von Dohnányi. He received a degree in German and Hungarian literature from Budapest University, in addition to a degree in composition from the Budapest Academy of Music. Kodály and Bartók traveled through rural Hungary, transcribing Magyar folk melodies. (Kodály later earned his Ph. D. based upon these ethnomusical studies.) As Bartók became more experimental, Kodály’s more conservative nature held him closer to 19th Century musical forms. His compositional style was what David Dubal called that of “a rhapsodic bard.” In addition to composing and concertizing, Kodály taught composition at the Budapest Academy of Music, and he developed several important music education techniques. He composed his Duo for Violin and Cello in 1914 at the beginning of World War I, but it was not publicly performed until 1924. This three-movement duo, in the traditional fast-slow-fast pattern, has become one of the most important works in the repertoire for violin and cello.
Carl Maria von Weber, Clarinet Quintet in B-flat Major, op. 34 (for clarinet, two violins, viola and cello): “A good case can be made” that Weber (1786-1826) “was the first of the true Romantics.... To the Romantics, Weber was the one who unleashed the storm” [Harold Schonberg]. Weber was one of the greatest pianists and conductors of his era. He virtually invented the role of a conductor as the overall director of an opera. His compositions included virtuosic piano music, chamber music and songs, all of which were enormously popular in the 19th Century. Weber had a huge impact on Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner. He was a man of many talents as a writer, painter, lithographer and guitarist. He died at age 39 of tuberculosis, while in London to conduct the premiere of an opera he had written for an English libretto. Weber was an “aristocratic, intelligent, forceful man: an authentic genius whose greatest tragedy was that he was born about thirty years ahead of his time” [Schonberg]. He wrote his clarinet quintet in 1815, inspired by the virtuosity of clarinetist Heinrich Baermann. (Brightmusic performed Baermann’s own clarinet quintet at its “Musical Legacies” concert in January 2010.) Weber’s quintet has been described by critics as “superb,” “sparkling,” “charismatic” and “technically demanding.”
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, String Sextet in D Minor, “Souvenir de Florence,” op. 70 (for two violins, two violas and two cellos): Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is probably the most popular, if not the greatest, Russian composer. He had an “inexhaustible, supersensuous fund of melody” [Schonberg] and a gift for luscious orchestration. He studied at the School of Jurisprudence and served two years as a clerk in the Ministry of Justice, but decided to pursue music rather than law as his career. After graduating from the St. Petersburg Conservatory under the tutelage of Anton Rubenstein, he accepted a faculty position with Anton’s brother Nikolai, who headed the new Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky had a lifelong struggle with mental health problems, including depression and issues of sexual preference. He was a shy man and was anxious about standing in front of an orchestra, even to conduct his own music. But what music he wrote! He devoted considerable time to operas that are seldom performed today, as well as to symphonies, ballets and concertos that are staples of the classical repertoire. He also composed chamber music. On commission from the St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society, he wrote “Souvenir de Florence,” a city he had visited happily many times. Having missed his deadline for the 1889-90 season, the work was not premiered until November 1892.
