String Quartet Concert
Mon. Jun 22 Lakeside Center, Bethel University
Pre-concert talk 6:30pm
Concert 7:30pm
3949 Bethel Drive, Arden Hills, MN 55112
Program
String QuartetHenriëtte Bosmans
String Quarter No. 3Viktor Ullmann
String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80Felix Mendelssohn
Program Notes
String QuartetHenriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952)
The String Quartet (1927) by Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans stands as a vibrant precursor to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Although it was written more than a decade before the occupation, the work captures the intensity and post-Romantic restlessness that would come to define her musical experience of resistance. As the daughter of a Jewish mother, Bosmans was targeted by the Nazi regime, and her music was banned from public performance by The Reich Chamber of Music in 1942. This quartet, written in three movements, is marked by protean textures and expressive volatility, and reflects a cultural world that Bosmans would eventually inhabit only in secret.
Stylistically, the piece exemplifies Dutch artistic trends of the time, one of which was the embrace of French Impressionism using ambiguous harmonies and varied timbres. This trend became more popular as time went on, and it eventually became a strong political statement: embracing a French influence was tantamount to opposing the Nazis. When Bosmans’ music was banned, she continued to perform as a pianist at “black evenings” (zwarte avonden), which were illegal underground concerts held in private homes. Bosmans risked her life to participate in these concerts, which were an important source of support for Jewish musicians, as well as an opportunity for vital connection in the broader Dutch community. rm
String Quartet No. 3Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944)
The String Quartet No. 3 (1943) by Austrian-Jewish composer Viktor Ullmann is a remarkable work composed under astonishing circumstances. In 1942, Ullmann was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he composed 23 works. Of this collection, 16 works, along with many fragments, survived. From this time, his String Quartet No. 3 is considered his greatest work. Marked by a clarity of form and expressive complexity, the work blends the structural rigor of the Second Viennese School with the lush lyricism of the late-Romantic style. It is a single-movement work divided into discrete sections of different moods, ranging from restlessness to tenderness to darkness, and emanating grace, energy, and conviction.
Before the Nazis took power, Ullmann had established himself as a prominent musician, known as both a composer and a conductor. Having studied with Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna, he went on to apprentice with Alexander von Zemlinsky in Prague and then worked extensively in Switzerland.
In October 1944, Ullmann gave his manuscripts to fellow prisoner and philosopher Emil Utitz for safekeeping. Days later, he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered. rm
String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
The String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 (composed in 1847) by Felix Mendelssohn is a work infused with the composer’s searing grief at the sudden passing of his sister and musical collaborator, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. This quartet was the final major work he composed before himself dying a few months later.
Mendelssohn was the grandson of the great Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and had Jewish heritage through his mother’s family as well. In 1816, Mendelssohn’s parents made the decision to have all their children baptized into the Lutheran Church, and to change the family surname to “Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” Despite this conversion, the family faced lifelong antisemitism in 19th-century Germany. Jumping ahead to 1933, the Nazi regime banned Mendelssohn’s music, labeling it “degenerate art”. They attempted to scrub his influence from the German canon, famously melting down his statue in Leipzig. For twelve years, works like the String Quartet No. 6 — perhaps the most “Modernist” and assertive of his works — were silenced across Europe. However, this multi-year attempt by the Nazis to erase Felix Mendelssohn’s musical voice from the human record failed. It is estimated that in 2025, more than 37% of all orchestral concerts world-wide included his music. rm
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