A Fresh Take on Beethoven

Jessie Montgomery Strum for strings

Strum is the culminating result of several versions of a string quintet I wrote in 2006. It was originally written for the Providence String Quartet and guests of Community MusicWorks Players, then arranged for string quartet in 2008 with several small revisions. In 2012 the piece underwent its final revisions with a rewrite of both the introduction and the ending for the Catalyst Quartet in a performance celebrating the 15th annual Sphinx Competition.

Originally conceived for the formation of a cello quintet, the voicing is often spread wide over the ensemble, giving the music an expansive quality of sound. Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinati that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.

© Jessie Montgomery

Coleridge-Taylor (arr. George Morton) 4 African Dances

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was born in London, the product of a mixed race marriage, his father, a doctor, being an African from Sierra Leone and his mother a white Englishwoman. His father returned to Africa when he was a small boy and he was brought up by his mother in Croydon. His musical talent showed itself early and he was admitted to study the violin at the Royal College of Music where he eventually concentrated on composition when his gifts were ascertained. His teacher was the renowned composer, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. He and his compositions gained considerable fame during his lifetime. His oratorio Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast for a time became as popular as Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. He made several visits to the United States because of his interest in American Negro cultural life. His fame was such that on one visit he was invited to the White House by Theodore Roosevelt.

The Four African Dances were composed in 1904 for his friend the violinist John Saunders, with whom he often performed. The Dances were clearly intended as a vehicle for the violin and exploit both its lyrical and virtuosic qualities. Surprisingly, the music does not sound at all African but rather is written in the traditional tonal and melodic language of the late Romantic era. However, Coleridge-Taylor did note, without giving any specifics, in the manuscript that the second dance was based on a traditional African folk melody.

© Edition Silvertrust

Mozart Symphony No. 31, ‘Paris’

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

Symphony No. 31 in D, K297 Paris

I           Allegro assai
II          Andante
III         Allegro

In March 1778 Mozart visited Paris for the third time in his life. On his arrival he found that he was no longer received with open arms. The reason was that he had evidently ceased to be the delightful infant prodigy of the past. He began to despise the Parisians who had formerly adored him, and he was shocked by the futile quarrels between the supporters of the two composers Gluck and Puccini. Having visited Mannheim on his way to Paris, where he had heard the excellent resident orchestra, he found the standard of musicianship in Paris deplorable. More serious was the fact that his former patrons had lost interest in him, and that his hopes of securing a permanent employment in the city were unfounded. But the worst blow was that his mother, who had always been a great comfort to him, was no longer able to give him the support he needed. She fell ill soon after his arrival in Paris and died there on 3 July 1778.

Mozart made desperate efforts to overcome these adversities, though Baron Grimm, who had been his principal protector in the past, did not think so: “He is too naïve, too inactive, too easily taken in, too little concerned with working for the future,” he wrote to Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang’s father.

How wrong Grimm was (at least as regards Mozart’s efforts to achieve success) was proved by the music of the Paris Symphony. The work was deliberately conceived to have the elegant style and the kind of brilliance which were all the rage in Paris at the time. The Allegro movements were, in fact, very well received at the first performance on 12 June 1778, but the gentle Andante (originally Andantino) was not appreciated. In order to show how eager he was to please, Mozart composed another Andante for a performance of the same work two months later. He could not have done more. The original Andante is played in this concert.

© Stefan de Haan

Beethoven Violin Concerto

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61

I           Allegro ma non troppo
II          Larghetto
III         Rondo: allegro

Beethoven wrote his Violin Concerto in 1806, and a year later arranged it for piano and orchestra, following a commission from Franz Clement, Director and First Violin of the Theater an der Wien. However, the relationship between Clement and Beethoven was not a happy one, particularly when the violinist chose to insert his own virtuosic showpieces between the movements of Beethoven’s work at its first performance!

This concerto is one of Beethoven’s most serene works, written at a time of relative personal happiness for its composer. Beethoven’s relationships with his friends, both male and female, were always tempestuous, but at this time he was in love with Therese von Brunswick, a young widow, and he felt that he might at last have found someone he could marry and live with happily (in the event it did not come to this).

The work is scored for a classical orchestra, including trumpets and timpani, but no trombones and only one flute. It is the timpani that opens the first movement, with five quiet notes – a rhythmic pattern that is to assume increasing importance throughout the movement. They herald a lovely melody that sets the tone for the whole of this expansive Allegro ma non troppo – lasting nearly 30 minutes. Another featured instrument in the orchestra is the bassoon (one of Beethoven’s favourites), which has a lovely duet with the soloist in the final section of this movement.

The Larghetto middle movement is also predominantly gentle in atmosphere, with some notable writing for the woodwind in duet with the soloist. The movement takes the form of a theme with variations, in either G minor or major – significantly, Beethoven chooses the key of G rather than the more obvious A for this movement, preferring the darker colours this gives to the orchestral sound. After two such movements the finale necessarily provides much contrast, being a rumbustuous dance with a rustic feel, bringing to mind the Pastoral Symphony that Beethoven completed a year later in 1808. The first bassoon again has a prominent role, and the orchestra and soloist end up as near equals – although the soloist always retains the more joyous ornamentation in its melodic writing.

© Ian Lush