Concert Number 90, Podcast Number

Concert Number 90, Podcast Number 95 on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Web site features Tchaikovsky's "Meditation" and Dvorak's "String Quintet in G Major, Op. 77." The podcast, entitled "Recycling Tchaikovsky and Dvorak," includes performances by violinist Nicholas Kendall, pianist Robert Koenig, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. At the beginning of the podcast, a narrator explains the background of both pieces. Tchaikovsky's "Meditation" is in the key of D-minor, presumably reflecting the composer's melancholy mood. As the narrator to the podcast notes, the "melancholy D-minor theme was likely born out of the difficulties in the composer's personal life." Indeed, the piece is wrought with difficult emotion, in keeping with the overall themes of the Romantic era. Dvorak's "String Quintet in G Major, Op. 77" has an entirely different emotional impact on the listener. The Czech composer imbues the piece with lively folk music elements that inspire the desire to dance, whereas the Russian's "Meditation" conveys a more bittersweet, disillusioned tone.

Tchaikovsky's "Meditation" opens with a solo piano introduction that is sad, solemn, and somber. At the onset of the piece, "Meditation" seems suitable for dinner or brunch music. However, the bittersweet tone likely renders it too depressing to be used in such a context. The piece opens with almost all the notes played in the lower register. The bass-heavy tones signal a low mood. After the violin comes in, the melody feels strained as if to parallel the emotional state of the composer. The effect on the listener is also one of emotional strain. The performers do an excellent job executing the sense of emotional strain, which is done with precision so as to come across as being clearly deliberate. The pianist and the violinist work well together, playing off each other or harmonizing as the composition demands. At times the piano serves as the melodic percussive instrument backing the melodic, wistful violin.

At other times, the two instruments seem to be in their own worlds. In fact, as the piece progresses, the distinction between piano and violin becomes clearer. First one instrument sounds agitated, then the other. The piano will be "saying" one thing, the violin something else -- just as if it were a married couple preparing for divorce and sharing their side of the story. Indeed, the story behind Tchaikovsky's "Meditation" is that the composer was going through a difficult divorce. Musical counterpoint is the ideal method of communicating the tension between emotional attachment and separation that divorce entails.

The piece finishes with a flourish as the violin screams out, as if to assert its independence. Tchaikovsky perfectly embodies the theme of divorce with the composition. Emotional agitation, sadness, longing for freedom, fear of the future, and bittersweet respect for a love that has come and gone are all imparted by the piece. I appreciated most of all the ability of Tchaikovsky to imbue the piece with mood and emotional power. Even if the "Meditation" is a slow piece that languishes at times, it is one that aptly reflects the mood the composer intended. Moreover, the performers executed the composition with aplomb.

Dvorak's "String Quintet in G Major, Op. 77" is in many ways easier to listen to than Tchaikovsky's "Meditation." The latter feels emotionally painful, whereas Dvorak's seems more like a fun folk dance. Repeating riffs and familiar sonic elements that continue throughout the five movements anchor the listener with hooks, and some of the musical elements are reminiscent of modern music. For example, the liberal use of plucked string instruments in the fifth movement reminds me of those elements in rock music even though the context is different. Similarly, the use of riffs and other repeating elements is reminiscent of rock and pop. Dvorak's "String Quintet in G Major, Op. 77" is therefore relatively easy on modern ears. Both the plucked instruments and the use of riffs throughout make Dvorak's "String Quintet in G Major, Op. 77" a pleasurable listening expeirence.

The narrator of the podcast calls the use of double bass "curious" but it would be hard to imagine the piece without it. Because of the steady bass elements throughout the string quintet, the piece seems almost danceable at times. Throughout much of the piece, Dvorak imparts a distinct Eastern European feel, incorporating unequivocal elements of folk music including the scales but also the rhythms. However, the last of the five movements hearkens more to the classical music tradition from which Dvorak draws. As the narrator of the podcast notes, Dvorak borrows from Mozart and Hayden while remaining true to his Bohemian roots.