Fine Arts Quartet Expands Its Forces

Photo courtesy of the Fine Arts Quartet.

Throughout its 80-year history, the Fine Arts Quartet has incorporated repertoire ranging well beyond music written for two violins, viola and cello. In May, during the first installment of this year’s annual residency in Milwaukee, the FAQ performed quartet-plus-one pieces written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Violinists Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, violist Gil Sharon and cellist Niklas Schmidt expand upon that theme on July 10 and 12, presenting two free concerts pairing strings and piano. The recitals are organized by Friends of the Fine Arts Quartet.

The FAQ’s July 10 concert spotlights two of the 16 chamber works Johannes Brahms wrote for strings and piano. Susan Key writes for the LA Phil that “each takes advantage of the [piano’s] power, range and contrast with the strings.”

The dark, dramatic C Minor Quartet No. 3 for violin, viola, cello and piano “offers plenty of interpretive temptations,” Key says. Brahms himself suggested it was inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1774 novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” The hero of the tale, Werther, commits suicide after falling in love with a married woman. Others believe the quartet contains musical references to Brahms’ own unrequited love for a married woman, pianist Clara Schumann. Pianist Gisele Witkowski will join the FAQ for the performance.

The F Minor Quintet for Piano and Strings is something of a hybrid. Brahms first wrote it for string quintet, adding a second cello. Responding to Brahms’ request for feedback, violinist Joseph Joachim didn’t exactly give it two thumbs up. “Every line shows some proof of overpowering strength,” he said. “But what is lacking is, in a word, charm.” Brahms then transcribed the string quintet as a sonata for two pianos. His dear friend Clara Schumann encouraged him to “please, remodel it once more!” Pianist Hermann Levi suggested the piano quintet form; that’s the version FAQ will perform with pianist Fabio Witkowski. “You have turned a monotonous work for two pianos into a thing of great beauty,” Levi wrote to Brahms. Its four movements express heroic tragedy, romance, suspense and smoldering tension.

The July 12 FAQ recital features pianist Alon Goldstein in performance of three concertos by Mozart, in which the string quartet, plus guest string bassist Patricia Weitzel, stand in for a larger chamber orchestra.

Mozart composed the three concertos, Nos. 11, 12 and 13, while living in Vienna. All three, all in major keys, were written as a group for performance at subscription concerts Mozart organized, hoping to gain recognition in that most musical of cities. In a letter to his father, Mozart called the three works “a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult; they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear and natural, without being vapid.”

Aiming to earn revenue from not only the sale of concert tickets but also the sale of scores, Mozart wrote and advertised the three concertos as being appropriate for playing with a chamber orchestra in the concert hall and at home accompanied by only a “quattro” (a string quartet). The FAQ will play the intimate piano-plus-quattro versions.

Both FAQ concerts take place at the UWM Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd. The Friday, July 10 concert begins at 7:30 p.m., with a pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m. The Sunday, July 12 concert is at 3 p.m., with a pre-talk at 2 p.m. No tickets or reservations are required.

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