Souvenir de Florence

march 16, 2025, 4 pm

Jaime Laredo, violin

Cathy Meng Robinson, violin

Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt, viola

James Thompson, viola

Peter Wiley, cello

Sharon Robinson, cello

Tchaikovsky portrays his fond memories of Italy through the rich sonority of six strings in his Souvenir de Florence. This program also features a string quintet by a young and inspired Mozart and opens with Arensky’s imaginative quartet with two cellos that he dedicated to the memory of his close colleague, Tchaikovsky. 

The length of this concert is approximately 2 hours, including intermission.

Program Notes

Anton Arensky (1861–1905)
String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 35

A gifted composer and pianist, Anton Arensky trained under Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After graduation, Arensky relocated to teach at the Moscow Conservatory, where his students included Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Glière. There he became a close colleague of Tchaikovsky, who had a dramatic influence on Arensky’s style. Following Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893, Arensky composed his String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor as a tribute to his mentor. The work, completed in 1894, reflects both Arensky’s deep admiration for Tchaikovsky and his own affinity for Russian Orthodox chant and folk traditions. Notably, he scored the quartet for the unusual combination of violin, viola and two cellos, lending the piece a rich, somber sonority suited to its memorial purpose.

The quartet opens with a solemn, chant-like theme that evokes Russian liturgical music, a nod to both Arensky’s position as director of the Imperial Chapel and to Tchaikovsky’s own use of similar material in his String Quartet No. 3. This funereal melody weaves through the movement, even as a more animated secondary theme briefly lightens the atmosphere. The second movement—Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky—forms the emotional and structural core of the quartet. The theme is drawn from Tchaikovsky’s song Legend (Op. 54, No. 5), which tells the story of Christ planting a tree later used for his crown of thorns. Arensky presents the primary theme simply, before unfolding it into seven imaginative variations. These range from playful and scherzo-like to deeply expressive, culminating in a final variation that inverts the theme—an allusion to the tradition of inverting rifles in military funerals.

The Finale (Andante sostenuto—Allegro moderato) begins in the same elegiac mood as the preceding movements, but soon introduces a striking contrast: the Russian folk melody Slava! (“Glory”), famously quoted by Mussorgsky in Boris Godunov and by Beethoven in his Razumovsky Quartet No. 2. This bold gesture, which shifts the quartet from lamentation to triumph, has been interpreted as Arensky symbolically crowning Tchaikovsky as Russia’s greatest composer. The movement gains energy through fugal writing and builds toward a spirited conclusion, merging reverence with celebration. While the quartet’s distinctive scoring enhances its dark-hued lyricism, Arensky later arranged it for the standard string quartet configuration, ensuring its lasting place in the chamber repertoire.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
String Quintet No. 1 in B-flat Major, K. 174

Mozart composed his String Quintet No. 1 in B-flat Major, K. 174 in December 1773, when he was only 17 years old. At the time, the string quintet as a form was still in its early stages, and Mozart’s inspiration likely came from the viola quintets of Michael Haydn, a close friend and the younger brother of Joseph Haydn. While chamber music was still largely considered light entertainment the period was one of rapid evolution—Joseph Haydn’s Op. 20 quartets had just been written, establishing the string quartet as a serious artistic medium. Mozart, too, was on the cusp of maturity, and this early quintet reflects both his youthful exuberance and his growing ambition, marking his first foray into a genre he would later redefine with his great viola quintets.

The opening movement balances elegance with flashes of wit and surprise. Its charming opening melody is interrupted almost immediately by an assertive orchestral response, an early sign of Mozart’s playful approach to musical structure. Throughout, he experiments with unexpected pauses, dramatic shifts and seamless phrase connections that would later become hallmarks of his style. The Adagio offers a striking contrast—its muted strings and simple, unison theme create a hushed, almost sacred atmosphere. A sudden, impassioned episode in the second half heightens the drama, leading through tense harmonic suspensions before resolving peacefully. These moments of expressive contrast hint at the depth Mozart would later bring to his mature chamber works.

The Menuetto is notable for its cleverly contrasting Trio, where the ensemble divides into bright, assertive voices echoed by a softer, more shadowy response. The final Allegro underwent significant revision, giving us insight into Mozart’s evolving compositional process. His original bravura opening theme was replaced with a lighter, more buoyant melody, while the earlier theme was repurposed later in the movement. Overflowing with carefree, dance-like themes, the Finale underscores the quintet’s origins as both an ambitious chamber work and a divertimento-like entertainment piece. Although Mozart would go on to write more profound quintets, this first foray into the genre already reveals his keen sense of form, drama and instrumental interplay.

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
String Sextet in D Minor, Souvenir de Florence

Tchaikovsky’s String Sextet in D Minor, Op. 70, Souvenir de Florence, took shape over several years, with sketches dating back to 1887. However, most of the work was completed in 1890, following his stay in Florence, Italy. Despite this reference, the work itself is far more Russian than Italian in character, reflecting Tchaikovsky’s complex relationship with the city. Although he found brief enjoyment in its art and atmosphere, his letters reveal feelings of restlessness and homesickness, suggesting that his true “souvenir” of Florence was more about nostalgia than direct musical inspiration.

The sextet was also a departure from Tchaikovsky’s usual compositional focus. He had little affinity for chamber music, admitting to his brother Modest that writing for six independent yet cohesive voices was “frightfully difficult.” The challenge proved significant—after its 1890 premiere, he undertook extensive revisions, particularly in the third and fourth movements, before arriving at the final version in 1892.

The first movement bursts to life with an energetic main theme, bold and passionate in a distinctly Russian manner, contrasted by a second, more lyrical melody reminiscent of an Italian serenade. These themes intertwine in contrapuntal development, culminating in a dramatic coda. The second movement—Adagio cantabile e con moto—the only one in a major key, offers a song-like respite, with a warm violin melody accompanied by pizzicato strings in a guitar-like fashion. A striking middle section features tremulous, whispering chords played at the tip of the bow, adding a ghostly dimension before the return of the main theme.

The third movement is bittersweet and nostalgic, with the first viola introducing a wistful main theme whose Russian character subtly foreshadows the finale. The last movement is a whirlwind of folk-like energy, built around a pentatonic theme that evokes the Caucasus rather than the Mediterranean. A vigorous fugato passage—a nod to Tchaikovsky’s admiration for counterpoint—adds structural complexity before the work concludes in a fiery, exuberant rush. Despite his initial struggles with the genre, Souvenir de Florence remains one of Tchaikovsky’s most beloved chamber works, showcasing his gift for melody, drama and orchestral richness—even within the confines of a string sextet.