Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Piano Quartet in B Minor, Opus 3
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Born February 3, 1809, Hamburg
Died November 4, 1847, Leipzig

Probably no composer in history has been born into a more fortunate situation than Felix Mendelssohn. Blessed with incredible gifts, he was also the son of cultivated and wealthy parents who encouraged their children‘s talents and found them the best possible tutors. The Mendelssohn children received instruction in – among other things – music, literature, arithmetic, sketching, landscape painting, foreign languages, swimming, gymnastics and horseback riding. Two of the four children – Felix and his sister Fanny, four years his senior – showed unusual musical talent, and by the time the boy was 11, both were composing.

There could be no thought early in the nineteenth century of allowing a girl to embark on a career as a composer, but Felix‘s parents were nearly as reluctant to let the boy follow that career, with its doubtful prospects of success. The apprehensive family looked for an expert opinion: in 1825 Felix‘s father took him to Paris, where they sought out the aged Cherubini and asked him to hear a piece recently composed by 16-year-old Felix. The crusty Cherubini listened, then turned to Mendelssohn‘s father and said: “Your boy is talented. He will do well. He has already done well.” The young man‘s career was launched.

The music played for Cherubini was the Piano Quartet in B Minor, which the boy had completed several months earlier, in January 1825. Young Mendelssohn was a virtuoso pianist, and it should be no surprise that this quartet gives the piano so dominant a role – it introduces many of the themes and has a part of unusual brilliance. Piano alone opens the Allegro molto first movement, laying out the ominous opening idea over quiet accompaniment; the strings quickly pick this theme up and stamp it out over powerful piano runs. The secondary material in this lengthy movement is somewhat calmer; Mendelssohn changes tempo a number of times and finally rounds the movement off with a Più allegro coda.

The piano introduces the chromatic main theme of the Andante, which – though it features some florid writing for the violin – remains lyric throughout. The most brilliant movement is the scherzo, marked Allegro molto. Its quick 3/8 meter drives the music forward, and Mendelssohn keeps the level intense through this exciting movement – the steady pulse of pounding sixteenth-notes continues virtually unbroken to the final measures. The finale, Allegro vivace, is long and animated. Once again, Mendelssohn writes a terrific part for the piano: it introduces the main idea, and its swirling triplets drive the music to a colorful close.

Mendelssohn dedicated this quartet to the aging Goethe. He had met the poet four years earlier, when he was 12 and Goethe 72, and – curiously enough – the two had become fast friends. The boy had been impressed by the old man‘s kindness, while the poet had been charmed by the young composer‘s enthusiasm and intelligence. It was a friendship that would remain important to both until Goethe‘s death in 1832, and the boy acknowledged it with the dedication when he published this quartet as his Opus 3.

Trio in D Minor for Piano, Violin and Cello, Opus 11
FANNY MENDELSSOHN
Born November 14, 1805, Hamburg
Died May 14, 1847, Berlin

There is general agreement that the two most prodigiously-talented young composers in history were Mozart and Mendelssohn, and there were many parallels between the two. Both were born into families perfectly suited to nurture their talents. Both showed phenomenal talent as small boys. Both began composing as boys, and from the earliest age both had their music performed by professional musicians. Both became virtuoso keyboard performers. In addition, both played the violin and viola and took part in chamber music performances. Both composed voluminously in every genre. Both drove themselves very hard. Both died in their thirties.

But there is uncanny further parallel between the two: both Mozart and Mendelssohn had an older sister whose musical talents rivaled their own. Mozart‘s sister Maria Anna, five years his senior, performed as a child with her brother in all the capitals of Europe, where they were put on display by their ambitious father. She also composed (none of her music has survived), but a serious career in music was out of the question for a woman at the end of the eighteenth century: she married in 1784 and grew estranged from her brother – they did not see each other over the final years of his life.

Fanny Mendelssohn, four years older than Felix, had a much closer relation with her brother. Like Felix, she began composing at an early age, and some of her songs were published under her brother‘s name. She too was discouraged from making a career in music, and at age 24 she married the painter Wilhelm Hensel and had a son. But music remained a passion for her, and she composed an orchestral overture, chamber music, works for piano and a great deal of vocal music (by the end of her life several of these works had been published). Fanny remained extremely close to her brother throughout her life, and her sudden death from a stroke at age 41 so devastated Felix that he collapsed on hearing the news and never really recovered – his own death six months later at age 38 was triggered at least in part by that shock.

The date of composition of Fanny‘s Piano Trio in D Minor is unknown; it was published by her family in 1850, three years after her death, and assigned the opus number 11 at that time. The Trio features an extremely active piano part: the piano introduces many of the themes, frequently dominates textures and requires a virtuoso player. The strings, by contrast, have a more melodic role: sometimes they introduce themes, but often they take up material already stated by the piano. The Trio also has an unusual structure: two fast outer movements frame two slow central movements.

The trio gets off to a dramatic beginning with a movement marked Allegro molto vivace, a marking frequently employed by Fanny‘s brother Felix. Strings two octaves apart sing the main theme, but the striking thing here is the racing piano accompaniment – this opening feels tense, even at a quiet dynamic. The cello has the second subject, marked cantabile, over tremolandi accompaniment from the piano. This is a long movement, with a very energetic development section, and it drives to a grand close.

Piano leads the way in the ternary-form Andante espressivo, stating the espressivo main theme before the strings join it. A more active central episode, full of staccato writing, leads to a return of the opening material, and the music continues without pause into the third movement. Fanny stresses the lyric nature of this movement by naming it Lied. Once again the piano leads the way, and its opening theme forms the basis of the entire movement. The finale begins with a long piano solo marked ad libitum: the pianist has the freedom here to shape the tempo as desired. Eventually the strings enter, and the tempo accelerates to the expected quick pace, but Fanny quickly springs a surprise: she goes back to the opening tempo, and these two different paces will alternate throughout the movement. Along the way, alert listeners will recognize an occasional recall of material heard earlier. The music drives to a grand climax as the strings, once again set two octaves apart, soar high above the tremolandi piano, and the trio powers its way to a resounding close in D major.

String Quintet in B-flat Major, Opus 87
FELIX MENDELSSOHN

Mendelssohn was one of the most gifted composers of all time, and while it has become fashionable in some circles to dismiss his music as superficial and glib, it should be noted that he drove himself mercilessly – not just as composer, but also as conductor, performer, administrator and educator (he was also a talented painter). His death at 38 was at least partially the result of exhaustion that inevitably resulted from the demands he placed on himself. Mendelssohn was conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1835 until 1846 and also served as director of the Leipzig Conservatory. Such demands kept him from composing much during the concert season and academic year. He became in effect a “summer” composer: one who wrote during those sunny, happy months when he could take his wife and children away from Leipzig and relax.

The Quintet in B-flat Major is one of these summer compositions – Mendelssohn finished the score in Frankfurt on July 8, 1845, just a few months after the premiere of his Violin Concerto. One of the most distinctive things about the Quintet, particularly in its outer movements, is its concertante first violin part: writing so brilliant demands a virtuoso performer. The very beginning of the Allegro vivace has reminded many of the beginning of Mendelssohn‘s own Octet: over rustling accompaniment, the first violin leaps upward with a melody that will surge and fall back through two octaves. The falling, lyric second subject is introduced by the first viola, and the energetic development flies along over omnipresent triplets. The movement concludes with a majestic coda built on both main ideas.

The brief Andante scherzando is not the quicksilvery fast movement one might expect from Mendelssohn at this point but a piquant little dance. Mendelssohn varies the texture by combining bowed and pizzicato passages and surprising the listener with uneven rhythms and shifting harmonies before the movement concludes nicely with all strings pizzicato.

The marking for the third movement – Adagio e lento – seems redundant, for both terms mean “slow.” The movement is built on its grieving main theme, heard immediately in the first violin. The accompaniment is unusually busy, and the huge climax to this movement – with buzzing tremolos – seems more orchestral than chamber-like in its sonority (in fact, Toscanini once performed this movement with the entire string section of the NBC Symphony). Energy is the keynote of the finale, marked Allegro molto vivace. This movement returns somewhat to the manner of the opening movement, with the first violin part particularly brilliant, though Mendelssohn varies the pulse here by sharply syncopating the secondary theme group. The development is spirited, the coda exuberant – as befits music written by a man on holiday.