Notes for: August 8, 2006
In the second half of the 19th century, two schools of composition emerged in Russia. One group, known as “The Five,” consisted of Balakirev, Cui, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky Korsakov. It was nationalist in outlook, deriving much of its inspiration from Russian folk elements, history and literature. The other group, led by Anton Rubinstein and exemplified by Tchaikovsky, was more cosmopolitan, seeking to temper Russian cultural influences with musical ideas from elsewhere in Europe.
Arensky started out in the former group as a student of Rimsky at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, but on graduation he joined the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory where Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein were older and influential colleagues. Then, while still in Moscow, he became conductor of the Russian Choral Society and a member of the council of the Synodal School of Church Music, renewing his interest in Russian musical tradition. Finally, in 1894 he was named director of the Imperial chapel back in St. Petersburg, retiring in 1900 on a generous pension to compose full time. Addicted to drinking and gambling, he died at the age of 45 from tuberculosis.
Reflecting these life experiences, Arensky had a foot in both schools of composition. On the one hand, he wrote three operas and a number of songs and choral works in the nationalist mold, making considerable use of folk melodies and idioms. On the other hand, he modeled his instrumental music after that of Tchaikovsky, using the conventional musical forms developed by Haydn and Mozart in western Europe.
This three-movement quartet, written in 1894 after the move back to St. Petersburg, merged both orientations. On the one hand, Arensky dedicated the work to the memory of Tchaikovsky, his mentor and friend, and incorporated in the first and last movements Russian orthodox funeral chants. On the other hand, he cast the first movement in conventional sonata form, using such a chant as the main theme and retaining its somber, funereal character in the development.
You may recognize the theme of the second movement – Tchaikovsky’s “A Legend”, one of his Sixteen Children’s Songs, Op. 54. Also known as “When Jesus Christ Was But a Child,” the song tells the story of the boy Jesus planting a tree in his garden; the tree eventually furnishes the thorns with which Jesus is crowned at his crucifixion. The song became so popular that Tchaikovsky made arrangements of it for orchestra and a capella chorus.
In Arensky’s treatment, the song is heard immediately followed by seven variations, some moving and some witty. In the last variation, the theme is heard backwards – Arensky said this was in imitation of the practice in military funerals of holding rifles upside down. Arensky’s variations proved so attractive in their own right that he arranged the movement for string orchestra, and it now might be more frequently performed in that format than in the original.
In the last movement, Arensky follows up the opening theme from a Russian funeral mass with the well-known theme of the celebratory folk song Slava! (“Glory”) associated with the coronation of the Tsar. This theme was also used by Mussorgsky in the opera Boris Godunov and by Beethoven in his second “Rasumovsky” Quartet.
The most unusual aspect of the quartet is its unconventional instrumentation – two cellos and only one violin. The deep and dark sonority provided by two low-register instruments apparently seemed appropriate for an “in Memoriam” work and for the use of Russian liturgical chants. To enhance the work’s commercial appeal, however, Arensky later arranged it for the standard string quartet, and today either version may be encountered in the concert hall.
Notes for: July 24, 2018
In late 19th-century Russia, a country awash with Romantic composers, young Anton Arensky was one of the bright rising stars. The son of a pianist mother who was his first teacher, he had begun composing by the time he was nine. At the St. Petersburg Conservatory he studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov and graduated with high honors in just three years. At the age of 21 he became a professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory, where he remained for many years, teaching, among others, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. (Rachmaninoff dedicated an early composition to “my dear professor Anton Stepanovich Arensky.”) At the same time, Arensky was pursuing a career as a much-admired composer, conductor, and pianist. He composed steadily – songs, piano pieces, orchestral and chamber works, opera. For years he was one of the luminaries of Moscow’s vibrant musical life. Tchaikovsky had become a friend and a mentor, and his impact on Arensky’s style was great. But Arensky was an alcoholic and a gambler, and his addictions took their toll. Debilitated, he died of tuberculosis at the age of 45.
Arensky’s lyrical gifts and technical adroitness are abundantly apparent in the String Quartet in A Minor, a work that he wrote a few months after Tchaikovsky’s death as a memorial to his friend. The Quartet is unusually scored for two cellos, and the reason is clear from the opening notes: A muted, somber theme that sounds like a Russian Orthodox psalm is given sonorous depth by the addition of the second cello. The opening mood is tempered by a lyrical second theme, and these two themes are developed throughout a dramatic movement that ranges between tenderness and passion before closing with a return to the funereal opening.
The second movement is Arensky’s direct homage to Tchaikovsky. Taking as his theme the fifth song, “Legend,” from Tchaikovsky’s “16 Songs for Children,” Arensky presents seven wonderfully varied and inventive variations that showcase his distinctive rhythmic and melodic style and his feeling for instrumental color. The variations travel from the simple canon of the first variation, through cantabile melodies, vivacious pizzicatos, tranquil andantinos, driving rhythms, sweeping arpeggios, and a final simple melody before ending with a coda that brings back the Tchaikovsky theme as well as the chant that opens the Quartet.
Like the first movement, the Finale begins with a dirgelike hymn. But this time the mood quickly turns celebratory as Arensky launches into a robust patriotic folksong. If the tune sounds familiar, that’s because Mussorgsky used the same one in Boris Godunov, and Beethoven used it in the second Rasumovsky Quartet. Arensky treats it fugally and ends with an outburst of virtuosity – a satisfying ending to this very Russian, appealingly lyrical work.