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July 16 – Festival Fridays

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Beethoven – String Quartet No. 9 in C major ("Rasoumovsky 3")

Brahms – Violin Concerto in D major

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Ludwig van Beethoven

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was the most revolutionary figure to bridge from the late Classical era into the early Romantic era. His early training came from his court-musician father and others in Bonn. As a young man, he played viola in various orchestras, started composing commissions, met influential patrons, and moved to Vienna to study composition with Haydn. His growing deafness (already beginning by 1800) contributed to his acerbic personality. He had numerous additional personal difficulties, including failed romances, and his compositional activities waned through his early to mid forties. However, his late period then resulted in a renewed period of creative work, with a number of quite experimental compositions. His most important works include the relatively early Symphonies No. 3 ("Heroic"), No. 5, and No. 6 ("Pastoral"), as well as the much later Symphony No. 9 ("Choral"). His middle-period piano sonatas were ambitious and virtuosic, and his song cycle To the Distant Beloved was highly influential. His concertos include the Violin Concerto in D major (performed on August 6). Beethoven's influential string quartets include No. 3 in D major (August 4) and No. 9 in C major ("Rasoumovsky 3").

String Quartet No. 9 in C major – "Rasoumovsky 3" (Op. 59, No. 3, 1806)

Beethoven's first set of string quartets suggested an influence from Haydn. The second set, commissioned by Count Rasoumovksy (the Russian Ambassador in Vienna) came shortly after the composer's success with Symphony No. 3 ("Heroic"). The "Rasoumovsky" quartets are thus quite large in scale. They were premiered by the Count's "house string quartet." The third quartet (in C major) starts with a slow, unusual introduction. It begins audaciously, on an unstable chord that leads to a series of unexpected harmonies. The continuation of the first movement ("At a walking pace, with motion" then "Fast, lively") gradually establishes C major. The harmonies in the development section again travel quite far from the "home" key. The folk-like second movement ("At a walking pace, with motion, almost Allegretto") often features pizzicato ("plucked") cello lines and also provides an acknowledgement of Rasoumovsky's Russian heritage. The third movement minuet ("gracefully") is in the expected, contrasting, triple-beat pattern. However, it in an unexpected key: F major. Its coda moves directly into the finale. The fourth movement ("Very quickly") features furiously-paced counterpoint and further unusual harmonies.

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Johannes Brahms

German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-97) was the leading 19th-century figure of Classically-inspired Romanticism. Hans von Bülow once joked that Brahms' Symphony No. 1 was "Beethoven's Tenth." The son of a double-bass player, teenaged Brahms made money by playing piano in restaurants, taverns, and brothels. He was then championed as a young man by Robert Schumann, and after Schumann's death he had a long friendship with Clara Schumann. Brahms was very successful as a composer, but he had no comparable successes in his personal life. He died of liver or pancreatic cancer, without ever having gotten married. Brahms' chamber music includes his Sonata No. 2 in A major for Piano and Violin (performed on July 12), his Trio in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, and Horn (July 23), and his Viola (Clarinet) Sonata in F minor (August 2). His music always follows formal, structural plans, but he never sacrifices emotional content. His other works include symphonies, choral/vocal works (such as the German Requiem), piano music, and concertos (such as the Violin Concerto in D major). He also wrote regionally-inspired music, as well as character pieces.

Violin Concerto in D major (Op. 77, 1878)

Brahms dedicated this concerto to his close friend Joseph Joachim, who first performed it. The work is quite large in scale, especially the opening movement. The first movement ("Quickly, but not too much so") begins with a folk-like, triple-beat orchestral introduction that includes the initial statement of the work's main theme. The violin enters over subtly-held orchestral elements and also establishes additional thematic material. The development begins in an unexpected key: A minor. The solo violin cadenza after the recapitulation was contributed by Joachim. The second movement ("Slowly") is in F major and includes a notable oboe solo, but the contrasting middle section is then in F-sharp minor. (Neither key is very likely in a work in D major!) The third movement rondo-finale ("Joyfully fast, but not too lively") acknowledges Joachim's Hungarian origins. The concerto is an excellent example of Brahms' sweeping melodic and orchestrational abilities. However, it also clearly demonstrates the influence of Beethoven in its structure and harmonies, as well as in the acknowledgement of the regional origins of the person with whom the work is associated.

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