| Programme notes
Lament
Dmitri Shostakovich's Fifteenth String Quartet is one of a kind. The mere fact
that it is written in the key of E-flat minor is problematic for string instruments:
by its very nature, this tonality hampers the natural resonance of the open strings.
Radiance, however, was the last thing that the composer was trying to achieve
in this lustreless work, which he completed in 1974, a year and a half before
his death. Shostakovich deliberately chose this key as tonic to create a unique
sound, which emerges most noticeably in the first and by far the longest movement
of the quartet, the Elegy. This ever-sustained lament occasionally calls to mind
a gamba consort from the late Renaissance or early Baroque period. At the beginning
of the second movement, the tones have such a piercing impact on the listener
that these can almost be mistaken for sirens. In the other movements, one is occasionally
reminded of earlier compositions by Shostakovich but because of the context in
which they are heard, the impression they give is quite alienating.
Image
Every element of temptation has been banished by the sternest of hands from this
composition, which could actually be described as six adagios, which for the most
part, are connected seamlessly (only after the fourth and fifth movements can
a clear break be distinguished.). If this music calls to mind an image, it is
that of a dying man who, despite the oppression he suffers, tries to impart his
innermost thoughts to humanity. One often has the impression that the thematic
material is disintegrating, an effect Shostakovich has deliberately set out to
achieve; due to the resulting uninterrupted tension, which the listener perceives
as taking place just beneath the surface, his concentration does not lapse. Shostakovich
has designed the piece in cyclical form. In the final movement, for instance,
elements from the Elegy return. Another characteristic is that thematic development
is limited several times to a single line, which considerably underscores the
vulnerable quality that the piece has, imparting to the listener the idea that
this quartet can be heard as a deeply probing exercise for four soloists.
Arch form
Just as the uninviting Fifteenth String Quartet would appear a chamber-music companion
piece to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Symphonies, the utterly dramatic Piano Quintet
can be considered a small-scale recollection of the richly varied Fourth, Fifth
and Sixth Symphonies. Shostakovich completed the work in question in 1940, by
which point the Second World War, although it had already broken out, had not
yet shaken Russia to its core. Not that this matters much in itself, as the toll
taken by Stalinism was just as great as that of national socialism or fascism
elsewhere. Although the Piano Quintet is made up of five movements, there are
actually only four, as the prelude and fugue are joined together seamlessly. The
prelude is heard as a cri de cœur, its purpose being to make way for
the larger fugue, which is conceived in arch form. Arch form indeed, as is evident
from the despairing climax, which takes place roughly in the middle of this approximately
nine-minute-long section. Particularly the relationship between the exceedingly
resigned coda to the fugue and the forced Scherzo with its feigned cheerfulness
is clearly similar to that of the Largo from the Sixth Symphony, which progressively
turns in on itself, and the immediately ensuing scherzo-like movement, which breezes
past in a quasi-lighthearted manner. During the Intermezzo, the melancholy of
the two-part first movement descends again, the dreary atmosphere and internalised
sound both reminiscent of Schubert. In the finale, an abrupt alternation between
oppressive and lighthearted passages is of central importance. The conclusion
appears carefree, although it falls short of convincing the listener entirely;
this is witnessed in the hesitance with which the Piano Quintet concludes-Shostakovich
would later try this formula out again in his charged Eighth Symphony.
Maarten Brandt |
Sepp Grotenhuis (1962) studied
the piano with Else Krijgsman at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and then
spent five years in the United States studying with Gary Graffman and Leon Fleisher
at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. After making his debut as a
soloist in 1978 with the Residentie Orchestra, he has performed in the Netherlands
with many of the major orchestras. Concert tours have taken him to the United
States, Russia and other European countries and Japan. Grotenhuis has collaborated
closely with the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti and studied
the music of the Second Viennese School with Leonard Stein and Alfred Brendel.
Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto occupies a major position in his repertoire.
Grotenhuis won first prize of the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia Competition
and was awarded by the Bartók Society and the Curtis Institute (Festorazzi
Prize). He can be heard on several CDs, some of which include pianist Ellen Corver,
with whom he forms an internationally active piano duo. Since 1991 Sepp Grotenhuis
has worked with the Schoenberg Quartet, performing the complete chamber music
repertoire with piano by Schoenberg, Webern, Berg and Zemlinsky on several occasions
in various European countries.