Ésme Quartet with Pianist Yekwon Sunwoo | February 20, 2024 | House Program

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CLASSICAL / ENSEMBLE SERIES ESMÉ QUARTET WITH PIANIST, YEKWON SUNWOO PROGRAM ESMÉ QUARTET Wonhee Bae, Violin I Yuna Ha, Violin II Dimitri Murrath, Viola Yeeun Heo, Cello WITH Yekwon Sunwoo, Piano FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN FANNY MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in E Flat Major, “The Joke,” Op. 33, No. 2 Allegro moderato Scherzo Largo e sostenuto Finale String Quartet in E Flat Major Adagio ma non troppo Allegretto Romanze Allegro molto vivace INTERMISSION JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F Minor, Opus 34 Allegro non troppo Andante, un poco adagio Scherzo: Allegro – Trio Finale: Poco sostenuto – Allegro non troppo – Presto non troppo
PROGRAM NOTES The string quartet that opens tonight’s concert is remarkable for the joyously light character that pervades much of the music. Its nickname, “The Joke,” is certainly well deserved for two reasons: first, instead of a Minuet, Haydn writes a faster Scherzo which includes a Trio that makes great use of surprising glissandos (or slides) into pitches; and second, for the way in which the last movement ends with a coda that keeps interjecting silences that generate a series of false endings before the final cadence whispers away. For the vast majority of women musicians and composers, life and posterity have not been kind, with a clear case of such gender injustice found in the career and music of Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847). Felix’s older sister by three years, Fanny was by all accounts just as precocious as her younger brother, and despite being provided with the same musical tutors as Felix, was expected to marry and run a family household. She followed this domestic path, marrying the Berlin court painter Wilhelm Hensel in 1829, which coincidentally, was the same year that she began sketches for a piano sonata that in 1834 she adapted into her only string quartet. Beyond this scant information, little more is known of this work until the music was published in 1988 by Breitkipf & Härtel, a long-standing publisher of Felix’s music. The work has since gained considerable popularity with modern audiences for the way it demonstrates its own unique originality. This can be immediately heard in the fantasy-like opening movement that starts expressively in C minor, and only towards the end settles into the work’s home key of E flat major. The second movement returns to C minor in the fast, filigree-like outer sections that are offset with the vibrant fugal writing of the C major Trio. The Romanze in G minor, displays subtle fluidity in the melodic writing such that the music never seems to cadence but is continually spun into new sections. The final movement, with its clear Rondo design and emphasis on exciting two-part counterpoint doubled at the unison or in octaves, rounds off the work quite triumphantly in E flat major. Many composers seem to have followed Robert Schumann’s model of writing only one piano quintet during their careers and making this work almost symphonic in design and length. Brahms (1833-1897), whose early career received much encouragement from Robert Schumann, likewise composed only one piano quintet. Curiously, the Brahms piano quintet started out as a string quintet but was completed as a sonata for two pianos (a version that is performed today as Opus 34B). At Clara Schumann’s urging, this two-piano work was adapted for piano and string quartet, and it is this arrangement that has become a favourite of chamber music performers and audiences. All four movements display melodies and musical textures that are immediately captivating while at the same time are organized to support the music’s larger structural form with a high degree of controlled expansiveness. ©2024 by John Burge for the Isabel ABOUT ESMÉ QUARTET At home in Germany, the Esmé Quartet is one of the most dynamic and multi-faceted string quartets of its generation, winning audiences and reviewers over with its infectious energy and immaculate ensemble playing. The four South Korean musicians’ ensemble was the first all-female string quartet to win the first prize and four special prizes, including the Mozart and the Beethoven Prize, at the 2018 International String Quartet Competition at London’s Wigmore Hall: a sensational launch of an international string quartet career. This success in competition also proved the springboard for worldwide concert activities, ranging from the USA to Europe’s great musical centres and all the way to Asia, where they were celebrated during a prestigious residency at Seoul’s Lotte Concert Hall during the past season. Furthermore, innumerable concert tours and guest appearances have taken the Esmé Quartet to festivals and concert halls such as the Lucerne Festival, the Verbier Festival, the Schleswig- Holstein Music Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Flagey Musiq3 Festival in Brussels, L’Auditori in Barcelona, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Heidelberg String Quartet Fest and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. In the summer of 2018, they were also the Quartet in Residence at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
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Ésme Quartet with Pianist Yekwon Sunwoo | February 20, 2024 | House Program

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