Program notes

by Joshua Berrett, Ph.D.

Program Notes help our listeners navigate through and engage more deeply with the music. They bridge the gap between composer and audience, evoking emotional responses and enhancing comprehension for a richer concert experience.

Remembering Isobel Perry

The Board of the Westchester Chamber Music Society is dedi cating this concert to the memory of our cherished, longtime colleague, Isobel Perry. Isobel loved classical music, and chamber music was her favorite. Isobel’s family always shared her love of music, especially during her last few years. Her companion in her home was WQXR. We are grateful to Isobel for her many years of service.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, K. 387

Completed on December 31, 1782, Mozart’s K. 387, “Spring” is the first of six quartets often referred to as “The Haydn Quartets.” Upon completing the set in 1785, Mozart published a memorable dedication page, originally in Italian, which opens as follows:

“To my dear friend Haydn,

A father who had resolved to send his children out into the great world took it to be his duty to confide them to the protection and guidance of a very celebrated Man, especially when the latter by good fortune was at the same time his best Friend. Here they are then,

O great Man and dearest Friend, these six children of mine. They are, it is true, the fruit of a long and laborious endeavor, yet the hope inspired in me by several Friends that it may be at least partly compensated encourages me, and I flatter myself that this offspring will serve to afford me solace one day.”

It is most telling that Mozart speaks of these works as “the fruit of a long and laborious endeavor.” His words allude to his efforts from 1782 to 1785, with many distractions along the way, to seamlessly weave into the fabric of his string quartet textures strands of imitative polyphony and linear chromaticism. And the impetus behind this effort came principally from one man—Baron Gottfried Van Swieten, diplomat and prefect of Vienna’s Imperial Library who had brought back to Vienna a treasure trove of the music of J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel. But, not only that: Van Swieten had been vigorously promoting concerts of these Baroque masters, a move that was to prove transformative during Mozart’s final years as well as in music historiography itself.

The Mozart string quartet opening this afternoon’s concert is a vivid example of this reconceived fabric. A vaulting three-note motif is announced by the first violin as part of the opening theme of this sonata-form movement. By the fourth measure one hears a descending chromatic linear fragment— a detail that is reworked in multiple ways in the course of the movement, whether descending or ascending. Striking as well is Mozart’s intermittent use of dynamics to draw attention to this very chromaticism. He does so by alternating “p” and “f ” markings on individual quarter notes.

In fact, this detail helps interconnect his first and second movements. Departing from the norm, Mozart makes his second movement a Minuet where the ascending line of the main theme is replete with the same dynamic touches. Contrast comes with the Trio, a section cast in the parallel key of G minor.

The C-major slow movement, an Andante cantabile, is true to its tempo marking—a wondrous walk through a place of song. Much of it is graced by exquisite embellishment.

All of this serves as a perfect foil for the Molto Allegro finale. Back in the home key, this movement is a stunning example of Mozart’s sheer compositional brilliance as he fuses sonata form with fugal wizardry and a touch of opera buffa. With its principal theme made up of four whole notes spread over four measures, this movement foreshadows the more expanded finale of his “Jupiter” Symphony that he was to compose some six years later in the summer of 1788.

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): String Quartet No. 3 (1947)

Grażyna Bacewicz was a highly accomplished Polish com poser, violinist, and pianist, celebrated as one of Poland’s most significant 20th-century musicians. Born in Lódz, she studied composition and violin in Warsaw and Paris under luminaries like Nadia Boulanger and Carl Flesch respectively. Renowned for her versatility, Bacewicz excelled in composing, performing, and teaching. Her prolific output of over 200 works includes symphonies, violin concertos, seven string quartets, a quartet for four violins, and solo violin pieces, often blending neoclassical clarity with modernist elements inspired by Bartók and Stravinsky. Despite challenges under Soviet censorship, her work was recognized internationally. The U.S. cases in point were her 1948 Concerto for String Orchestra, performed by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and her 1966 Contradizione for Chamber Orchestra, heard at Dartmouth College.

Bacewicz’s string quartet on today’s program is a fine example of her neoclassical style in the way it blends rhythmic vitality, contrapuntal complexity, and harmonic sophistication. Composed during her stay in Paris after World War II, the work reflects both her technical mastery and the creative inspiration she found in the French capital, especially after the devastation of her Polish homeland and the Warsaw Uprising. Bacewicz described her new-found milieu as having “an ineffable quality which is favorable to creative work.” The quartet was premiered on December 8, 1947, in Kraków, Poland, and later received the Polish Ministry of Culture Award in 1955.

True to its neo-classical style, this quartet epitomizes a clarity of form and motivic mastery fused with innovative harmonic textures. At the same time, it avoids extreme emotional contrasts, instead achieving balance and coherence through its linear structures and contrapuntal interplay. The opening Allegro ma non troppo follows a sonata-allegro structure with symmetrical A-B-B’-A’ sections. Much of the movement’s drama is generated by the interplay of toccata-like material in duple meter, featuring pulsing sixteenth notes and contrapuntal motion, and a somewhat pensive lyricism in triple meter first heard in the viola. Although much of the time tonality and harmony can be ambiguous, the movement’s closing measures are centered around B major.

In the Andante, we find the emotional core of the work. Although through-composed, it does suggest features of an arch form. Lyrical and passionate, the movement is rich in harmonics, and plangent eighth-note passages of dark intensity. But tension relaxes when we reach the close as the movement finds a comfortable resting place in C major—all of which prepares us for the F-centered finale.

The Vivo finale, approximating a rondo form, bristles with energy and joy. There is close to perpetual motion in sixteenth notes coupled with the masterly transformation of motifs. The rapid tempo demands technical brilliance from the performers, making for an exhilarating ending to the quartet.

Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904): String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 51, B. 92, "Slavonic"

“You will find pleasure in them as I did, and, as a publisher you will be specially delighted with their piquancy. Dvořák is a very talented man—and poor besides. I beg you think it over.”

So wrote Johannes Brahms in an 1877 letter to his publisher, Fritz Simrock. He had just been serving multiple times as one of the judges on a distinguished panel charged with evaluating composers competing for the Austrian State Prize. Dvořák had won in 1875 and twice in 1877. Simrock was persuaded. The 1878 publication of Dvořák’s Moravian Duets closely followed by his Slavonic Dances, caused a sensation in the capitals of Europe and in even such far-flung locales such as Cincinnati, Ohio, with its sizeable Bohemian population. Now in his mid-thirties, Dvořák would no longer be eking out a living in the obscurity of his native Bohemia.

In the sweep of this nationalistic fervor, Dvořák was commissioned in 1879 to compose what turned out to be his String Quartet No. 10, "Slavonic." True to its moniker, this is a work replete with folk materials. It opens with a sonata-form movement that embodies Dvořák warm lyricism, rhythmic vitality, and Slavonic folk idioms. And mixed in are elements that take us back to first acoustic principles The very first sound we hear is that of the cello sounding a low E-flat. Over the first six measures it plays a rising and falling pattern consisting of the fundamental E-flat, the perfect fifth, and the octave above—a pattern reprised exactly in the coda. Incidentally, this three-pitch motif has come to signify matters of cosmic scope, of questions concerning the very purpose of human existence. A very familiar example is the stirring trumpet motif heard at the beginning Richard Strauss’s Thus Spake Zarathustra as popularized thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Slavonic folk idioms to listen for include the playful duple rhythm hinting at the two-step polka. And most important in helping articulate the movement’s structure is a catchy folk-like 14-note riff that has definite earworm potential. It appears as we move toward the end of the exposition, where it is heard played an octave apart by first and second violins, followed shortly by a repetition featuring second violin and viola. The same material recurs as we launch into the recapitulation. Last, but not least, this movement includes some stand-out reflective, even reverential moments, such as an A major-minor episode in the development section marked by telling shifts in register. It is matched in general mood by the gentle molto tranquillo passages closing the movement.

The second movement, marked Elegie-Dumka: Andante con moto—Vivace is a quintessentially Slavic heroic ballad form where an opening slow lament makes a mercurial shift to an exuberant faster tempo—a form Dvořák was often drawn to. Incidentally, readers will be reminded that his Piano Trio Op. 90, “Dumky,” is made up entirely of six dumka movements. In this case, Dvořák switches back and forth between a G-minor section given special intensity by the plangent plucking of the cello, not to mention by the very affecting exchange of phrases between first violin and viola as well as between first and second violins. A lively Vivace peasant dance in triple meter in the spirit of the furiant provides welcome contrast. The movement’s Presto ending, centered in G minor, suggests a certain ambivalence.

The Romanza third movement evokes a nocturnal atmosphere, unfolding as a series of developing variations, including ethereal antiphonal effects between upper and lower strings. Centered in B-flat, this is music that tugs at the heartstrings. By the same token, this very quality serves as a perfect foil for what follows. The finale is a rollicking rondo back in the home key with a lively Bohemian fiddle tune, somewhat like the Irish reel, as its main subject. Known as the skoˇcná, this is a type of tune that is featured in a number of Dvořák Slavonic Dances and elsewhere. The movement is a tour de force in its display of contrapuntal virtuosity, motivic interplay, and registral shifts among the instruments. Adding cohesiveness to the whole are interludes recalling earlier material—all making for an exhilarating climax to a remarkable work.

Joshua Berrett © 2026

About the Performers:

The Tesla Quartet is known the world over for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style, or technical demand” (The International Review of Music). From cutting edge contemporary works to established masterpieces, the Tesla Quartet’s emotive and thoughtful interpretations reveal the ensemble’s deep commitment to the craft and to their ever-expanding repertoire. The quartet recognizes the power of their platform to amplify underrepresented voices and to encourage the proliferation of an equitable and just future for society as well as a hospitable climate for posterity.

Now in its 16th season, the quartet performs regularly across North America and Europe, with recent highlights including their debut at New York’s Lincoln Center, a return to London’s Wigmore Hall, and performances at Stanford University’s Bing Concert Hall as winners of the prestigious John Lad Prize. Other recent international engagements include tours of Brazil, China, and South Korea.

Ross Snyder, violin, is the founding first violinist of the Tesla Quartet, which formed at the Juilliard School in 2008 and recently completed its tenure as the Graduate String Quartet in-Residence at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Recent prizes of the Tesla Quartet include the Gold Medal at the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Third Prize at the 2012 Wigmore Hall London International String Quartet Competition. A fellow of the 2007 and 2011 Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals, Snyder began studying chamber music with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Michelle Lie, violin, is an active performer in comprehensive musical genres. Lie has been featured in diverse performances throughout the country. She was a founding member of the Iannis String Quartet and received the Special Recognition award from the Plowman Chamber Music Competition in 2008. Lie has performed as first violinist with Aeolus String Quartet (Silver Medal winner of Fischoff Competition 2011) during its residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in the summer of 2010. Her other chamber-music festival appearances include fellowships at the Norfolk Yale Chamber Music Festival, Perlman Music Program, St. Lawrence String quartet seminar, and Sunflower Music Festival.

Edwin Kaplan, viola, continues to forge a versatile identity as a recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. He has performed on concert series across the United States, including Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, the La Jolla Chamber Music Society, the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C., Lyrica Chamber Music, Tanglewood, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, and with the Burlington Ensemble of Vermont.

Austin Fisher, cello, joined the Tesla Quartet in January, 2023. An active soloist and chamber musician, Fisher has been praised for his “virtuosity, refinement, and style” (South Florida Classical Review). Now based in Brooklyn, Fisher is the former Assistant Principal Cello of the Colorado Symphony. He served as Acting Principal Cello for the 2016-17 season and made his solo debut with the Symphony performing Saint Saëns’ Cello Concerto No.1.

Program Notes - Tesla Quartet

March 16, 2025