The Program
ERWIN SCHULHOFF
Selections from Five Pieces for String Quartet
Born in Prague, Erwin Schulhoff moved to Vienna, where modernism
flourished under the unofficial watchful eye of Arnold Schoenberg.
But his time there was soon curtailed by the advent of World War I,
during which he was conscripted into the Austrian army. With the
collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the radical changes
resulting from the peace treaties, Schulhoff turned away from
post-Romanticism. Dadaism, 12-tone composition, and dances—such as
the foxtrot and ragtime—began to pass into Schulhoff's
language.
His Five Pieces for String Quartet, written in 1923, are a
cabaret-like showcase for the many styles and sounds Schulhoff
heard during his early years. Although the inspiration for "Alla
Valse Viennese" is the lilting triple-time dance of Viennese yore,
Schulhoff looks back through a smashed sonic mirror. Jarring
harmonies and themes played in parallel give an aloof sheen. There
is a more sultry quality to "Alla Serenata," recalling the eerie
night music found in Bartók's string quartets. "Alla Czeca"
harnesses the energetic ferocity of his idol Janáček's music for
strings.
The final two movements of display further facets of Schulhoff's
chameleon-like character. Inspired by these popular dance forms, he
recasts their rhythms and rhetoric. The serene introduction to
"Alla Tango Milonga" belies the feral nature of the dance itself,
and the complex interchange of voices provides a preview to the
music of Piazzolla. In "Alla Tarantella," the quartet is possessed
by spectral motor rhythms. Like his compatriot Janáček, Schulhoff
builds an increasingly intense structure out of the repetition and
interchange of these tiny rhythmic cells, yet the sheer verve of
these pieces is very much Schulhoff's own.
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
LOUIS MAITRIER
"Elle Fréquentait la Rue Pigalle"
Cabaret began in France at the end of the 19th century, when the
art form flourished at the Chat Noir in Montmartre. Alcohol and
entertainment mixed with ironic stage acts, providing a template
for half a century of sadness and smiles before the Nazis curtailed
the genre across occupied Europe. Despite such political
proscriptions, French cabaret lived on after the war through
chansonniers, including Charles Trenet, Jacques Brel, Édith Piaf,
Charles Aznavour, and Serge Gainsbourg.
Louis Maitrier became a central fixture of the Parisian chanson
scene. Working with the talented lyricist Raymond Asso—who became
Piaf's lover—his 1939 "Elle Fréquentait la Rue Pigalle"
encapsulates the art of cabaret. Famous in Piaf's pathos-wrung
version, this story of a young prostitute is cast in melancholic
tones. Its parlando style follows the rhythms of spoken French
before giving way to a melodic refrain. Although the song's
ballad-like structure lends ironic distance, there is no denying
its power.
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
MICHEL EMER
"L'Accordéoniste"
Like Maitrier, Michel Emer came to prominence through Piaf. Born
in St. Petersburg, he eventually settled in Paris. The year after
Maitrier's "Elle Fréquentait la Rue Pigalle," Emer penned his most
famous song for Piaf and would go on to compose a further 20
compositions for the "kid sparrow." The protagonist of Emer's ditty
is also a prostitute, though the metrical delivery and repetitive
motifs harken back to happy old variety acts.
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
KURT WEILL
"Surabaya Johnny" from Happy End; "Die Moritat von Mackie
Messer" from Die Dreigroschenoper
Born the son of a synagogue cantor in Dessau, Kurt Weill made
his name in Berlin, a thriving experimental hub during the 1920s
and '30s. It was only the advent of the far right that threatened
the loose tongues and (according to the Nazis) even looser morals
of its "cultural Bolsheviks." Although Weill had thoroughbred
training—studying with Engelbert Humperdinck, the composer of
Hänsel und Gretel—it was his meeting with Bertolt Brecht
in 1927 that began his most successful and intrepid period of
composition.
During the twilight years of the Weimar Republic, Weill and Brecht
worked tirelessly on a series of theater projects, cantatas, and
workers' choruses. Happy End was their 1929 show that
opened at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. A Weimar Guys
and Dolls, "Surabaya Johnny" is a Salvation Army girl's lament
as her beloved returns to a life of crime. But rather than Sarah
Brown's heartfelt girl-next-door, Weill casts his heroine's
protestation in more swinging terms. Happy End sadly never
proved as big a success as their earlier Die
Dreigroschenoper (1928). Written to satisfy an actor's whim
just before the show opened in Berlin, "Die Moritat von Mackie
Messer" (a.k.a "Mack the Knife") became Weill's most famous song.
It's an ironic ballad and is played as the prologue to the story.
Heard in Brecht's original text, the song has much more bite than
Marc Blitzstein's oddly suave English translation.
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
HANNS EISLER
"Der Graben"; "Über den Selbstmord"; "Ballade vom Wasserrad"
Although Weill dominated the Weimar stage, Hanns Eisler and
Brecht also built a successful collaboration. Eisler was born in
Leipzig and moved to Vienna as a child. Taught by Schoenberg, the
two later fell out of favor with one another due to Eisler's
stringent Marxist views. His early Palmström—written to
accompany a performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot
lunaire—betrayed a flair for irony. When Eisler moved away to
Berlin, he was able to exploit that natural talent. But as the
Nazis rose to power, both Weill and Eisler's work became anathema.
Proscribed throughout occupied Europe, the two had to leave for
America. Weill thrived on Broadway, just as the musical hit its
stride, while Eisler settled in California with many other European
émigrés. After the war, questions about un-American activities
forced Eisler back to Germany, where the new communist DDR welcomed
him with open arms. Working with Brecht once more and writing for
the theater, Eisler worked much as he had before the Nazi
apocalypse.
Even his working relationship with actor Ernst Busch carried on,
and he became the chief exponent of Eisler's catalogue. "Der
Graben" is from a 1959 collection of songs set to poems by Kurt
Tucholsky, who had died of a drug overdose in 1935. Although the
poem offers a harsh warning, Eisler's unpretentious song resounds
with genuine regret. Even when collaborating with the acerbic
Brecht on "Über den Selbstmord," Eisler is more like Mahler than
Weill in style, while "Ballade vom Wasserrad" evokes the ballads of
Schubert and Larcher.
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
NIKITA BOGOSLOVSKY
"Temnaya Noch"
Like Eisler, Nikita Bogoslovsky received unbeatable classical
training. Born in St. Petersburg in 1913, he studied with Alexander
Glazunov. Yet despite his establishment education, Bogoslovsky
focussed his attentions on emerging forms, such as popular song and
film scores. His music was increasingly fashionable during the war
years and "Temnaya Noch"—sung by the glamorous Mark Bernes in the
1942 film Dva boytsa (Two Soldiers)—became a
standard. You can hear the influence of French chanson in this
lilting caprice, and Bogolovsky's natural affinity for all things
French was confirmed when he was made vice-president of the
USSR-France Society in 1965.
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
CHAVA ALBERSTEIN
"Stiller Abend"; "Ikh shtey unter a Bokserboym"
Like her European predecessors, the Israeli singer-songwriter
Chava Alberstein maintains a poetic approach to politics through
music. Born in Poland but raised in Israel, she rose to prominence
within the local music scene by entertaining Israeli Defense Force
troops. Later, she adopted a more critical view of the Israeli
government's policy towards Palestine and has striven for
Arab-Israeli accord. Her setting of Itzik Manger's poem is
characteristically self-questioning. Although rhythmically akin to
pop music and using those insistent refrains, Alberstein's
Klezmer-like harmonies reflect back on a century of song and Jewish
history.
This outwardly folksy "Ikh shtey unter a Bokserboym" speaks of the
troubled aftermath of the Second World War. The verdant imagery of
Ziame Telesin's poem evokes newfound freedom, but Alberstein's
introspective idiom underlines the trials and tragedies of getting
to that point.
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
"Yo Soy María"; "Oblivion"; "La última grela"
Argentina's Astor Piazzolla may have been far away from the
atrocities that terrorized the other composers within this program,
but his music professes surprising affinity with their history.
Like many before him, he had to leave his homeland due to the
increasing pressures of working under a military
dictatorship.
Piazzolla's musical style is thoroughly indebted to Argentina's
tango tradition. But a love of Bach, jazz, and an intensely
chromatic harmonic make him a fitting South American counterpart to
Weill and Eisler. Like them, Piazzolla melded the popular song
tradition with classical style. "Yo Soy María" is taken from his
1968 "tango opera." The nascent passions of the tango idiom lend
themselves well to this outspoken genre, harkening back to Bizet's
Carmen. After María's fervor, Piazzolla's melodic gift
comes to the fore in "Oblivion," where Parisian laissez-faire
breathes through its falling lines. An even more regretful tone
permeates "La última grela," where Latin style mixes with Emer's
"L'Accordéoniste."
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
JACQUES BREL
"Chanson de Jacky"; "Ne me quitte pas"; "Amsterdam"
Returning to French-speaking Europe proper, Jacques Brel became
the post-War period's answer to chanson. Born in Belgium, he was
prominent in Paris during the 1950s, exclusively singing his own
material. His US debut at Carnegie Hall in 1963 prompted a period
of international touring. While later covers—such as "Seasons in
the Sun" (translated from the 1961 hit "Le moribond")—offer a
simplistic view of his songs, Brel's lyrics and music were often
highly complex. Rhythmically multifaceted and often exploring the
social and moral issues of the day, Brel influenced artists as
diverse as Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone.
The 1965 "Chanson de Jacky" is a rich showcase of Brel's talents.
Its repetitive marching figure provides the bedrock for Brel's
bullet-like run of consonants. The winding introduction to "Ne me
quitte pas," suggesting a somewhat atonal style, prefaces his
famous remorseful song. Recalling the English folksong
"Greensleeves," "Amsterdam" tells of the sailors on leave. Its
imagined demimonde world provides an effective recollection of the
Paris of Emer and Maitrier and the Berlin of Weill and Eisler.
—Gavin Plumley
© 2012 The Carnegie Hall Corporation