Quartet Performs ‘Ode To Napoleon’

The Spokane String Quartet will perform later works by Haydn, Beethoven and Schoenberg this Sunday afternoon.

They will be joined by pianist David Rostkoski and Johanne Blank as a reciter for Schoenberg’s Opus 41, “Ode to Napoleon.” The piece is based on the “Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte” by Lord Byron and calls for the narrator to take on a vocal style halfway between speaking and singing.

Arnold Schoenberg is the composer people love to hate. His name is cited often when unlistenable music is the subject of conversation, since his explorations in serial technique left many out in the cold.

In spite of this slander, I heartily recommend that you go hear some Schoenberg. The Spokane String Quartet has a knack for bringing out the best in 20th century music, and that is Blank’s strong suit as well.

The “Ode to Napoleon” was written in 1942, a year after Schoenberg became a U.S. citizen. Decades earlier, his 12-tone compositions had set the world on its ear.

His declining health and depression slowed down his pace of composition, but he took each of his later works as a chance to re-examine serial methods from a new angle. Although 12-tone writing is essentially an atonal technique, Schoenberg gives the “Ode” the occasional tonal anchor and ends it in E-flat.

Byron’s poem lambastes the ambition of tyrants and the waste of war, and becomes Schoenberg’s vehicle for lashing out at the frustrations and despair of World War II.

For a light and airy contrast, Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No. 1 will open the program. This piece is from Haydn’s later years in Vienna, and not only reflects his total comfort in writing chamber music, but the enlightened sophistication of the time.

Haydn’s one-time student, Ludwig van Beethoven, penned the last work on the program in the final years of his life as well. His Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 is the one that originally included the Great Fugue as the last movement, but was separated at birth because the publisher thought it was too long. The remaining portion contains the characteristic folk-inspired dance and some wonderful melodic material.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: STRING QUARTET The Spokane String Quartet will perform Sunday at 3 p.m. at The Met. Tickets: $12 for adults and $10 for seniors/students; available at Hoffman Music, Street Music and through G&B Select-a-Seat (325-SEAT).