Program
Johannes Brahms
String sextet № 1 in B-flat major, Op.18
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
String sextet in A major
Details
String sextet is not the most popular chamber ensemble in the classical musical tradition. After six string sextets Op. 23, composed by Luigi Boccherini in 1776, composers turned to this ensemble only occasionally, usually to experiment or, at a young age, to try their hand. And while Arnold Schoenberg’s string sextet Verklärte Nacht is well-known these days, the earlier works for this ensemble are food for connoisseurs and gourmets.
In 1860, Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), a virtuoso pianist and composer of numerous songs, three piano sonatas, and Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra, wrote his Sextet in B-flat major, practising not so much in polyphony as in fullness of harmonic solutions. This melodious and bright composition is close to the style of Haydn and Schubert, to the music of the Viennese life. Clara Schumann heard the second movement of the sextet when it was still a work in progress: at her request, Brahms transcribed the Andante for piano and presented it to her for her birthday. Today it is known as Theme and Variations in D minor. When the score was completed, Sextet in B-flat major premiered in the quartet concerts by Brahms’ colleague and friend, violinist Joseph Joachim, who criticised the piece for lack of energy in the finale. In 1865, Brahms wrote his String Sextet No. 2 in G major. But thenceforth, the composer of numerous chamber instrumental works was more drawn to ensembles that included his favourite piano.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) wrote his String Sextet in A major (as well as Quintet in B-flat major) for a chamber music competition announced in 1876 by the Russian Musical Society. His works did not win a prize; the winner was Eduard Nápravník. The first performance of the sextet took place in 1877, but it was published only in 1912 posthumously. Rimsky-Korsakov, a professor of composition and orchestration at the St Petersburg Conservatoire since 1871, devoted his time to self-education, which was reflected in his art. In My Musical Life, the composer describes his only sextet with a discreet satisfaction: ‘My sextet shaped itself into five movements. In it I now strove less for counterpoint, but Movement II (Allegretto Scherzando) I wrote in the form of a very complicated six-part fugue, and I find it very successful as to technique. It resulted in a double fugue, even with counterpoint at the tenth. In the Trio of the Scherzo (Movement III) I also made use of the form of a three-part fugue for the first violin, the first viola and first cello in tarantella time, while the other instruments play the accompaniment to the fugue continuously in pizzicato chords. The Adagio proved melodious with a very ingenious accompaniment. Movements I and V gave me less satisfaction. Taken all in all, the work proved technically good, but in it I still was not myself.’