There’s something about the sound and versatility of the guitar that reaches across time and space. Whether accompanying a folk song from ancient Mesopotamia (on a relative like the oud or lute), or shredding on an electrified version for a heavy metal band like Megadeath, adaptability is among the instrument’s greatest tributes. Though we won’t hear many power chords, today’s program explores the versatility and virtuosity of the guitar.
Cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini (born February 19, 1743, Lucca, Italy; died May 28, 1805, Madrid, Spain) was among the most prolific and popular composers of his day. Boccherini was born into an artistic family: his father was a cellist and bassist, his brother a poet and dancer who wrote librettos for Joseph Haydn and Mozart’s rival Antonio Salieri. Renowned as a cellist, Boccherini was known for stretching the virtuosic possibilities of the instrument to great effect. In fact, he had the neat party trick of being able to substitute for ill violinists playing their parts “at pitch,” something most cellists wouldn’t dare attempt. He wrote well over 100 cello quintets (scored for two violins, viola, and two cellos) in which the first cello part takes a very prominent role in delivering the melodic material, often in the most difficult range of the instrument. In other words, he was a bit of a showoff. From around the age of 25, he lived in Spain and worked for various royals, though he eventually lost his court position. Rumor had it that the king didn’t like a section of a piece and asked him to change it. Instead, the irked composer doubled the passage and was unceremoniously dismissed. He found other patrons, but they were fickle, and by 1798 he had none. Ok, almost none. That year, a Spanish nobleman and amateur guitarist, the Marquis de Bénavent, commissioned a set of six quintets for guitar and strings. Boccherini, instead of writing new works, borrowed from his vast existing repertoire, reworking the first two movements from a 1771 String Quintet in D major (G. 270, Op. 12, No. 6); and the final two movements he repurposed from the opening of another D major String Quintet (G. 341, Op. 50, No. 2); the latter including the “Fandango” movement from which the quartet gets its name. The work opens with a muted and gentle Pastorale, followed by an Allegro maestoso that provides a virtuosic workout for the cellist. The dreamy Grave assai provides a brief respite before the dazzling Fandango, replete with castanet rhythms, brings the work to a fiery close.
Robert Beaser (born May 29, 1954, Boston, MA) grew up just outside of Boston in Newton, MA, where he studied percussion. By the age of 16, he was conducting a performance of his own music with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony. He went on to study composition at Yale under the guidance of Yehudi Wyner and Jacob Druckman, before joining the Juilliard faculty, where he remained until 2022. In the same way that Boccherini borrowed from popular music to create his Fandango quintet, Beaser’s music is often infused
with folk music, but, in the case of Mountain Songs for Flute and Guitar, with American vernacular music. Beaser provides the following description:
“Mountain Songs is a cycle of eight songs based largely on American folk music. Most of the tunes, as reflected by their titles, are lyric ballads from the southern mountains of Appalachia with the exception of Cindy, a minstrel fiddle song, and Hush You Bye, a popular lullaby from the Deep South. While the cycle is based on folk material, each song is original and through-composed. The new melodies, dialogues, harmonies, and architecture sprung, sui generis, from the traditional strophic tunes.”
Today’s performance includes three selections: Cindy, Barbara Allen, and The House Carpenter.
Next we turn our attention to Ernst von Dohnányi (born July 27, 1877, Pressburg, Austria-Hungary; died February 9, 1960, New York, NY), another composer who was inspired by his homeland. When his Serenade for String Trio premiered at the age of 26, Dohnányi had already been Hungary’s most renowned pianist and composer for almost a decade. His Op. 1 Piano Quintet, written at the age of 18, was premiered in Vienna with the support of Johannes Brahms. Instead of going to the musical capitals of Vienna or Berlin to study, he added luster to the budding Budapest Academy, where Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály would soon follow. The Serenade opens with an energetic and emotional march, leading to the singing Romanza. Dohnányi shows off his counterpoint skills in the frenetic Scherzo. The following theme and variations is the emotional heart of the work, while the explosive Rondo finale provides some good-natured fun. In the final moments, we return to material from the first movement, coming home with a nostalgic, storybook ending.
The guitar returns in spades to close the program in a work inspired by American pop music from the 1970s and 1980s. Composer Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960, Philadelphia, PA) grew up outside Philadelphia and started playing both violin and piano as a child. By 13, he was composing and soon winning awards. He studied at the San Francisco Conservatory, Mannes School of Music, and, finally, Yale University, where he is now on faculty.
Written in 1993, 100 Greatest Dance Hits for Guitar and String Quartet is a tour-de-force. Regarding the title, Kernis said, “I borrowed the title from those old K-Tel advertisements on late-night TV for 100 Greatest Motown Hits or 100 Greatest Soul Hits.” Kernis puts his sophisticated compositional skills and dry wit to good use in service of rock, disco, and Muzak. This is not a glib pastiche. He uses the “pop” material as a starting point to seriously explore multifaceted compositional possibilities, like Boccherini’s inclusion of the Fandango into the quintet heard earlier, but on steroids. This is not to say that there isn’t time for fun. The final “Disco Party on the Disco Motorboat” is both a frightening boat ride and raucous party, and the perfect way to end this guitar-based celebration. —ML