Program Notes
200 Years
Dvorak Piano Quartet #2 Op. 87
One of the most accurate ways to describe Dvorak’s music is perhaps to say that it is strikingly appealing. If music were dinner, Debussy would be something fancy and French, Liszt would be a spicy thing, and Dvorak would be simple and awesome comfort food. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Or chocolate cake and coffee. Or in Dvorak’s Bohemia, apparently Sauerkraut Soup. Yum. Or whatever floats your boat - admittedly this is a weird analogy.
Anyway, we suspect this analogy can also be applied to Dvorak himself. He was often described by those who knew him as warm, humble and friendly. Dvorak led a “normal” life - he was not a suffering artistic genius plagued by mental turmoil. He had a happy, lifelong marriage, and a close relationship with his large family. This is not to say he was without hardship - he lost children in infancy (and beyond infancy). He had to work hard to establish his career, persevering through years of living as a struggling musician as he played gigs and wrote music that was largely ignored before finding his deserved success and renown in his thirties (in large part thanks to Johannes Brahms).
But his music has an underlying hopefulness and a soulful lightness that inevitably draws us in. It is simple and direct, and infused with a “sunshine” kind of feeling. Dvorak had a true gift for writing a beautiful melody. He also felt strongly that he should shine a musical light on his Czech heritage and culture, which is a hugely important aspect of his writing. This inclusion of a folk idiom is also the thing that is almost always mentioned first when we discuss Dvorak. Let’s leave that for another day. For now, we would like to acknowledge that Dvorak personally was similar to Dvorak musically - someone strikingly appealing who you just really liked. Someone infused with sunshine who enjoyed quiet walks in the woods, watching trains, and hanging out with his family. Isn’t that just a lovely thought?
Schumann Piano Quartet Op. 47
Compared with Dvorak, Robert Schumann did not lead a traditional life at all. You know that tortured artistic genius we mentioned? That’s Mr. Schumann. He suffered from mental illness that included severe depressive and delusional episodes which were a very significant part of his life. After an attempted suicide, he was institutionalized (at his own request) for the remaining 2 and a half years of his life. He died of pneumonia at the age of 46. Reading his own descriptions of his mental health struggles in his letters is rather heartbreaking. However, Robert Schumann was also capable of incredible passion and a fathomless love for his wife, Clara, who was an internationally known pianist, composer and prodigy whose fame outstripped that of her husband.
After years of struggling to get permission from Clara’s father for the two to marry, they were finally able to tie the knot in 1840. After this, Robert’s compositional world expanded exponentially, and the years directly following his marriage were an exceptional time for him. It was for Clara that Schumann wrote the Piano Quartet in 1842, during a year of chamber music writing that included, in addition to the quartet, the Piano Quintet and three string quartets.
The quartet is considered to be one of the greatest works of chamber writing ever. An enormous gold star to Mr. Schumann for this one! It has a rather incomparable emotional depth to it, and at the same time a great complexity to the writing. This piece includes ideas that recur between movements that are the same but different every time, plus a fugue, and one of the most beautiful themes for the cello ever written. Schumann did a really good job with this one. We are grateful.
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May 2 & 3
