Quartet in A minor, Op.35 (1894)

Moderato

Variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky

Finale

Although Arensky was one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most gifted pupils, he seems to have impressed his teacher more by his drinking and gambling achievements than by his creative ability. “The man burned himself out,” Rimsky declared after Arensky’s death. “But he was not without talent…In his youth he had not entirely escaped my own influence; later he fell under that of Tchaikovsky. He will soon be forgotten.” Obviously, in that last judgement Rimsky was wrong but, outside Russia at least, not very wrong. Arensky is known in this country for little more than the string-orchestra version of his Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, a delightful waltz in his First Suite for two pianos and this uniquely inspired Quartet in A minor for violin, viola and two cellos.

The unusually dark instrumentation of the Quartet in A minor was determined presumably by the memorial function of the work – which was written in 1894, soon after the death of Tchaikovsky, whom Arensky admired even more than he admired Mendelssohn. From the very opening bars, which seem to echo the rhythm of a funeral chant, the memorial aspect is unmistakably apparent. Even when that motif is not actually audible – on the introduction of the wistful second subject, for example, and in the agitated and oddly fragmented development section – its presence can still be felt. So when, after the last of several short cadenzas, the funeral chant reappears in a particularly sonorous form at the beginning of the recapitulation and when it returns again to close the movement, the structural pattern is neatly and inevitably complete.

The theme of second movement is taken from a Tchaikovsky song (Legend, Op.54, No.5) and the variations are entirely worthy of Arensky’s late hero. The kind of texture he prefers here is a sustained melodic line on one instrument in the midst of urgent or elaborately decorative activity on the others. The last variation chillingly recalls the funeral chant from the first movement. The Finale is a remarkable, and surely unprecedented, alternation of Orthodox liturgical melody and cheerful folk song – the latter familiar from its use by Beethoven as the “thème russe” in the third movement of his String Quartet Op.59 No.2. The contrast is taken to its extreme when the particularly gloomy second appearance of the liturgical material is succeeded by an entry of the folk song in such impetuous vigour that it cannot stop to look back.

Moderato

Variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky

Finale

Although Arensky was one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most gifted pupils, he seems to have impressed his teacher more by his drinking and gambling achievements than by his creative ability. “The man burned himself out,” Rimsky declared after Arensky’s death. “But he was not without talent…In his youth he had not entirely escaped my own influence; later he fell under that of Tchaikovsky. He will soon be forgotten.” Obviously, in that last judgement Rimsky was wrong but, outside Russia at least, not very wrong. Arensky is best known in this country for the string-orchestra version of his Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky and for a delightful waltz in his First Suite for two pianos. Taking his chamber music alone, however, we would be better off if we heard more of at least the first (in D minor) of his two piano trios, the Piano Quintet in D, and an earlier String Quartet in G major as well as the present, uniquely inspired Quartet in A minor for violin, viola and two cellos.

The unusually dark instrumentation of the Quartet in A minor was determined presumably by the memorial function of the work – which was written in 1894, soon after the death of Tchaikovsky, whom Arensky admired even more than he admired Mendelssohn. From the very opening bars, which seem (like the opening bars of the Andante funebre in Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet in E flat minor) to echo the rhythm of a funeral chant, the memorial aspect is unmistakably apparent. Even when that motif is not actually audible – on the introduction of the wistful second subject, for example, and in the agitated and oddly fragmented development section – its presence can still be felt. So when, after the last of several short cadenzas, the funeral chant reappears in a particularly sonorous form at the beginning of the recapitulation and when it returns again to close the movement, the cycle is neatly and inevitably complete.

The theme of second movement is taken from a Tchaikovsky song (Legend, Op.54, No.5) and –although one of them is very much more like Borodin than Tchaikovsky – the variations are entirely worthy of Arensky’s late hero. The kind of texture he prefers here is a sustained melodic line on one instrument in the midst of urgent or elaborately decorative activity on the others. He is remarkably resourceful in his scoring, even so, and above all perhaps in the brilliantly Mendelssohn-like scherzo which comes just before the Borodin nocturne. The last variation chillingly recalls the funeral chant from the first movement.

The Finale is a remarkable, and surely unprecedented, alternation of Orthodox liturgical melody and cheerful folk song – the latter familiar from its use by Beethoven as the “thème russe” in the third movement of his String Quartet Op.59 No.2. The contrast is taken to its extreme when the particularly gloomy second appearance of the liturgical material is succeeded by an entry of the folk song in such impetuous vigour that it cannot stop to look back.