CCM
ABOUT TONIGHTâS PROGRAM NOVEMBER 10, 2015
SCHUBERT: STRING QUARTET IN C MINOR, D. 703 âQUARTETTSATZâ Being a composer in the post-ÂBeethoven era could not have been easy. After all, this towering giant singleÂhandedly revolutionized western music so profoundly that to many it seemed as though littleâšcould be said that he hadnât said already. It was Beethovenâs Quartet, Op. 131 that Schubert requested to hear on his deathbed, and it is said that upon listening to it for the very first time his response was, âAfter this, what is left for us to write?â I find this humility inspiring and fascinating coming from a composer whose prolific output was not only tremendously abundant but, more importantly, entirely original. Schubertâs admiration of Beethoven was indisputable. Yet it is the link to Mozart in Schubertâs work to which my attention has always been drawn. They both possessed an unparalleled mastery of pacing. The subtlety in which they manipulated the flow of time is one of the most difficult challenges a performer faces when interpreting their works. No one can match these two geniuses in the effortlessness in which they produced the most divine tunes, the complexity and intricacy of which are only surpassed by their organic simplicity. And with no others as with these two forever young composers do we wonder what riches they could have bestowed upon us had they lived past their tragically short days. It is not only Schubertâs premature death that raises a question about his lost potential. Numerous works of his were left unfinished during his lifetime. Two striking examples are the UnfinishedâšSymphony, and the Quartet in C Minor, known as the Quartet Movement - Quartettsatz, having only one complete movement out of the traditional four. Quartettsatz, unnoticed for some time even after the composerâs death, is now an inseparable part of the quartet literature thanks, to a large degree, to Johannes Brahms who obtained the manuscript, arranged