Music Around the Corner @ Youthful Vengeance
November 14, 2024
Program Notes
Kevin Lau (1982-) String Quartet No.5 (2023) - 9 min
‘The Train to Improbable Places’
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Hailed as a "self-assured voice" (Barczablog) with a "masterful control over his idiom" (Classical Music Sentinel), ), Kevin Lau is one of Canada's most versatile and sought-after composers. Awarded the prestigious 2025 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, Kevin's creative output is often inspired by the surreal and the fantastical, and is unified by the search for deep connections amidst surface diversity - connections that serve as a metaphor for the reconciliation of seemingly fundamental differences.
During the fall of 2022, I took the train from Toronto to London (Ontario). Between periods of dozing, and periods of idle wakefulness spent watching the scenery rush by, I sketched a series of musical ideas. Most of these ended up on the cutting room floor, but I did preserve one idea: a rapid, sparkling figure in the violins that I later dubbed the 'train motive.'
At once virtuosic and slightly dream-like, my Fifth String Quartet (cast in a single movement) opens with a rigorous development of this train motive before veering off into stranger pastures. A handful of locomotive associations are present, like the 'doppler-effect' glissandos or the chugging accelerations. But there are also incongruous elements, such as quotations from the scherzo movement of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 2 (of which my 'train motive' rhythmically resembles), and a climactic stretch that improbably evokes a flash mob of Celtic fiddlers.
The subtitle is an homage to P.G. Bell's middle-grade fantasy series The Train to Impossible Places. Although my music bears little relation to the author's narrative, the playful image conjured by the title was impossible to resist. As for my substitution of the word ‘improbable’ in place of ‘impossible’, I can only say that I was intrigued by the possibility of connecting (via train, of course) strings of fantastical sonic landscapes that were unlikely to be found anywhere in ordinary experience...unlikely, but not impossible.- Kevin Lau (kevinlaumusic.com, 2023)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) String Quartet Op.127
in E flat Major (1825)- 40 min
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Andantino Maestoso
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Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile
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Scherzando vivace
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Allegro
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Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 16 string quartets, each representing a monumental musical evolution from the art form originally perfected by Haydn and Mozart. The oeuvre of Beethoven is typically split into three ‘periods’- Early, Middle, and Late- and this work, his 12th quartet, is the first quartet of his ‘Late Period’, composed after a 10 year hiatus from quartet writing. This period, from 1812 until his death, is associated both with his incredible departure from tradition and convention, as well as the culmination of his total deafness. This disability left him extremely socially isolated and depressed, but also seemed to spur him towards innovation free from academic propriety, and the final form of his genius.
The first performance of this quartet was apparently an abject failure. The hapless quartet Beethoven employed had only 2 weeks to prepare this brand-new work -Beethoven having missed several previous writing deadlines- and the new musical ideas had no time to marinate before being foisted on the unprepared audience. Beethoven, who was very proud of his work, was furious when he learned of the bad premiere (which he did not attend. Even if he did, he would not have heard a single note). However, this performance is now just a funny footnote in the remarkable piece’s history, as its next performance, by the Bohm Quartet, quickly turned around the public reception. It is important to note that this work was composed simultaneously with his enormous and iconic Symphony No. 9, the ‘Ode to Joy’- perhaps that is why Beethoven struggled to finish his quartet on time.
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The E flat Major quartet is in 4 movements, and they outline a story that is very unlike the typical 'hero's journey' of travelling and conquering that we sometimes come to expect from long narrative works. This journey starts with a bold announcement, with the Maestoso introduction of the first movement, but quickly turns to contemplation. Although the opening theme returns, it is never in a way that announces a victory or an arrival home- instead, the movement melts into serenity. The theme and variations of the expansive second movement continues this rumination, with every facet of the stunningly simple melody getting a moment to reflect the light. The third movement, as light and fluffy as it may appear, also has a more sinister swirling energy, intent on knocking the graceful dancelike quality off of its feet. Finally, the fourth movement is a curious attempt to return home, with long trills (previous a simply a decorative element in the Baroque and Classical eras, which Beethoven now uses as a transformative harmonic device) and undulations reaching towards a finale that that feels like finally making to dry land after nearly 40 minutes at sea.
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Program notes by Emma Meinrenken
