LCCMF 9.21 — OurConcerts.live

ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK (b. 1941): Adagio for Strings (2002)

Parker Quartet
Daniel Chong, violin
Ken Hamao, violin
Jessica Bodner, viola
Kee Kim, cello

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828): String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 (1828)
Allegro ma non troppo
Adagio
Scherzo. Presto – Trio. Andante sostenuto
Allegretto

Parker Quartet
Marcy Rosen, cello

ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK: Adagio for Strings (2002)

Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941) is a distinguished voice in American music. He holds the traditional degrees of a master composer, including a BM and MM from the Manhattan School of Music and doctorate from Michigan State. However, Hailstork holds an educational distinction even more prestigious than those: he is member of the elite cadre of American composers to have studied with famed teacher Nadia Boulanger.

Hailstork’s Adagio for Strings calls to mind not just the Barber work of the same name, but also the Lyric for Strings composed by another famed Boulanger pupil, George Walker. All three of these adagios originated in the first string quartets of their respective composers, all as second movements. Hailstork pays direct homage to this adagio tradition by writing in a soaring, lyrical, contrapuntal style. That said, the opening of Hailstork’s glorious five-minute adagio is perhaps a bit more angular and dissonant than you would expect. The jagged attitude of its opening bars makes this music’s eventual turn to unrestrained consonance all the sweeter.

Hailstork’s program note for his first string quartet is relevant to the Adagio’s listeners. He writes, “My String Quartet No. 1 (2002) was written for and dedicated to the Virginia Chamber Players. All the material in this work was derived from the melody of the second movement (Adagio). That movement is an elaborated transcription of a song I wrote for the choir at the unitarian Church of Norfolk where I serve as Choir Director.” As listeners to Hailstork’s Adagio, we are invited to indulge in the beauty of a Hailstork song that served as the impetus for an entire quartet.

Hailstork’s Adagio is a remarkable accomplishment. It is able to stand on its own, and yet it also contributes to both Hailstork’s first quartet as a whole and the distinctly American tradition of sublime adagios for strings.

FRANZ SCHUBERT String Quintet in C major, D. 956 (1828)

One of the most prolific composers in history, Franz Schubert began work on his Cello Quintet in the final weeks of his life, during which time he also composed his three last piano sonatas (D. 958-60), as well as several sacred works for symphonic forces, chorus, and soloists. Purchased posthumously from his brother Ferdinand by the publishing house of Diabelli in 1829, Schubert’s autographed manuscript remained shelved until the first public performance in 1850 by Josef Hellmesberger’s quartet and cellist Josef Stransky, at the Musikverein in Vienna.

The first of four movements begins in C major, and at once strikes one with its vitality, strength, and uncanny lucidity for a composer so very nearly on his deathbed. The principal thematic material is vigorous and spontaneous, with subtle use of repeated tones in inner voices. Schubert’s most natural mode of expression, the lied or “art song,” is manifested by the two celli during the second principal theme in E-flat major. Indeed, most of the movement involves development of this second theme—it is an undercurrent of expressive melody that later emerges in its final form, an arrestingly beautiful duet for viola and first cello.

The second movement begins in E major with a serene remembrance of the first movement, as the second cello reprises its plucked ostinato. A soft yet urgent accompaniment echoed by delicate, bird-like refrains in the first violin reminds the modern listener of 20th-century composer Olivier Messiaen. The abrupt shift to F minor, signaling the arrival of the second of three sections, is terrifyingly virtuosic. Schubert’s formidable technique births an impenetrably dense wall of sound. As the movement returns to E major and draws to a close, the two opposing sentiments are reconciled in a brief four-bar coda. The third movement begins again in C major with a sound completely alien to music of the 18th-century: “quintal” harmony (chords built on the musical interval of a fifth), a sonority more closely identified with the music of 20th/21st-century composer Gyorgy Ligeti. One might consider that the resonant potential of two celli prompted Schubert to choose the opening sonority. Displacement of the primary beat propels the scherzo forward with astonishing intensity. Moving again in radical key structure, the second theme (another lieder-inspired melody, full of majesty and solitude) in D-flat major exploits the three lower voices to great effect. A return to the opening material catapults the five instruments raucously toward the movement’s end.

In the fourth and final movement, Schubert returns to the pedal point of repeated tones as an anchoring device for his harmony. He cleverly disguises the key of C major by beginning in C minor, and continues with a lyrical second theme in G major. What follows is development of mainly primary thematic material that adroitly moves through extremely remote key areas, arriving at a reprise in C major of both first and second themes. In a series of sequential transformations, Schubert returns to the opening sonority of C minor for a brisk coda marked “Piu Allegro,” concluding ambiguously in a minor-inflected C major. It would be an incredible feat for any composer to create a single work containing four movements of singularly memorable and expansive melodies, but given Schubert’s abilities as a gifted and prolific lieder composer, it is no surprise. One may consider that this piece may well be his final statement of song played by a quintet of strings.