Program Notes
By Kurt Baldwin
Antonin Dvořák: (1841-1904): Quartet in E-flat Major, Op.51 “Slavonic
Antonin Dvořák’s early career consisted of a steady diet of orchestral playing as both a violinist and violist, teaching positions wherever possible, and a constant outpouring of quality compositions including symphonies, oratorios, concertos, chamber music and operas. By 1877, Dvořák had gained the attention and friendship of Johannes Brahms, who facilitated an important commission by his publisher Simrock. The success of that commission, which turned out to be Dvořák’s famous first set of Slavonic Dances, Op.46 in 1878 (inspired by Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, from 1869), catapulted Dvořák to a level of international fame shared by only a handful of composers. Dvořák derived his inspiration of the forms, rhythms, and melodic and harmonic characters of his Slavonic Dances from the music his Bohemian homeland, creating music that was simultaneously fresh and new, and very much his own, but also with a nationalistic quality that gave the music a specific identity, as effective as any music ever written.
It was that fetching effectiveness of the Slavonic Dances that brought the Florentine Quartet to Dvořák doorstep in 1878 with a commissioning request for a new string quartet in the “Slavic style”. Dvořák began writing the new quartet on Christmas day, and, due multiple projects going simultaneously, finished three months later, in 1879. The resulting work, the Quartet in E-flat Major, Op.51, would turn out to mark the beginning of Dvorak’s mature style of composition, and produce a string quartet of devastating beauty and charm, that perfectly balances structures of the Classical style with a spirit rooted in Bohemian folk flavors.
The sonata form first movement opens with a colorful E-flat major chord fanned out through the lower three instruments of the quartet, inviting the serene first theme in the first violin into texture. The patiently arching first theme is colored and urged along by a quicker rhythm imbedded in the lower voices that is reminiscent of a polka, and as the movement progresses, the dance rises to the fore, lifting the music to a mood of outdoorsy optimism. The second theme is a transformation of the first theme, adding a spice of chromaticism and dissonance to the music, and featuring the polka rhythm more prominently. The development stays focused on the second theme, with Dvorak ingeniously weaving a slow hymn-like version of the opening first theme with the second theme as underpinning into the texture. A brief recapitulation of the opening of the piece falls softly into a tranquil coda, and using the arpeggiation of the first theme, Dvorak brings the movement to a peaceful close.
The Slavic character of the Op.51 quartet is especially heard and felt in the second movement, marked “Dumka”, with a subtitle of “Elegie”. The “Dumka” as a musical form originally came from the Ukrainian language, and is defined as a heroic ballad that usually begins slowly, and then has intervening faster, more exuberant sections of music. Dvorak wrote numerous Dumka movements throughout his life, but perhaps none better than this one! Opening with strummed G minor chords in the cello, the first violin and viola beckon to one another in a mournful dialogue, full of expressive sorrow. One of the hallmarks of this movement is how Dvorak pushes the music from the darkness of minor tonalities into the light of major keys. Following the rhapsodic opening, a sudden shift to G Major, and to a much faster vivace tempo, transforms the music into a truly a rollicking dance, perhaps glimpsing the hero of the opening in their youth. The movement revisits the nostalgia of the opening, this time highlighted by an ethereal hymn with fragile beauty, and then bounds forward through a final presto section, eventually coming to a wistful end.
The third movement Romanze, the quartet’s slow movement, is reflective and expressive, and has the disposition of a moonlit nocturne; patient, intimate and structurally simple. The vocal quality of the movement, the bulk of which is in B-flat Major, is led primarily by the first violin, with commentary coming from the other instruments of the quartet, often with cascades of color falling through the lower voices. The calm of the opening is contrasted by a more richly orchestrated and active center section of the movement, with Dvorak returning us to the mood of the starry music from the opening to conclude the movement.
The finale is a rondo that derives its inspiration from a Bohemian fiddle dance, called a skačna, that is boisterous and full of joy. Dvorak’s use of the rondo form, with the opening theme returning after intervening thematic episodes, gives him the opportunity for brilliant variety. Shifts in texture, key and mood, and tempo, give the music an irrepressible folk sound that is contagious. A nod to Dvorak’s classical roots is heard in the brief fugal development and moments of melancholy recall the plaintiveness of the first three movements, but in the end, brilliance wins out as Dvorak drives his sublime “Slavonic” quartet to a jubilant close.
(notes by Kurt Baldwin)