The Novello Quartet
Program
Emanuel Alois Förster 1748-1823
Quartet in A major, op. 7 no. 3
Allegro
Andantino
Menuetto - Trio
Scherzo – Allegretto
W.A. Mozart 1756-1791
Quartet in Bb, K. 589
Allegro
Larghetto
Menuetto Moderato Trio
Allegro assai
-Intermission-
Luigi Boccherini 1743-1805
Quartet in A major, op. 39
Allegro moderato – sotto voce e con grazia
Minuetto – Trio
Grave – soave assai
Allegro guisto
Joseph Haydn 1732-1809
Quartet in D “The Frog”, op. 50 no. 6
Allegro
Poco Adagio
Menuetto – Allegretto Trio
Finale – Allegro con spirito
Program Notes
The remarkable life of Frederick Wilhelm II, the cello-playing King of Prussia and successor to Frederick the Great, goes nearly unrecorded in dictionaries of music. Although Frederick Wilhelm II ruled Prussia for only 11 years (1786-1797), he left behind an impressive musical legacy. He supported and commissioned compositions from the leading composers of his day—Mozart, Haydn and Boccherini to name a few—and was the dedicatee of over a hundred works, including Beethoven’s op. 5 cello sonatas, as well as the string quartets in our program.
So how can we explain the omission of Frederick Wilhelm II from the standard musical lexicons? His unsuccessful reign as king, the personal scandals that shocked Prussia, and global events that eclipsed his short reign, notably the French Revolution, are just a few of the reasons for his obscurity. But Frederick Wilhelm II’s musical patronage makes a second look at his life worthwhile.
James Boswell reported in his travel journals that the Prussians trembled before Frederick the Great, but Frederick Wilhelm II wanted to be loved by his subjects. He was a far more likeable than his uncle and some of his initial reforms—tax cuts, and support for secondary and higher education made him hugely popular with the Prussian people. However, Frederick the Great had kept a tight hand on the reins of his government, delegated little, and ran much of Prussia single-handedly. There had been little personal affection between uncle and nephew; Frederick didn’t see much leadership potential in his nephew, and Frederick Wilhelm feared and resented his uncle. By the time he succeeded to the throne, his uncle had done little to prepare him or court officials for the vast administrative task before him. Much confusion resulted from Frederick Wilhelm’s comparative indecisiveness.
During the years when Frederick Wilhelm should have been learning the arts of kingship, he was practicing the cello and pursuing amours. He showed little interest in the administrative tasks that his uncle tried to teach him, and little inclination for hard work and sacrifice for the kingdom, and his uncle soon gave up the necessary tutelage. While this had devastating consequences for the Prussian state, the cello practicing paid rich dividends to posterity.
The scandals that plagued Frederick Wilhelm reign make the personal peccadillos of today’s politicians appear as mere flirtations by comparison. Frederick Wilhelm first divorce, from Elizabeth of Brunswick in 1769 while his uncle was still king, was only an indicator of worse to come; while shocking at the time, particularly for a Prussian prince, it was nothing in comparison with the plural marriages and multiple mistresses that constituted the extended royal family under his reign. His second wife, Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, had to put up with various morganatic marriages (polygamous marriage contracts) with Fräulein von Voss and the Countess Donhoff, as well as innumerable mistresses, notably the Countess Lichtenau. These alliances were officially recognized as left-handed, or second marriages, and caused great consternation among the king’s advisors and religious leaders.
During Frederick the Great’s reign Prussia was at the center of European attention, but the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and his global ambitions eased Prussia and Frederick Wilhelm II into obscurity. And the sorry state of affairs in Prussia after his death (crushing debt, the army left in shambles, etc.) made Frederick Wilhelm’s reign a time that Germans seem glad to overlook.
Despite his failures as a political and military leader, Frederick Wilhelm was a great patron of all of the arts in Prussia, and did much to support German culture at a court that had been up to that point Francophone and oriented towards the trends and tastes of Paris. German writers, artists, architects and musicians were encouraged, and education was fostered by the king. Under his reign, there were the beginnings of an awareness of and pride in German culture.
As a child at the court of Frederick the Great, Frederick Wilhelm II was surrounded by music. Frederick the Great was well-known as an amateur flute player, but contemporary accounts indicate that his nephew far exceeded his uncle in his musical accomplishments. His technique was described as “perfect”. The cello virtuoso Duport was a member of Frederick the Great’s court orchestra, and it was from him that Frederick Wilhelm learned the art of the cello.
He practiced two hours a day, and brought his cello along on his travels, even on trips to inspect his troops. After Frederick Wilhelm II became King, he merged the private princely orchestra with that of the royal chapel; the combined forces of this group numbered 70. W.A. Mozart called this group “the greatest collection of virtuosos in the world.” The royal opera flourished under Frederick Wilhelm II’s reign, and a broad cross-section of society attended performances, which were paid for by the king and open to the public at no cost. Since Frederick Wilhelm was a passionate cellist, and an ardent participant in the musical life at court, it is no surprise that many composers wrote or dedicated works for him, and that those works included more and more prominent cello parts to flatter the king’s skill and musicianship.
E.A. Förster’s reason’s for dedicating his op. 7 to Frederick Wilhelm remain murky—very little is known about his life apart from a few anecdotes. He was born in Saxony, served in the Prussian army, and made his way to Vienna in the 1780’s. His son studied piano with Beethoven, but the relationship cooled after Beethoven, always the reluctant teacher, struck the boy’s hand with a knitting needle. Nevertheless, Beethoven did recommend Förster as a composition teacher, but of course it may have been merely a way to get rid of a would-be student. It is possible that the dedication of Förster’s op. 7 string quartets to Frederick Wilhelm was a way of angling for a position at the Prussian court, but that is only speculation. Förster’s style has been described as a possible link between the Viennese classical style of Mozart and Haydn and the more experimental works of Beethoven. He is primarily remembered as a composer of chamber music, and he also wrote a guide to continuo-playing.
Joseph Haydn’s op. 50 string quartets, a set of six, were intended as a thank-you gift to the monarch in a dizzying exchange of courtly courtesies. Haydn’s Paris symphonies had been so enthusiastically received by Friedrich Wilhelm that the monarch sent Haydn a diamond encrusted ring, which became a sort of good luck charm for the composer.
“…I have received a beautiful ring from His Majesty, the King of Prussia. I feel deeply in His Majesty’s debt because of this present, and for my part I can think of no better and more fitting way to show my thankfulness to His Majesty (and also in the eyes of the whole world) than by dedicating these 6 quartets to him…” (Joseph Haydn, to his publisher Artaria on 19 May 1787).
This touching exchange speaks to Frederick Wilhelm high regard for Haydn, and also to the extent of the success that Haydn enjoyed at this point in his career. At Esterhazy in 1786 he supervised 125 performances of 17 operas, in 1787, the year of the composition of Op. 50, 98 performances of 14 operas. Thus, Haydn was a fairly disinterested party; his successes internationally paired with his position at Esterhazy assure us that he was not on the lookout for a new gig.
Boccherini was the only of our four composers officially employed by Frederick Wilhelm; as part of his appointment as court composer, he sent about 12 chamber music works a year, mostly quartets and quintets. His official appointment reads:
“We, Frederick William, by the grace of God Hereditary Prince Royal of Prussia, heir presumptive to the crown, having recognized the eminent musical talents of Signor Luigi Boccherini, have been induced thereby to confer upon him the present Patent, with the title of Composer of Our Chamber, and in consequence we have signed these presents and caused the seal of our arms to be apposed thereto.
"Berlin, the twenty-first of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six.
"Frederick William Pr. of Pr.”
Of course, we know that Mozart’s last three string quartets were written for Friedrich Wilhelm, and the prominence of their cello part is proof that they were calculated to flatter the Prussian monarch. But much else of what we know seems on shaky ground. Maynard Solomon points out in his biography of Mozart that “the difficulty is that there are no court records, letters, memoirs, newspaper accounts, or documents of any kind to confirm Mozart’s appearance at court, the commissioning of the two sets of works [the quartets for the king and some keyboard sonatas for the queen], or the payment to him of any sum of money.” In fact, the first publication of these quartets, just a few weeks after Mozart’s death, carried no dedication to Friedrich Wilhelm. Perhaps the “Prussian” quartets are just another instance of wishful thinking on the part of a man who in life seemed always doomed to disappointment, but who in death achieved unimaginable renown.
Wolfgang von Goethe compared listening to a string quartet to “eavesdropping on a conversation among four intelligent people.” In working on this program, we have had the pleasure of becoming familiar with four different composers’ ideas of quartet conversation. Getting to know these works has been a rich and rewarding experience made more meaningful by imagining the original performances of these pieces and the enthusiasm of the monarch who inspired them.
Ensemble and Performer Biographies
The Novello Quartet was founded in the winter of 2002 to perform Joseph Haydn’s rarely programmed quartet setting of the Seven Last Words of Christ. The quartet’s passion for the music of Haydn and his contemporaries has led to an ongoing artistic partnership between four of America’s leading early music artists. The members of the Novello Quartet, Tekla Cunningham and Cynthia Miller Freivogel, violins, Anthony Martin, viola, and Elisabeth Reed, cello, are active in the Bay Area and America’s most prominent early music groups, including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire Orchestra in Cleveland, Musica Angelica in Los Angeles, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the San Francisco Bach Choir.
The Novello Quartet was named for the members of the Novello family, Vincent, Mary and Clara. Vincent (1781-1861) was a church organist, composer and music publisher born of Italian parents in London, England. With the publication of two volumes of sacred music (1811) he founded the publishing house of Novello & Co, and was a founding member and later pianist and conductor of the Philharmonic Society. In 1829, Vincent Novello and his wife Mary undertook a journey to the continent, stopping in the musical capitals of Europe to hear the music of the day in churches and concert halls, and also to deliver to W.A. Mozart’s impoverished sister Nannerl a small sum Vincent had raised by subscription in London. Among the musical luminaries the Novellos met on their journey were Mozart’s widow Constanze, and Abbé Stadler, who told them the story of Joseph Haydn’s commission from Spain by the Bishop of Cadiz for the Seven Last Words of Christ.
Tekla Cunningham, violinist and occasional violist, performs with the American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland, Musica Angelica in Los Angeles, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the San Francisco Bach Choir and also plays at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival. Ms. Cunningham has appeared as a guest artist with the Artaria and Del Sol Quartets. Since founding the Novello Quartet in 2003, the quartet has performed all of Haydn’s op. 50 string quartets. This summer, the Novello Quartet appeared at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, and will also appear on the San Francisco Early Music Society’s 2004-5 concert series with a program of quartets by Förster, Haydn, Boccherini and Mozart dedicated to King Frederick Wilhelm II of Prussia. Other chamber music activities include performances at some of America’s finest early music series with La Monica, an ensemble dedicated to music of the 17th century. Ms. Cunningham studied history, German literature, and music at Johns Hopkins University and Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD. She continued her musical studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and graduated with a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Ian Swenson.
Cynthia Miller Freivogel currently performs as an orchestral and chamber musician on both baroque and modern violin. Her 2004-2005 season includes appearances at MusicSources, Old First Concerts, San Francisco Early Music Society, and the Denver Handel Festival. In addition to playing second violin in the Novello Quartet, she plays in many of the country's leading baroque orchestras including Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque, Apollo's Fire (Cleveland Baroque), San Francisco Bach Choir, and American Bach Soloists. She has been a guest artist with 17th century chamber ensembles such as Magnificat, Albany Consort and Ensemble Mirable. With Mirable, she performed at the Bloomington Early Music Festival for NPR broadcast and won recognition from Early Music America. Ms Freivogel plays regularly in the Colorado Music Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and as a chamber musician in Bay Area ensembles. She has also been a member of New World Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center fellowship program, American Russian Young Artists Orchestra, and Orchestra of the State of Sao Paulo in Brazil. She holds a BA from Yale University and a MM in violin performance from the San Francisco Conservatory, where she studied with Camilla Wicks.
Anthony Martin has played viola since the late 70's, when he rashly appeared onstage in Sanders Theatre at Harvard for the Schubert Cello Quintet with a fingering written over every note. Since then he has shuttled between coasts and continents, and between modern, classical, baroque, and renaissance violins and violas, and the occasional viola d'amore.
Elisabeth Reed was born and raised in Chapel Hill, NC and now lives in Oakland, CA. This season she will perform with, among others, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Magnificat, California Bach Society, and Jubilate Baroque Orchestra. A graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Oberlin Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and Indiana University’s Early Music Institute, she can be heard on the Virgin Classics and Focus recording labels. She is a Guild Certified Practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method of Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration with a particular interest in the issues facing musicians and performers. Director and founder of Seattle's Viols for Youth program, she now teaches viola da gamba at the University of California, Berkeley and cello, baroque cello, viola da gamba, and Feldenkrais privately.