{"id":820,"date":"2008-03-01T22:23:21","date_gmt":"2008-03-02T06:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/01\/janacek-in-like-a-lion\/"},"modified":"2008-03-01T22:25:30","modified_gmt":"2008-03-02T06:25:30","slug":"janacek-in-like-a-lion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/01\/janacek-in-like-a-lion\/","title":{"rendered":"janacek, in like a lion"},"content":{"rendered":"

March arrived today, and it came in like its proverbial lion, with rain and hail squalls and gusting winds. We headed down to NW Portland to have our first rehearsal of Janacek’s String Quartet No.2 “Intimate Letters” with the Arnica Quartet.<\/p>\n

What a piece the Janacek is! For those of you who don’t know the story of the quartet, it was written by Janacek six months before his death, and it recounts his platonic love affair with a much younger woman (37 years younger!), Kamila St\u00c3\u00b6sslov\u00c3\u00a1, over the course of 11 years, and documented by over 600 letters.<\/p>\n

Kamila proved to be a powerful muse to Janacek, as he produced a non-stop series of masterpieces during those 11 years, not the least of which were his two string quartets: No.1 “Kreutzer Sonata” (1923), and No. 2 “Intimate Letters” (1928).<\/p>\n

The quartet, as might be expected, is a very programmatic piece in the vein of Smetana’s String Quartet “From My Life”.<\/p>\n

The first movement concerns Janacek’s first meeting of Kamila at the spa in Luhacovice, and her id\u00c3\u00a9e fixe<\/em> appears in the sul ponticello<\/em> viola near the opening of the movement. This eerie appearance of Kamila’s theme, Janacek said, was meant to show the disquiet that her sudden appearance caused in his life.<\/p>\n

Take a listen to the theme as presented in the first movement, first by the viola, then by the cello:<\/p>\n

[audio:janacek1.mp3]
\nHagen String Quartet\/Deutsche Grammophone<\/em><\/p>\n

Much of the thematic material which ensues throughout the entire quartet is based upon this theme.<\/p>\n

Janacek said that<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153it will be beautiful, strange, unrestrained, inspired, a composition beyond all the usual conventions! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my first composition that sprang from directly experienced feeling \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 written in fire. Earlier pieces only in hot ash.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bonnie Jo Dopp’s excellent program notes<\/a> on the quartet describe the overall program thusly:<\/p>\n

Jan\u00c3\u00a1cek said the Andante first movement of the quartet described the love at first
\nsight he felt for Kamila. He at first thought the second movement Adagio would feature a
\nviola d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122amore (guess why). As he worked on these movements he said he felt \u00e2\u20ac\u0153as if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m
\nliving through everything beautiful once again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He wrote to Kamila that he hoped the
\nthird movement Moderato would come across as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153very cheerful and then dissolve into a
\nvision that would resemble your image, transparent, as if in the mist. In which there
\nshould be the suspicion of motherhood.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He felt, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Only the most beautiful melodies can
\nfind a place in it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He predicted that the last movement Allegro might reflect his fear that
\nhe would entrap Kamila, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d bind your feet like a pretty little lamb\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so you
\nwouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t run away.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d One day later, he wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m finished with those \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLove
\nLetters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 I have an empty head. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m like a completely ordinary man in the street \u00e2\u20ac\u201c except
\nfor you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As vivid as this description might be, the visceral impact of this quartet is hard to quantify. Extremes of every kind dominate the quartet: texture, tempo, dynamics – they all are pushed abruptly from one extreme to another. The first violin, in particular, is made to play extremely high and fast figures at various times, including a crazy set of trills in the last movement that seem to threaten to explode the instrument (and its player!).<\/p>\n

If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing this great piece yet (it was last performed in Portland by the excellent Pacifica Quartet on the Friends of Chamber Music series), pick up one of the many excellent recordings (the quartets have been recorded by the Hagen, Guarneri, Talich, Panocha, and Pacifica quartets, and many other great quartets, in recent years) or come see us (the Arnica Quartet) at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU Auditorium, 3181 Sam Jackson Park Road, info: 503-494-4240) on Wednesday, March 26th at Noon, it’s free of charge. Make a treat of it and ride the aerial tram up from the South Waterfront outpost of OHSU to the top of Marquam Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March arrived today, and it came in like its proverbial lion, with rain and hail squalls and gusting winds. We headed down to NW Portland to have our first rehearsal of Janacek’s String Quartet No.2 “Intimate Letters” with the Arnica Quartet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,564,136,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-audio","category-chamber-music","category-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-de","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":880,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/27\/living-with-janacek\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":0},"title":"living with janacek","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday my quartet (the Arnica Quartet) played an early Mozart quartet (the G major, K. 157) and the great second string quartet of Leos Janacek, subtitled Intimate Letters. The concert was on a series presented by the OHSU Foundation, and took place in the acoustically and visually lovely OHSU Auditorium\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":271,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/10\/pacific-quartet-concert-impressions\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":1},"title":"pacifica quartet concert impressions","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night I was able to attend the second of two concerts by the Pacifica Quartet at Portland State University's Lincoln Hall. It was a wonderful program (if a bit conservative) that showed what a wonderful young quartet the Pacifica has become. The program began with Mozart's \"Dissonant\" Quartet, Kv.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"pacifica.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/pacifica.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":908,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/02\/continuing-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":2},"title":"continuing education","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, thanks to the generosity of Chamber Music Northwest, my string quartet [the Arnica Quartet] got the opportunity to get a two-hour coaching with an internationally-renowned chamber musician - Steven Tenenbom of the Orion Quartet and Opus One piano quartet.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a great experience for us to get some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":76,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/13\/its-almost-quartet-season-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":3},"title":"it’s almost quartet season again…","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We just had an Arnica Quartet dinner meeting the other night to nail down a couple of concert dates and also our repertoire for the coming season. We've got two concerts lined up so far for the Fall, the first a noon concert at Pacific University on October 3rd, where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"oregon\"","block_context":{"text":"oregon","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/tag\/oregon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5944,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/03\/08\/calder-quartet-in-portland-residency\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":4},"title":"calder quartet in portland residency","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Calder Quartet - lately of Los Angeles (by way of LA, NYC, and Berlin) - is doing a residency in Portland which will culminate in their performances for Portland Friends of Chamber Music on Monday, March 14th and Tuesday, March 15th (7:30 p.m. both nights) at Portland State University's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/CasSeated-400x265.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14429,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/12\/31\/my-2016-in-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":5},"title":"My 2016 in music.","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoy reading the end-of- year performance lists. It reminds me of what I haven't yet done, what I wish I hadn't done, and what I really enjoyed having done. So, in that spirit, I present my far from exhaustive list of major musical events in my life from 2016.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"DSC_2372","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}