How programmatic is Janacek's Kreutzer Sonata quartet?

[Dave2002]

I'm currently listening to, and looking at some scores of Janacek's Kreutzer Sonata quartet. It is, as is often told, based on Tolstoy's novel "The Kreutzer Sonata". Whilst it seems certain that Janacek was inspired by the novel, is there any evidence that the quartet is truly programmatic, and if so, are there any significant points in the work. In the version of the score I've seen there are markings, such as "desperately", but nothing to indicate what that might refer to.

At one concert I went to it was suggested that the moment at which Pozdnyshev kills his wife with a dagger could be identified, but I'm really not convinced. To me the work suggests passion, but not a specific series of events.

Perhaps Janacek wrote about, or discussed this work, which could give more clues.

[makropulos]

That's a very interesting question.

Unfortunately Janáček doesn't seem to have had much to say in terms of things that might give us clues about the programme. I think your impression is almost certainly right - there are ideas from the novel that permeate the music, but not specific incidents.

Among other bits of evidence:
1. Janáček's copy of the Tolstoy novella is heavily annotated by him - these are described in detail in an article (in Czech) from 1962 about his library of Russian books.
That might suggest quite a close programmatic link, but as far as I know, none of the musical materials (there's a stack of sketches, for instance) has any mention of specific incidents in the story.

2. The Piano Trio from 1908/9, also based on the same Tolstoy novella, is lost. Just how much material it shared with the Quartet is a matter of conjecture, but there was certainly some connection - the surviving sketches for it have the same quotation from Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata that appears in the Quartet, and the Quartet itself was fully drafted two weeks after Janáček received the commission for it. Even so, as John Tyrrell points out, the sound of the Quartet is very much the sort of music Janáček was writing in 1923, not 1908/9, so it's certainly not a simple transcription. Janáček himself said it 'arose from some ideas' in the Trio.

However, according to one description of it (by the violinist in the first performance), this Trio might have been a bit more explicit in terms of programme. He wrote that the first movement opened with a figure in sextuplets depicting the train in motion, for instance. This music doesn't appear in the Quartet.

There's a lot more about this, including an extensive article by Paul Wingfield from 1987 (in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association) that explores the sources and history of the Trio, and its possible relationship to the Quartet (though he wasn't aware of the batch of sketches for the Quartet, which weakens one of his arguments).

None of this helps very much - except to underline that as far as I know Janáček never wrote an explicit programme, nor intended one except in terms of the emotional world of the novel rather than particular moments in it.

I hope that's some use!

[Chris Newman]

I, like most people, see nothing programmatic in the First Quartet. It is music of moods rather than actions. However, I sometimes wonder whether Janáček's feelings might have been affected by his unrequited (as far as we know) love for Kamilla Stösslová knowing that he was married. The Trio had been written (1908/9)when his thoughts would have been innocent. The Quartet was written very quickly in 1923, some eight years after first meeting the single Kamilla who subsequently married. Is it possible that his tortured thoughts, whilst returning to the Trio and Tolstoy's story, could have momentarily turned to or imagined dark deeds? OK, Zdenka, his wife, was not a first violin in a String Quartet......but.....am I reading too much into Tolstoy's story?

[makropulos]

I, like most people, see nothing programmatic in the First Quartet. It is music of moods rather than actions. However, I sometimes wonder whether Janáček's feelings might have been affected by his unrequited (as far as we know) love for Kamilla Stösslová knowing that he was married. The Trio had been written (1908/9)when his thoughts would have been innocent. The Quartet was written very quickly in 1923, some eight years after first meeting the single Kamilla who subsequently married. Is it possible that his tortured thoughts, whilst returning to the Trio and Tolstoy's story, could have momentarily turned to or imagined dark deeds? OK, Zdenka, his wife, was not a first violin in a String Quartet......but.....am I reading too much into Tolstoy's story?

I agree re moods rather than actions.

As for a possible Kamila connection, I'm not sure it's likely. In his letters to her, Janáček told Kamila at great length about things she inspired in some way. There's no mention of that in connection with the Quartet and it really was his habit to make such things explicit to her if to nobody else.

Also, a small correction: Kamila was not single when she first met Janáček in 1917! She married David Stössel on 5 May 1912 so had already been married for five years when they met at Luhačovice.

[doversoul1]

I don’t think this is news to anybody but just in case.

Intimate Letters: Loes Janacek to Kamila Stosslova. Edited and translated by John Tyrrell (1994)

P.S. Please ignore the anglicised spelling.

[Chris Newman]

I found an interesting note by Milan Skampa, leader of the Smetana Quartet, that he includes in the Skampa Quartet's CD of the Janacek Quartets. He quotes Janacek

' ("The quartet arose out of several ideas taken from that work," in the composer's own words) and filled with feelings of love and compassion, set about creating an even more urgent expression of his burning "sympathy for that poor, downtrodden female being."One of the most remarkable consequences of Janacek's own, very unique set of compositional rules is that in the very music of this quartet we can trace the main outline of the story, follow its tangled plot and even, upon closer study of the score, establish the extent to which Janacek departs from Tolstoy's rendering of that tragic story of which jealousy is roused by the strains of Beethoven's music. For whilst Tolstoy perceives music as the greatest cause of adultery known to mankind, holds love up to ridicule and condemns marriage as a perilous sham, for Janacek music and love are among the greatest of all virtues, the most precious gifyts of human life. Jancek writes of his quartet -whose four movements correspond to the exposition, peripeteia, crisis and catastrophic catharsis in Classical drama - that "I had in mind a poor and tormented woman, one beaten and eventually destroyed, like the one described by the Russian writer Tolstoy in his work The Kreutzer Sonata".'

Skampa goes on to observe that the opening phrase comes from a Czech/Moravian folksong "Oh, I had a sweet lass" of which LJ was very fond. The third movement is developed from LJ's motive/theme Jealousy heard in the original prelude of that name for Jenufa and is built on the lyrical subsidiary theme of the first movement of LvB's Kreutzer. The third movement is a portrait of the tormented woman and the fourth the catharsis felt as in the operas where the victim and wrong-doer wins restored dignity. Skampa goes on to say the first Quartet reflects upon the rejuvinating power of love through his feelings for Kamilla and the second is a purgative open confession thanking the object of his love.

[makropulos]

I found an interesting note by Milan Skampa, leader of the Smetana Quartet, that he includes in the Skampa Quartet's CD of the Janacek Quartets. He quotes Janacek

' ("The quartet arose out of several ideas taken from that work," in the composer's own words) and filled with feelings of love and compassion, set about creating an even more urgent expression of his burning "sympathy for that poor, downtrodden female being."One of the most remarkable consequences of Janacek's own, very unique set of compositional rules is that in the very music of this quartet we can trace the main outline of the story, follow its tangled plot and even, upon closer study of the score, establish the extent to which Janacek departs from Tolstoy's rendering of that tragic story of which jealousy is roused by the strains of Beethoven's music. For whilst Tolstoy perceives music as the greatest cause of adultery known to mankind, holds love up to ridicule and condemns marriage as a perilous sham, for Janacek music and love are among the greatest of all virtues, the most precious gifyts of human life. Jancek writes of his quartet -whose four movements correspond to the exposition, peripeteia, crisis and catastrophic catharsis in Classical drama - that "I had in mind a poor and tormented woman, one beaten and eventually destroyed, like the one described by the Russian writer Tolstoy in his work The Kreutzer Sonata".'

Skampa goes on to observe that the opening phrase comes from a Czech/Moravian folksong "Oh, I had a sweet lass" of which LJ was very fond. The third movement is developed from LJ's motive/theme Jealousy heard in the original prelude of that name for Jenufa and is built on the lyrical subsidiary theme of the first movement of LvB's Kreutzer. The third movement is a portrait of the tormented woman and the fourth the catharsis felt as in the operas where the victim and wrong-doer wins restored dignity. Skampa goes on to say the first Quartet reflects upon the rejuvinating power of love through his feelings for Kamilla and the second is a purgative open confession thanking the object of his love.

Fascinating, Chris - thanks for the quote.
Does Skampa say when or where LJ said or wrote it? It's not in John Tyrrell's wonderful edition of letters to Kamila mentioned above by doversoul (I looked in there yesterday).

[Chris Newman]

Hi, makropoulos,
Unfortunately not. I think I shall continue to search though as it does throw light on the subject. Unfortunately I only have John Tyrrell's book on opera, the very brief Hollander and a delightful book of illustrated notes by LJ edited by his friend Vilem Tausky. It was only after positing my rather awful suggestion in message 3 that I thought I better start looking, so I dipped into sleeve notes of recordings and found Skampa's short essay. Skampa was like LJ a scholar of Moravian folk music which I guess is where he identified the folk elements and of course he edited the quartets in the way that LJ originally intended them. The Skampa Quartet's version really does sound astonishingly violent compared with Skampa's own Smetana Quartet or the Talich's to mention two sets I also have.

[Roehre]

Great postings, makropulos and chris

[makropulos]

Hi, makropoulos,
Unfortunately not. I think I shall continue to search though as it does throw light on the subject. Unfortunately I only have John Tyrrell's book on opera, the very brief Hollander and a delightful book of illustrated notes by LJ edited by his friend Vilem Tausky. It was only after positing my rather awful suggestion in message 3 that I thought I better start looking, so I dipped into sleeve notes of recordings and found Skampa's short essay. Skampa was like LJ a scholar of Moravian folk music which I guess is where he identified the folk elements and of course he edited the quartets in the way that LJ originally intended them. The Skampa Quartet's version really does sound astonishingly violent compared with Skampa's own Smetana Quartet or the Talich's to mention two sets I also have.

Christmas is coming and all that... so it's maybe worth saying that John Tyrrell's two-volume biography of LJ is utterly phenomenal. (I know it's also very expensive - but really worth it - and for those with the technology, I see there's even a kindle version of both volumes!)

I know what you mean about the Skampa Quartet performances - it's a while since I heard them, but I remember them being really uncompromising. I grew up with the Janacek Quartet on Supraphon (my grandad had it in his smallish but amazingly enterprising record collection) and still find myself comparing every new recording with that one.

[Chris Newman]

Hi makropoulos,
Thank you. I have ordered my Christmas present.

I googled the quotations that Skampa used and found this site:

http://www.leosjanacek.co.uk/chamber.htm

They say that "I had in mind a poor and tormented woman, one beaten and eventually destroyed, like the one described by the Russian writer Tolstoy in his work The Kreutzer Sonata". comes from a letter to Kamilla Stösslová. Of course, the translation I used wasn't Tyrrell's.

[rodney_h_d]

I found an interesting note by Milan Skampa, leader of the Smetana Quartet.....

Thanks for that information, Chris. Just for the sake of good order[!], Milan Škampa was the Smetana Quartet's viola player. The Škampa Quartet's viola Radim Sedmidubský told me recently that he currently plays an instrument previously owned by Milan Škampa. Škampa himself is of course well known for teaching and mentoring many string players including another outstanding Czech group - the Pavel Haas Quartet, and as far as I know continues to do so.

[Chris Newman]

Hi makropoulos,
Thank you. I have ordered my Christmas present.

And Christmas has come early. Two enormous volumes arrived yesterday