by Andrew Gillett | 5 Oct 2022 | blog
It was difficult to keep a tab on Boccherini. At closing time he would already have travelled to another country, avidly seeking his next musical employment. Born in Lucca, Italy, in 1743, he started playing the cello aged five, initially taught by his father. He was sent to study in Rome when he was thirteen. Father and son travelled to Vienna in 1757 to play in the Burgtheater orchestra. He subsequently moved to Spain, in the employment of royalty, where his career really took off. Fashion has certainly changed since Boccherini’s time. What a fantastic outfit he is wearing! This painting records very accurately, too, the bow and cello of the period and the method of playing it – the bow hold, left hand position and the way the cello is supported by the legs rather than with the aid of a spike in the base of the cello resting on the floor, as is the way with modern cello playing. Op 2 No 1, in our current concert series, is believed to be Boccherini’s first published quartet (1761), and as such it is probably one of the first string quartets ever written, contemporaneous with Haydn’s first quartet works. This title page is a veritable treasure trove of information. The meaning of symphonie/symphony has changed since Boccherini’s time. He used it in the sense of people playing together rather than the subsequent transition of the meaning to imply something more large scale and orchestral. Then he says ‘O sia quartetti’. This suggests a massive shift into new territory – where the four instruments together were the new symphony – the...
by Andrew Gillett | 5 Oct 2022 | blog
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827), so fond of walks in woods and in the countryside, must have been in his element in the extensive gardens of his patron Count Andrey Razumovsky (1752 – 1836), the Russian ambassador in Vienna. Extensive is an understatement. The Count’s residence and gardens were conceived on a grand scale to impress. The mannered, ‘artificial’ style of French gardens that had been popular was given short shrift. English garden design was chosen instead, showcasing nature through irregular, secluded paths and viewpoints onto magnificent natural vistas. One can easily imagine Beethoven’s 6th (‘Pastoral’) symphony – dedicated to Count Razumovsky – as the soundtrack to a tour around the gardens. Razumovsky was an art collector and played the violin. He also played the torban, a Ukrainian traditional instrument – with good reason; he was born into Ukrainian aristocracy and clearly valued his Ukrainian heritage. Without doubt, his artistic interests were bound up with his diplomatic role. Conveying an impression of an acute awareness of pan-European culture was part of his diplomatic mission. His enthusiasm for music extended to employing an excellent string quartet led by Ignaz Shuppanzigh – a good friend of Beethoven – as part of his numerous employees. Razumovsky even provided them with pensions on their retirement. The Schuppanzigh Quartet holds an important place in the history of chamber music. These were the first musicians in Europe whose careers existed around chamber music rather than orchestral or solo playing. They also premiered many important new works, including the three Op 59 quartets that Razumovsky commissioned Beethoven to write. All of Beethoven’s ‘Razumovsky’ quartets include...
by Andrew Gillett | 3 Oct 2022 | blog
We live in a troubled world and when we are faced with such an uncertain future, it is good to have a song that lifts the spirits. Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, this fabulous song is as relevant today as when it was written in 1965. Bacharach studied composition with Darius Milhaud, one of the composers in the group known as ‘Les Six’. Milhaud is the dedicatee of Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet (1924), which is in our forthcoming concert programme. Milhaud and Schulhoff were exact contemporaries and kindred spirits in the way they incorporated jazz and traditional music into their compositions. We are excited to be including Schulhoff’s music in this programme. It is provocative, even subversive music, and the string writing is superb. Schulhoff wrote in 1919: “Music should first and foremost produce physical pleasures, yes, even ecstasies. Music is never philosophy, it arises from an ecstatic condition, finding its expression through rhythmical movement”. He was a very keen dancer, often dancing for many hours in nightclubs. He was also a brilliant pianist who had a penchant for ragtime and jazz, both of which are embedded in much of his music. From the outset of the Five Pieces it is clear that dance is central to the work. A Viennese waltz is at play, but not as we know it in waltzes by Johann Strauss and others, but in a disjointed, somewhat grotesque way that somehow conveys the spirit and energy of the waltz and yet…..a waltz is and always has been in three time whereas Schulhoff here contrives the waltz feel...
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