“The Return of the Miró” Concerts — Mozart, Mendelssohn and Dvořák

(Quotes in this article are from Jeff O’Kelly’s notes in the OICMF Festival brochure, unless otherwise noted.)

The Miró Quartet performs some of the more somber choices in this year’s Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (OICMF) Program tonight and tomorrow evening, as well as the beloved “American” Quartet by Dvořák, portraying the “heart” of American folk music, and composed during his stay in a small American town in the Midwest.

The Miró’s musicians — Daniel Ching on violin, Tereza Stanislav on violin (playing for the Quartet’s Sandy Yamamoto, who is expecting her second child), John Largess playing viola and Joshua Gindele playing cello – are joined in the Mozart Quintet for 2 Violins, 2 Violas and Cello in G minor, K. 516 by Aloysia Friedmann playing the second viola of the piece.

The Mozart Quintet in G minor, is  a “profoundly moving masterpiece,” which suggests that “we hear Mozart’s most inner voice speaking as opposed to Mozart writing music which he knew would please his patrons and audiences:

“First, the quintets were not written in response to a commission although the composer had them engraved and attempted to market them himself.  Second, and rather unusually for Mozart, musical sketches are extant which demonstrate the care and consideration he gave to working out the thematic material of the quintets.

“Simply listening to these works though, is enough to alert most listeners to their special status. The G minor quintet is almost unique among Mozart’s large output for its dark character ranging from gentle melancholy through despair and tragedy, though not without some measure of relief in its finale.”

In keeping with the celebration of Felix Mendelssohn’s birthday, the Quartet next performs his String Quartet in F minor, Op. 80.

“Prodigiously talented and raised in a privileged and loving home, it seems unnatural to associate the genial Mendelssohn with darker emotions, but the F minor string quartet — written only a few months before his death — inhabits a very dark world indeed.

“In May of 1847 the composer’s beloved sister Fanny (herself an accomplished musician) died. This seems to be the event which precipitated the quartet’s composition although the composer, already plagued by ill-health, may have had premonitions of his own impending death. Commentators on the quartet have often spoken of it as “tragic,” but “angry” seems nearer the mark.

“Perhaps we hear Mendelssohn raging against fate in this, his last major composition. “

The piece opens with music characterized by  both a “demonic intensity and drive,” alternating with a “more lyrical A-flat Major second theme,” before coming to “a breathless close.”

The second movement contains “delicious syncopations developed with an obsessive bass-line of uncertain tonality until the violins enter with the melody.”

The Adagio movement has two main themes heard first in major keys, “colored with frequent tinges of minor key modality.”  Despite being in a major key, this movement has “a definite air of melancholy, its somber nature emphasized by the violins playing mostly in their middle and lower registers.”

“Forward momentum returns in the finale,” with the first theme’s “syncopation providing rhythmic impetus” to development of “a new, more lyrical theme,” preceding the 1^st violin’s “descant soaring above an abbreviated statement of the main theme.

“The 1st violin’s triplet descant drags the other instruments briefly into step with it and triplets dominate the rush to the movement’s end, so hasty as to suggest that Mendelssohn knew that his own time was running out.”

Following the concert intermission, OICMF audiences will hear Anton Dvořák’s  “American” String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 (B. 179), which provides a change in tone from the somber qualities of the Mozart and Mendelssohn compositions.

“The circumstances of the American Quartet’s composition are well known. In 1892 Dvořák accepted the invitation of philanthropist Mrs. Jeannette Thurber to become the director of the National Conservatoire [sic] of Music which she had founded in New York several years earlier.

“Despite his lack of administrative experience, the composer accepted, although he only remained in the post for two years, at the end of which he chose not to renew his contract and returned to Europe. During his American sojourn he spent the summers of 1893 and 1894 in Spillville — a small village (its current population is about 500) in the northeast corner of Iowa. Spillville was settled by Bohemians and here Dvořák felt more at ease than in New York. He could converse daily in his native language and the rural setting must have appealed to his memories of childhood.

The quartet was composed in the summer of 1894 and received its first tryout in a purely domestic setting with a quartet consisting of — according to some reports — Dvořák and his children.

“At the time of its composition, American “serious” music was beginning to  suffer from an identity crisis. Some composers wished to adhere strictly to European models and styles. Others advocated the adoption of African-American or Native American elements.

“Dvořák encouraged the latter course … . he felt that composers should study and absorb their chosen source-music sufficiently in depth for its characteristics to become a natural mode of expression. In fact, this was precisely how Dvořák had incorporated elements of
Bohemian folk music in his own compositions.

“As we might expect then, the American Quartet does not include any “real” American tunes, [but] many of the quartet’s main themes are based on the pentatonic scale. … [which] in their various forms play an important part in folk music of many cultures from all over the world, so this quartet might also be called the “Folk” Quartet.

“The quartet’s lively rhythms, lucid textures and memorable, engaging melodies have (justly) made it one of Dvořák’s most popular works.”

The Miró Quartet  on Tuesday, Aug. 25 is sponsored by Sallie Bell; the reception is provided by Christina Chandler and James Connell; the Pre-Concert Talk by John Largess at 6:30 p.m., is sponsored by Margaret and John Greever.

The second “Return of the Miró” concert, on  Wednesday, Aug. 26, is sponsored by Robert Lundeen; the sponsors of the reception are Heidi and Larry Lindberg. The post-concert talk is sponsored by Mary and Alan Morgan.

Tickets for all OICMF events continue to be available through waiting lists, which are re-established two to three hours prior to each concert. “Though ticket-seekers may still be disappointed, we have very productive wait lists,” says OICMF Executive Director Victoria Parker.” Call 376-2281.