2-Night Event : Your ticket includes admission to both the October 5 & October 6 concerts.
Over the course of two evenings, in two distinct concerts, the performance of Schumann's quartets, intertwined with wisps of Schumann's own sketches for these works and the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven from which he took inspiration, sheds light on how we define what is "new" in art, and why that is important.
The World of the Spirit and the Consciousness of the Poetic Mind: The String Quartets of Robert Schumann
Music From Yellow Barn
PROGRAM I
Wednesday, October 5
Schumann's sketches for Op. 41 No. 1 and No. 3
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): String Quartet in C Major, Op.20 "Sun" No.2 (1772)
Moderato
Capriccio. Adagio – Cantabile
Menuetto. Allegretto
Fuga a 4 soggetti. Allegro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) String Quartet in B-flat Major "Prussian", K.589 (1790)
Allegro
Larghetto
Menuetto. Moderato – Trio
Allegro assai
Schumann's sketches for Op.41 No.1
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Adagio from String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80 (1847)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41 No. 1 (1842)
Introduzcione. Andante espressivo – Allegro
Scherzo. Presto – Intermezzo
Adagio
Presto
PROGRAM II
Thursday, October 6
Schumann's sketches for Op. 41 No. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile
from String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Andante più tosto allegretto from String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 55 No. 2 (1788)
Schumann String Quartet in F Major, Op. 41, No. 2 (1842)
Allegro vivace
Andante quasi variazioni
Scherzo. Presto – Trio. L'istesso tempo
Allegro molto vivace
Haydn Finale. Presto from String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 55 No. 2
Of Schumann's symphonic works and string quartets it was written, "…Schumann solved the problem, in which for a long time he himself did not believe, that of creating significant individual work in an artistic genre that has already been developed to the full and has reached its peak."
Schumann had indeed pored over these "peaks" of string quartet writing, those of Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn, and written of them and of the succession of artistic generations, "…we love the struggle of youth for what is new, and Beethoven, who struggled till his last breath, is for us a lofty model of human greatness. But in the orchards of Mozart and Haydn there are also trees heavy with fruit which cannot easily be ignored…"
On September 13th, 1842, Clara Schuman's birthday, her husband surprised her with the gift of his three string quartets. Of these (and her husband) she wrote, "My veneration for his genius, for his mind, for everything about him as a composer, grows with every new work! As for the quartets, I can only say that they delight me down to the smallest detail. Everything is new…"
Led by violinist Anthony Marwood, Yellow Barn musicians include So-Young Choi, Grace Park and Julia Mirzoev, violins; Natalie Loughran and Rose Nelis, violas; and Natasha Brofsky, Edvard Pogossian, and Aaron Wolff, cellos.