Czech Chamber Music Society • Wihan Quartet

American composer and guitarist Bryce Dessner (*1976) has had four opportunities this season to present himself to the public as the composer-in-residence of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Dessner, who now lives between Paris and the Basque Country, got the inspiration for Circles while composing the music for the film The Two Popes (2019), starring Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio – the future Pope Francis who hails from Argentina. Dessner, who was also the film’s music producer, used traditional melodies from the South American continent in his soundtrack, in which he also employed the bandoneon, an instrument popularized by Ástor Piazzolla. In the film, the bandoneon was played by Julien Labro, a French virtuoso on this instrument. Dessner was completely blown away by his artistry, and so in 2021 he created Circles for Julien Labro and the Takács Quartet, in which the bandoneon can alternatively be replaced by an accordion. Dessner says that this piece is an expression of the creative process that moves forward but also returns and searches again before all the voices come together in a common rhythm and polyphony. “This theme of the individual versus the collective voice is something I have been exploring a lot in my work,” says the composer. He questions whether the voice of an individual carries more weight than the voice of a group, which is why he does not give too many detailed instructions in his score in order to encourage the performers to express themselves and find their own place in the whole; he also leaves room for the accordionist to improvise. In keeping with its title, the composition is structured in circles, just as life is full of new beginnings and returns.

In his music, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) brought about a significant stylistic change in several fields, including the composition of symphony, piano sonata, and string quartet, which grew in importance and became a personal and entirely unique expression of their composer. Beethoven’s first six quartets, Op. 18, still follow the models of Joseph Haydn and W. A. Mozart, while the three quartets of Op. 59, called Razumovsky Quartets, which were written between spring and autumn 1808, represent a creative leap that also imposed increasing technical demands on performers and on the receptiveness of the audience. The first quartet (in F major), represents a new world merely by its vastness; in the second one (in E minor), drama and solemnity are juxtaposed with expressions of joy. In the third quartet (in C major), Beethoven employed elements that he developed in his later works of this kind. Significant credit must also be given to the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776–1830) and the quartet of string players which he established in 1804. Schuppanzigh and his ensemble first performed in private homes, later in the small hall of the “Zum Römischen Kaiser” Hotel in subscription series. In 1808, the Russian ambassador to Vienna, Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky (after 1815, Prince), engaged Schuppanzigh Quartet as his household string quartet in his new Viennese palace on Landstraße. This allowed Beethoven to compose for a permanent professional ensemble and specific musicians whose qualities he knew, although in the early years the players changed several times. In 1804, Beethoven had already arranged the first of the quartets from his future Opus 59, but because of his work on the opera Leonore (Fidelio) did not return to the Razumovsky Quartets until two years later, completing them in November 1806. Although it is not documented whether they were commissioned by Count Razumovsky, the use of Russian melodies in the first two quartets would suggest so. At the beginning of 1807, the set of three quartets was performed for the first time, probably in the Lobkowitz Palace, because the Razumovsky Palace had not yet been completed. “Three new, very long and difficult violin quartets by Beethoven, dedicated to the Russian ambassador Count Razumovsky, also attract the attention of all connoisseurs. They are deep in conception and marvelously worked out, but not universally comprehensible, with the possible exception of the third one, in C major, which by virtue of its individuality, melody, and harmonic power must win over every educated friend of music.”

The String Quartet No. 3 in C major has two peculiar features. The first is the slow introduction before the emergence of the main theme of the first movement, in which the individual voices seem to be searching for a common key. The second surprising element is the fugal treatment of the final movement and the long coda, in which the work culminates and which also forms a crystal clear conclusion of the three quartets. The main theme of the first movement is introduced by the first violin with a motif which is developed further in the movement, the other instruments joining in energetically after a moment of hesitation. The balladic mood of the second movement is accompanied by pizzicato played on cello. After the minuet with the trio, the final movement, with the above-mentioned fugato, assigns a prominent role to viola, while the large-scale coda brilliantly ends in the home key of C major.

In the time of Beethoven and Franz Schubert (1797–1828), the string quartet was a popular genre in parlor music and domestic settings. Quartets were played in almost every circle of friends and family and were in great demand, including, for example, arrangements of symphonic works or operatic arias for string quartet. On the other hand, as already mentioned, the performance of quartet music was becoming professionalized, and Schubert welcomed the existence of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, for which he wrote String Quartet in A minor (D 804) in 1824, which marked a turning point in his approach to composing for this chamber ensemble. This is also evidenced by Schubert’s letter to his brother Ferdinand from July of that year from the Slovak town of Želiezovce, where Schubert was working as a home tutor for the Esterházy family. The composer expressed his pleasure that his brother was still engaged in quartet playing, “…it would be better for you to play quartets other than mine, for there is nothing to them, except perhaps that you like them – you who like everything of mine.” Beginning with the String Quartet in A minor, Schubert’s last three quartets – after the 1916 fragment and the unfinished string quartet from 1820 presented as Quartettsatz (Quartet Movement) (D 703) – represent a new stage in his work with thematic material and the conceptual framework. In String Quartet in D minor (D 810) from 1824, Schubert used the song “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (Death and the Maiden), which he had composed in 1817 to a poem by Matthias Claudius. This is not the only time when Schubert employed his own song in chamber music; he had already done so in 1819 in his Piano Quintet “Trout” (D 667), at that time allegedly at someone else’s suggestion. The use of the song “Death and the Maiden” in the second movement of the String Quartet in D minor was Schubert’s own choice. The song is a dialogue between Death, who tempts and comforts, and the girl, who resists. The content of the song has been interpreted in various ways, such as a representation of the girl’s fear of her first erotic experience. Death’s insistence with a calm, static melody with chordal accompaniment provided Schubert with ideal material for the variation movement. The two outer movements maintain the tension and dramatic atmosphere with surprising dissonances, while only the Scherzo tries to avoid the sorrow, but it too is overwhelmed by a serious tone. The “Death and the Maiden” Quartet was to be included in the concert series of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, but it was never performed by this ensemble. It was first heard on 1 February 1826 in a private home of Joseph Barth, born in Lipno in South Bohemia, a tenor at the Hofmusikkapelle at Hofburg Chapel in Vienna, whose apartment was in the Schwarzenberg Palace. Another private performance of the quartet probably took place soon afterwards in the apartment of Schubert’s friend, composer and conductor Franz Lachner.