PROGRAMME
Sunday 16 March, 7.30pm St Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury
Robert Heard - Violin I
Elizabeth Golding - Violin II
Angela Swanson - Viola
Mike Jenkinson - Viola
Richard Jenkinson - Cello I
Katherine Jenkinson - Cello II
Richard Strauss - Prelude to Capriccio
Brahms - Sextet in B flat Op. 18 No. 1
Brahms - Sextet in G major Op. 36 No. 2
With the kind permission of the Churches Conservation Trust
Prelude to Capriccio - Richard Strauss
The Prelude to Capriccio for a sextet of strings is not only the overture to Richard Strauss’s final opera, but also the subject of the opening scene. Capriccio is Strauss’s opera about opera, dealing with the dichotomy of words versus music. The curtain rises and the string sextet is still heard as if coming from another room. On stage Flamand, its composer (who represents music) and the poet Olivier (who obviously represents words) are eager to see the Countess’s reaction to the piece. Richard Strauss called Capriccio a ‘conversation piece for music,’ an unconventional but fairly apt description.
The Munich premiere of Capriccio was in 1942 and the opera deals with an aesthetic question; what is of primary importance in opera, is it the music or the words? The music, which is so typically Strauss in that it is wonderfully elegant and unashamedly romantic, takes up the topic of conversation in a most imaginative way, enabling the piece to serve the drama or to be performed on its own.
Brahms’s two String Sextets
These works from 1859-60 and 1864-5 respectively-a period characterized by several commentators as the composer’s ‘first maturity’. While this judgment may well be somewhat patronising towards the earlier music, it nevertheless points to a central truth about the works of that time, that they embody many of the distinctive features of Brahms’s creative mission in a newly focused, refined and synthesized way, with influences assimilated and harnessed, an assured mastery of technique, and increased expressive definition and diversity.
Brahms had been involved with chamber music from the earliest stages of his commitment to composition, playing with his father’s colleagues in a private concert in 1843, which included Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Wind Op.16 and one of the Mozart piano quartets (it is not known which). In 1851 at the silver wedding of a well-to-do Hamburg merchant he performed two of his own chamber works (now lost): Lied-Duett for cello and piano and a Piano Trio. His friend around this time, Louise Japha, testified: ‘Beethoven and Bach were his chief Gods, he could not share my enthusiasm for Schumann’, and from reports of his later pupil, Gustav Jenner, we learn how important it was for the emerging composer to model his movements on those of Mozart and Beethoven.
During his years as court musician at Detmold he involved himself particularly with the music of Haydn and Mozart, writing his orchestral serenades; furthermore his enthusiasm for Schubert was growing, so that in 1863 he could claim ‘My love for Schubert is a very serious one, perhaps just because it is no fleeting fancy’.
When Franz Brendel proclaimed the emergence of The New German School led by Liszt in the summer of 1859, this forced Brahms to come to terms with his contemporary context and its relation to the heritage he so much valued.
He was convinced that Liszt represented a false direction: ‘The pestilence will grow and grow, and will make the asses’ ears of the general public and of our young composers longer and longer, inevitably spelling disaster’ he wrote to a friend; and he and some like-minded colleagues wrote a manifesto, couched naturally in more temperate terms but nevertheless just as firm in content, which was published in May 1860. Yet we should not see the First String Sextet op. 18 and the great flowering of chamber music composition which followed it simply as ripostes to Liszt’s symphonic poems and programme symphonies; altogether profounder issues were at stake. In any case, to view Brahms as an ‘absolute’ composer is essentially naive and takes little account of ways in which audiences listened at the time.
Sextet No.l in Bb major, Op.18 - Johannes Brahms
Allegro ma nan troppo; Andante, ma moderate; Scherzo: Allegro mollo; Rondo: Poco allegretto e grazios
Brahms started work on the Bb Sextet at the same time as finishing the Second Serenade op.16 and before he had finished the final version of the First Serenade op. 11. He sent the first movement of the Sextet to Clara Schumann in November 1859; Brahms’s friend, the composer Julius Otto Grimm, received the first two movements in December and in early 1860 also the scherzo. At that time Brahms was revisiting his First Serenade, resetting it for full orchestra, and so at last letting go of his earlier chamber conception for the work. In September 1860 Joseph Joachim received the whole of the Sextet, though the first three movements were already known to him.
The first movement originally began at bar 11, Brahms adding the opening 10 bars at a relatively late stage and at Joachim’s suggestion-as has recently been confirmed by the discovery of the original manuscript parts. This change brings into being a sonic parallel between the openings of the first and last movements, representing a structural enrichment of the whole. It also gives a statement-plus-enhanced-response shape to the first subject of the sonata form, setting in train a structural feature which is replicated in most of the other sections of the movement. The expansive lyricism of the movement is at its broadest in the second subject, which consists of four distinct melodies, each repeated in varied instrumentation; in this and in the mediant key opening of the subject, the effect of Brahms’s love of Schubert comes particularly to the fore. Beethovenian chamber-style dialogue conditions the beginning of the development, and this section is organised as two energy waves, the first culminating in a minor version of the second subject, the second in recapitulation, with the opening tune spread across three octaves.
The theme and five variations which constitute the second movement carry forward the idea of enhancement on repetition, the viola statement of the two halves of the theme being answered by the first violin above a full texture. The passionate and emphatic theme is accorded three figurative variations in the tonic minor which, following classical precedent, increase in animation. A break in this buildup of motion occurs for the flowing but sedate major version of the theme as variation 4; variation 5 is a musette, again in the major, before a return to the unadorned theme and a brief coda extending the cadence. Brahms arranged this movement for solo piano, presenting it to Clara Schumann on her birthday, 13 September i860, and giving the work a separate title: Thema mil Variationen von Johs Brahms. He used it as a recital piece with good reason, for the music is compelling as idiomatic and fine-grained piano writing
The brisk scherzo and trio inject a tone of Beethovenian vigour, with motivic brevity and accented syncopations characterizing the scherzo, and with upward tonal wrenches in the yet more ebullient trio. This movement too received a structurally enhancing later addition, in the shape of the coda, which returns to the trio material in a new climactic cadential thrust.
The classically-poised opening of the finale sets a relatively slow movement in train, with broad thematic areas and an extended rondo structure. The graceful self-contained melodies of the first and second subjects have audible affinities with the opening of the work and the scherzo respectively-not as variations or derivations so much, but rather as using similar figurative repertoires. The movement structure is treated schematically, with clear sections of differing character the central development treats the second subject in diminution, sequence and imitation, while the faster coda offers a dialogic perpetuum mobile of simpler purport. In this sense it does after all become clear that we have to do with Brahms’s ‘first maturity’: the integration of lyricism and drama was fully-fledged; differentiation between thematic presentation and treatment was however, destined to become less stark, as Brahms developed further his interest in motivic integration and expansion and in modulating more flexibly between different expressive characterizations.
The first performance of the Sextet was given on 20 October 1860 in Hanover, under the leadership of Joseph Joachim. Brahms responded to the invitation to attend: ‘I’m somewhat nervous about the long and sentimental piece’. Joachim brought the work to England in 1867 where it became a firm favourite, especially during the succeeding decade. Brahms himself gave the public premiere of the solo piano transcription of the slow movement on 20 February 1869 in Vienna. He also arranged the whole work for piano four hands, and took a lively interest when his friend Theodor Kirchner transcribed it for piano trio in 1883 along with the Second Sextet.
Sextet No.2 in G major, Op. – Brahms
Allegro non troppo; Scherzo Allegro non troppo; Poco adagio; Poco allegro
Brahms’s other string sextet in G major was written in his summer retreat of Baden-Lichtental, movements 1-3 in September 1864, and movement 4 in May 1865. But the seeds of the work go back to the mid-1850s, well before the First Sextet was conceived; it is almost, therefore, as if the musical details at issue were waiting to meet a texture and genre which would lead to their appropriate fulfilment. Brahms had written the theme of the slow movement by 7 February 1855, when he sent it to Clara Schumann, describing it as a ‘song or melody’; and the scherzo is a significantly expanded rewriting of a Gavotte in A minor for piano, written about the same time-Clara Schumann knew it in March 1855. Both these fragments of knowledge about the creative process behind the Sextet are of very considerable interest.
It is clear, for instance, that the extraordinarily distinctive and original opening theme of the Sextet, at once instrumentally idiomatic, modernist, pastoral and Schubertian, came into being as a schematic transformation of the theme of the slow movement, the rising fourths being altered to fifths, the diatonic to chromatic, counterpoint to ostinato, etc. Brahms constructs here an extended paragraph, mirroring the Schubertian deviation to the flat submediant in the first phrase with a turn to the mediant major towards its end. The paragraph is repeated in variation before the bridge introduces contrapuntal imitation. The second subject consists of a broad, sweeping melody followed by a more motivically-based passage with shorter phrases. It is this passage which can be related to Brahms’s claim in a letter to Josef Gansbacher that in the Sextet he had ‘said goodbye’ to his erstwhile fiancée, Agathe von Siebold, for Brahms uses a spelling device he had learnt from Schumann, the notes A-G-A-[T]H-E, A-D-E forming the basis of the thematic material.
The sonata-form scherzo adds new elaborations and continuations to the Gavotte, which then evolve into a fugal exposition as second subject-a radical structuring which makes additional and fresh connections with the Baroque. Brahms retains an ‘antique’ feel in this movement but within the context of a modem veiled intermezzo style peculiarly his own. The trio offers the distinct contrast of an ebullient presto giocoso, featuring another device with Baroque origins, the hemiola.
The slow movement is a theme with five variations and coda. Brahms again follows classical precedent in structuring the first four variations in terms of incremental increase in animation, and then breaking to a slower tempo and change of mode. Unlike in the corresponding movement in the First Sextet, however, Brahms here allows the calm, luxuriant major variation 5 to generate the coda, the ending acting at once as tonal clarification and expressive transfiguration. Maintaining the Baroque leanings of the work, Brahms features contrapuntal devices throughout the movement; variation 1 inverts the constituent lines of the theme, a version of the lower counterpoint becoming here the melody, and a diminution of the original melody becoming accompanimental figuration; variation 3 uses pervasive imitation across the six instruments, variation 4 extending this with new countersubjects; in variation 5 the counterpoint is essentially in paired voices.
The; finale continues both the radical originality of expression and the harnessing of Baroque traits so characteristic of the middle movements, contained within a straightforward sonata-form structure. The thematic material takes its beginnings from hints in the scherzo - the first subject here, for instance, being a transformation of the fugue subject there. The broadly swinging second subject is based throughout on sequences, and the development opens with a fugato, which returns in compressed and accelerated form as the coda.
It was thought until recently that the work had first been performed in Boston, Massachusetts, but Michael Musgrave has definitively established that the date of this performance is wrong by several years, and that the actual first performance was on 20 November 1866 in Zurich, Friedrich Hegar leading the ensemble.
INNOVATION CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
Robert Heard – Violin
Robert Heard was born in Ebbw Vale and brought up in Leicestershire, studying piano and violin and taking advantage of the county’s thriving youth music scene. He read music at Cambridge University, then studied violin with David Martin at the Royal Academy of Music. His first orchestral job was with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra where he remained for five years, followed by a three-year period in Belgium with Brussels Opera. He then joined the Philharmonia as Principal 2nd Violin, and also played in St Martin’s Chamber Ensemble, maintaining his relationship with the ensemble from 1989-98. In 1990 he was invited to join the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra by Sir Simon Rattle as Deputy Leader.
Robert has also appeared as guest leader with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia. In addition to his work with the CBSO Robert Heard also plays with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and gives regular chamber concerts with Pro-Musica and in the CBSO Centre Stage Series.
Recent Solo appearances have included Ravel’s Tzigane with the CBSO and Sakari Oramo in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Sally Beamish’s A Book of Seasons with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and a solo trio performance with Thomas Hampson and Thomas Ades as a Live radio 3 radio broadcast at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Promenade concerts.
Elizabeth Goldine – Violin
Elizabeth started the violin at the age of six and trained at the Yehudi Menuhin School and later at the Guildhall School of Music with David Takeno. She spent a few years playing with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra before moving to Birmingham.
She has played with the CBSO since 1993 and has also performed regularly with the Birmingham Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Brindley Quartet. Elizabeth is married and has two children, Alex (6) and Natasha (2).
Aneela Swanson – Viola
Angela studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and in the Netherlands with Nobuko Imai. She has been a member of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra since 1984.
Angela has performed with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and in many chamber music concerts around the country and abroad. Angela is a founder member of the Innovation Chamber Ensemble and has recorded with them and performed in venues across the country including London’s Wigmore Hall.
Mike Jenkinson – Viola
Mike studied with Roger Bigley and Yuko Inoue at the Royal Northern College of Music graduating in 1993. He pursued a freelance career working with orchestras across the north of England before accepting a position with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1996 where he is now Sub Principal Viola. In addition to the CBSO he regularly performs across the West Midlands with various chamber ensembles. In his spare time Mike enjoys spending time with his family and brewing and drinking his own beer!
Richard Jenkinson – Cello
Richard Jenkinson started to play the cello at the age of five and after winning a Scholarship from Derbyshire County Council studied with Florence Hooton until her sudden death in 1988. He continued his studies with William Pleeth and was awarded a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he studied with Raphael Wallfisch and William Pleeth. Whilst at the Guildhall he won all the cello and chamber music prizes and in 1994 after a performance of the Dvorak Concerto in the Barbican he was awarded the coveted Gold Medal. This led to a performance in Caracas with the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra.
In the autumn of 1994 Richard was awarded a top prize in the Vittorio Gui Chamber Music Competition in Florence, Italy and this led to him recording the Complete Sonatas and Variations by Martinu. During 1995 Richard used Scholarship awards from the Countess of Munster, Martin and Myra Hess Trusts to study with various teachers including Aldo Parrisot and Josef Fiegelshen in the USA.
In January 1995 Richard was appointed Principal cello with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and during his three years in Ireland performed the concertos of Boccherini, both Haydn, Lutoslawski and Vivaldi, hi 1998 he was appointed principal cello with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since has been guest principal with the Halle, Philharmonia and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
Richard gave his concerto debut at the age of 13 playing Haydn’s C major concerto with a local orchestra and since this time has played most of the popular concertos with orchestras including BBC Concert, CBSO and the Innovation Chamber Ensemble (a conductor-less group he has formed with other CBSO members). Future concerto performances include Elgar and Shostakovich no.1 in Coventry, Exeter and Leamington and Warwick. Recital performances have included the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Blackheath, CBSO Centre as well as in various music clubs around the country. Richard plays on a cello by G B Grancino of Milan circa 1692.
Katherine Jenkinson – Cello
As winner of the Maisie Lewis Competition and playing on the ‘Markevitch’ Stradivarius Cello (1709), Katherine gave her Wigmore Hall debut recital in March 2004. She received an ‘Allcard Award’ from The Worshipful Company of Musicians for 2002/3 and her solo activities were also supported by the Countess of Munster Music Scheme and the Musicians Benevolent Fund. Winning an award from the Dorothy Grinstead Memorial Fund she gave a recital at the Fairfield Halls in July 2004. She devotes much of her time to the performance of Chamber Music and is a member of the Rautio Piano Trio with whom she has performed over thirty concerts this year in festivals and music clubs throughout the UK. The trio is supported by the Tillett Trust, Worshipful Company of Musicians and MBF. In September 2005 they performed at the Wigmore Hall and gave a further concert there in March this year. Katherine is also a member of Iuventus String Quartet which performs regularly under the Munster Recital Scheme.
She devotes much of her time to the performance of Chamber Music and is a member of the Rautio Piano Trio with whom she has performed over thirty concerts this year in festivals and music clubs throughout the UK. The trio is supported by the Tillett Trust, Worshipful Company of Musicians and MBF. In September 2005 they performed at the Wigmore Hall and gave a further concert there in March this year. Katherine is also a member of luventus String Quartet which performs regularly under the Munster Recital
A scholar of Royal Academy of Music (1998-2003), Katherine studied with Colin Carr and David Strange, obtained a first class degree, the special award of Dip RAM and ten Academy prizes. She was selected to have “RAM Associate Studentship” for 2003/4
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Last Updated : 18/03/2008