David Diamond: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2

 

 

At the premiere of Quartet No. 10

 

October 29, 1966

 

American University,Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

Diamond Quartets Volume Two

 

 

 

Interviews and notes compiled

 

by Steven Honigberg

 

Additional information provided by

 

James R. Heintze and Dr. Richard Crouch:

 

 

 

DAVID DIAMOND, the eminent American

 

composer, was born in Rochester, New York

 

on July 9, 1915, the only son of Austrian and

 

Polish immigrants. His musical talents

 

revealed themselves very early when he

 

taught himself to play the violin at the age

 

of seven and devised a system of violin

 

notation all his own. From 1927-29, his

 

family lived with relatives in Cleveland

 

where he found an important friend and

 

patron in Andrè de Ribaupierre, a Swiss

 

musician who gave him formal training in

 

violin and music theory at the Cleveland

 

Institute of Music. In 1928, Ribaupierre

 

introduced him to the great composer

 

Ravel, who made a lasting impression on

 

him. When his family moved back to

 

Rochester, Diamond juggled regular high

 

school classes with violin and composition

 

studies at the Eastman School of Music.

 

When he graduated from high school, he

 

had already completed over 100 works, all

 

of which he later discarded as juvenilia.

 

 

 

In 1934, Diamond left Rochester for New

 

York, where he became a scholarship

 

student of Roger Sessions at the New

 

Music School. Around this time, he made

 

the first of three artistically significant trips

 

to Paris in the 1930s. There he met Ravel

 

again and came into contact with composers

 

Milhaud and Roussel, the conductor

 

Charles Munch, and writers Andrè Gide

 

and James Joyce. He would always have a

 

special place in his heart for French music,

 

especially that of Ravel, his ideal, whose

 

music he would describe as “the most

 

perfect, the most imaginative and the most

 

moving” of all contemporary music.

 

 

 

During his second and third trips to Paris

 

(1937-39), Diamond studied composition

 

with Nadia Boulanger at the American

 

Conservatory in Fontainebleau. In 1937,

 

the latter introduced him to Stravinsky,

 

whose advice and encouragement were

 

very important to him. In 1940, he

 

returned to New York as World War II was

 

spreading through Europe.

 

 

 

In the 1940s, Diamond found it difficult to

 

make ends meet but managed to produce

 

some of his best-known works.

 

Fortunately, he continued to receive

 

several awards and commissions that

 

helped sustain him. For two years (1943-

 

45), he played violin in the weekly Carnegie

 

Hall radio show Your Hit Parade. It was during

 

this time that he composed his String

 

Quartet No. 2, as well as his Rounds for string

 

orchestra, one of his most popular and

 

widely played works.

 

 

 

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Diamond

 

lived and worked in Italy, first in Rome

 

(1951) and then in Florence where he

 

settled. Among other things, he left the

 

states to escape the repressive atmosphere

 

of the McCarthy era at the time. In

 

1956 he returned to be with his gravely ill

 

mother and played violin for a time in the

 

Candide orchestra under Leonard

 

Bernstein. In 1965 at the age of 50,

 

Diamond returned to the United States

 

on a permanent basis. In 1966-67, he

 

served as chair of the composition

 

department at the Manhattan School of

 

Music; in 1973, after several composer-inresidence

 

positions, he was appointed

 

Professor of Composition at the Juilliard

 

School of Music, where he taught until

 

1997. In the 1980s and 1990s, he received

 

more prestigious honors, including the

 

National Medal of Arts from President

 

Clinton at the White House (1995).

 

 

 

String Quartet No.2 was begun in New York

 

in 1943 and finished on February 22, 1944.

 

It was premiered on April 26, 1961 by the

 

Kroll Quartet in Capen Hall in Buffalo,

 

New York. It is in three movements in fastslow-

 

fast sequence. The contrapuntal

 

craftsmanship, rhythmic vitality, rich diatonic

 

harmonic writing, formal logic and

 

distinctive lyricism that have marked

 

Diamond's style throughout his long creative

 

life are all in evidence here. For him,

 

“a quartet is made of four independent,

 

contrapuntal lines that relate to each

 

other thematically, motivically and so forth,”

 

and String Quartet No. 2 is no exception.

 

The opening bars provide the primary

 

thematic thread, with its descending openfifth

 

intervals. The `flexible' Allegro begins

 

softly, ends even more softly, and constantly

 

shifts meters in between. The Adagio is

 

indeed sad as marked.The closing Allegro

 

is powerful and intense that picks up

 

momentum as it races to the end.

 

 

 

Interview with David Diamond

 

January 25, 2002

 

 

 

Q: How would you describe your

 

String Quartet No. 2?

 

 

 

A: It is a very spirited work. Its lines are

 

very long, especially in the slow movement.

 

After the success of Quartet No. 1

 

composed in one movement, I wanted

 

to go on to another quartet but this

 

time compose it in a different form.

 

 

 

Q: The last movement is indeed a virtuoso

 

movement.

 

 

 

A: You know Nicki Berezowsky, who was

 

the second violinist of the Coolidge

 

Quartet, always used to say that this

 

was one of the few American works

 

whose finale could be called real contrapuntal

 

writing for string quartet. But

 

you must not take it too fast. It must be

 

fast but a very careful fast.

 

 

 

Q: But you have it marked Prestissimo -

 

half note = 168.This is incredibly fast..

 

 

 

A: Don't pay any attention to that.

 

 

 

Q: Why mark it so fast? Did you ever have

 

a model on which to base such speed?

 

 

 

A:Well, Beethoven's Rasumovsky quartet

 

Op. 59, No. 3 Finale: Presto (fugal per

 

petuum) that goes on so fast could

 

have been an influence because I loved

 

it so. I want the finale of this quartet to

 

be clean but virtuosic.

 

 

 

Q: What were you doing in Buffalo at this

 

time?

 

 

 

A: I was giving a series of four lectures on

 

American music from the standpoint of

 

composition, from the standpoint of

 

the audience and from the standpoint

 

of the history of music. I had been

 

residing in Italy and they invited me

 

to come give these lectures.

 

 

 

Q: This quartet is dedicated to Edward

 

Stringham.

 

 

 

A: Yes. He was a wonderful friend when

 

he was a young man. For years he

 

worked at the New Yorker. He was

 

one of their best editors.

 

 

 

Q: He must have loved your music.

 

 

 

A: He did(!) - not only that he was so

 

very intelligent in talking about it. He

 

would give information about me to a

 

man named Winthrop Seargant who

 

was also with the New Yorker.This

 

publicity helped me as I was emerging

 

as a symphonist, and as a writer of

 

songs and string quartets.

 

 

 

String Quartet No. 9, completed on June 26,

 

1968 and composed in commemoration

 

of Roger Sessions' seventieth birthday,won

 

the 1972 Walter W.Naumburg Foundation

 

Award. Like his first quartet of 1940, the

 

ninth is in one extended movement utilizing

 

the traditional structural procedures in

 

non-traditional ways. All principal thematic

 

materials are heard at the very opening of

 

the quartet and the two major themes

 

become the fulfillment of the double

 

canon, which closes the quartet. Into the

 

contrapuntal devices are filigreed motival

 

and thematic references to Sessions' Violin

 

Concerto (1930-35).

 

 

 

Interview with David Diamond

 

April 23, 2002

 

 

 

Q: Why did you dedicate this quartet to

 

Roger Sessions for his 70th birthday?

 

 

 

A: First of all I would say that he was my

 

most important teacher after Nadia

 

Boulanger. If you have the book The

 

Correspondence of Roger Sessions, you

 

will see that our correspondence was

 

very intimate through the years.We

 

were just more than teacher and pupil.

 

We were colleagues and eventually

 

friends right up until the time he died.

 

 

 

Q: When did you study with him?

 

 

 

A: When I first came to New York in

 

1934 I began studying with him. So,

 

I stayed with him until I went to

 

Boulanger in 1936. After the war

 

broke out I heeded an official warning

 

to all Americans to leave France at

 

once. I then went back to New York

 

to work with him.

 

 

 

Q: Do you remember a particular piece

 

you worked on together?

 

 

 

A:No, you know I was already pretty

 

advanced technically. I had already

 

worked with Boulanger and with

 

Bernard Rogers. I had a pretty good

 

craft. Sessions was very pleased with

 

me. He said that I was the most technically

 

advanced of all his students. So,

 

there wasn't much there except to pick

 

on details. So we studied Beethoven

 

quartets, Cherubini and all the other

 

Italian composers of the period.

 

 

 

Q: Is there a particular piece of his that

 

you admire?

 

 

 

A: I particularly like his Concertino (1972)

 

and Divertimenti (1959) for small

 

orchestra. And of course his very early

 

The Black Maskers (1923).That is a

 

fascinating piece for big orchestra.

 

 

 

Q: I don't have any experience playing his

 

music.

 

 

 

A: It's tough going.The three quartets are

 

tough going. He had a very strange

 

career because his music is so hard to

 

pin yourself to. People say that it's dry

 

and that they can't get anything from it.

 

 

 

Q: What attracted you to his compositions?

 

 

 

A: Certainly his early music. He wrote his

 

first string quartet for Mrs. Coolidge,

 

which was still tonal music. It was after

 

he got to know Arnold Schoenberg

 

that everything changed.

 

 

 

Q: Throughout this quartet you make great

 

use of the players trilling skills.

 

 

 

A: Oh yes, people have asked me about

 

this.That was a fantasy thing. At that

 

time I was obsessed with those trills.

 

So, I have a trill quartet!

 

 

 

Q: How did you become so interested with

 

these trills?

 

 

 

A: I was studying ornamentation for a

 

special class at Juilliard and I suddenly

 

realized that the trill is a very unusual

 

ornamentation because it can come

 

from the top and the bottom or you

 

can have trills with different intervals.

 

I just decided that I would work on

 

trills. It makes for many kinds of

 

special moments, especially in the

 

quieter passages.

 

 

 

String Quartet No. 10, a powerful and

 

expressive piece, received its premiere in

 

the Harry A. McDonald Recital Hall

 

at American University. Diamond began

 

writing the quartet in May 1966 in New

 

York during his tenure at the Manhattan

 

School of Music and completed the work

 

on August 19, 1966 in Rochester, New

 

York.The work was commissioned by the

 

American University, Washington, D.C.

 

for the dedication ceremony of the

 

David Lloyd Kreeger Music Building, on

 

October 29, 1966.

 

 

 

One hears Diamond now composing with

 

skill and assurance in what may be called

 

his “second” or late-mature style. One

 

hears a more lyrically sustained, richly

 

textured and mildly atonal utterance,

 

moved and shaped to rhythmic patterns

 

more vigorous and persistent than those

 

generally favored by Boulez and

 

Stockhausen. Despite traces of the innovators'

 

accents, the idiom is pure Diamond.

 

What the work says and how it says it add

 

up to a deeply personal musical statement

 

in which, though the present is vigorously

 

acknowledged, the valid past is not wholly

 

ignored.The latter point finds proof in the

 

form of the last movement, marked

 

Doppia fuga (double fugue), whose origins

 

lie three centuries in the past. [Rockbridge

 

Concert-Theater Series program notes]

 

 

 

The significance of Quartet No. 10 as a

 

commemorative piece came into play

 

once more during the 1980s on the

 

occasion of the composer's seventieth

 

birthday.The Juilliard Quartet gave a special

 

performance on April 15, 1985 at Merkin

 

Concert Hall in New York City.

 

 

 

Interview with David Diamond

 

January 28, 2002

 

 

 

Q: Did you decide that quartet No. 10

 

would be your final quartet?

 

 

 

A:No, I didn't decide that. I think I had

 

said everything that I had wanted to

 

say and then life got to be very complicated.

 

I wasn't turning out as much

 

music as I had in the past. I had also

 

come back from Italy where I had lots

 

of time to work and now I had to find

 

a job. It was a hard period for me.

 

 

 

Q: Your quartet No. 10 is dedicated to the

 

Lywen Quartet?

 

A: Yes,Werner Lywen was a good

 

friend. He was the concertmaster of

 

Bernstein's City Center Orchestra

 

when Bernstein first formed an orchestra

 

there.We were always together

 

with the Bernstein's. He had a quartet

 

in Washington that Mr. Kreeger set up.

 

 

 

Q: You always write so beautifully for the

 

viola.The end of the second movement

 

is a fine example.

 

 

 

A:Well, I played it for a time. I always

 

loved the sound of the instrument

 

but violin was my instrument.When I

 

played in quartets though, they used to

 

let me play viola because I had such a

 

large hand.

 

 

 

Q: In the opening of third movement, the

 

violin has a strong melody by itself

 

where you ask the player to play forte

 

on an open e string.

 

 

 

A: Right. I always liked that kind of sound.

 

It has a more steely sound.This is my

 

marking because I want that particular

 

sound and not the stopped e. It comes,

 

I suppose, from my knowledge of the

 

strings in the orchestra.

 

 

 

Q: The double fugue that follows is memorable.

 

Do you get emotionally involved

 

when writing a fugue?

 

 

 

A: Oh, yes. I always get emotionally

 

involved. It is part of my nature as

 

music is the second part of my nature.

 

So it was only natural that my music

 

would express these things. My symphonies

 

and sonatas are the same way.

 

 

 

Q: What would you like the performer

 

to know when working through this

 

difficult double fugue?

 

 

 

A: If they respect my dynamic markings,

 

everything should be heard. I am very

 

careful in contrapuntal music, especially

 

in quartets, that there are different

 

dynamics so that one hear the different

 

voices emerge.

 

 

 

Q: Mr. Diamond, how would you like to be

 

remembered?

 

 

 

A: I don't want to be remembered. I want

 

my music to be remembered. Why

 

should I want to be remembered?

 

I won't know the hundreds or thousands

 

who may be listening. I want the

 

music to be what I am remembered by.

 

 

 

Q: And how would you like to have that

 

music recalled?

 

 

 

A: The way people love it now. The

 

warmth, which the audience has

 

come to know through the recordings

 

of my music. I just hope that continues.

 

I think it will too. Just as the great

 

masterworks have proven why they

 

have lasted, I hope that my music will

 

have that same viability and that same

 

ability to sustain itself that's energy

 

through time.

 

 

 

The Potomac String Quartet

 

 

 

In October 2000, thanks to a generous grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music,

 

the Potomac String Quartet embarked on a project of recording all eleven string

 

quartets written between 1936 and 1968 by the eminent American composer

 

David Diamond. Their most recent performance of Diamond's Quartets No. 2 &

 

No. 5 at The Voice of America's 60th anniversary season in Washington, D.C., was

 

broadcast worldwide. David Diamond's String Quartets, Volume One, on Albany

 

records, was released to critical acclaim in March 2002.

 

 

 

Violinist GEORGE MARSH has been

 

a member of the National Symphony

 

Orchestra since 1979. Mr. Marsh

 

has performed as soloist with the

 

National Symphony Orchestra, the

 

Virginia Chamber Orchestra, the

 

Catholic University Orchestra, and

 

several other orchestras in his native

 

midwest. As a chamber musician, he

 

is a founding member at the Chamber

 

Artists of Washington; he has also

 

performed with the Vaener String Trio,

 

the New England Piano Quartet,

 

the Washington Chamber Society, and

 

the Alexandria Chamber Ensemble.

 

Recital performances include concerts

 

at the Phillips Collection, the

 

Organization of American States, and

 

the National Gallery of Art in

 

Washington DC. Mr. Marsh has

 

received numerous awards, including

 

first prize in the 1985 Washington

 

International Bach Competition. He is

 

a graduate of the University of

 

Michigan, where he studied with Paul

 

Makanowitzky. Mr. Marsh can be heard

 

on recordings of the chamber music of

 

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, as well as on

 

recordings of music performed at the

 

United States Holocaust Memorial

 

Museum — four volumes of Darkness &

 

Light. Mr. Marsh plays a 1758 J.B.

 

Guadagnini, the “ex Joseph Silverstein”.

 

 

 

Violinist SALLY McLAIN received her

 

Bachelor and Master of Music degrees

 

with `High Distinction' from Indiana

 

University, where she studied with and

 

was assistant to James Buswell. Raised

 

in Washington DC, Ms. McLain is a

 

graduate of the DC Youth Orchestra

 

Program. She has participated in the

 

Tanglewood Music Center, Bach Aria

 

Festival and Institute and the New York

 

String Orchestra. Ms. McLain performs

 

throughout the Washington DC

 

area as soloist, chamber musician and

 

orchestral musician. Solo engagements

 

have included performances at the

 

Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, the

 

National Gallery of Art, the Corcoran

 

Gallery and Lisner Auditorium. She has

 

performed chamber music on the

 

Embassy Series, with National Musical

 

Arts and the 20th Century Consort.

 

She frequently performs as an orchestral

 

musician with the National Symphony

 

Orchestra and the Eclipse Chamber

 

Orchestra and served as concertmaster

 

for the Washington Chamber

 

Symphony for ten seasons. Ms. McLain

 

is a member of the Theater Chamber

 

Players, Leon Fleischer Director.

 

 

 

TSUNA SAKAMOTO, section violist of

 

the National Symphony Orchestra since

 

1998, was born in Tokyo, Japan. Before her

 

arrival in Washington, D.C., she was a

 

member of the violin section of the San

 

Antonio Symphony for five years. She has

 

also served as principal second violinist

 

with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra

 

of Indiana, associate concertmaster with

 

the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra of

 

Ohio, and assistant principal violist with

 

the Aspen Chamber Orchestra. In addition

 

to her duties with the National

 

Symphony, Ms. Sakamoto is co-principal

 

violist of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra.

 

Ms. Sakamoto is a dedicated educator.

 

She enjoys teaching at her private

 

studio and as a part of the NSO Youth

 

Fellowship program, as well as coaching the

 

American Youth Symphonic Orchestra.

 

Ms. Sakamoto studied at the Toho

 

Academy School of Music, Cincinnati

 

College, and Ohio State University. Her

 

viola teacher include Edward Adelson,

 

Allyson Dawkins, and Heidi Castleman.

 

Ms. Sakamoto has received violin

 

instruction from Masumi Ogawa,

 

Kenji Kobayashi, Naoko Tanaka,

 

Kurt Sassmannshaus, Dorothy DeLay,

 

Larry Shapiro, and Michael Davis.

 

 

 

STEVEN HONIGBERG, heralded as a

 

“sterling cellist” by the Washington Post,

 

has emerged as one of the outstanding

 

cellists of his generation. Mr. Honigberg

 

gave his New York debut recital in Weill

 

Hall and has since performed throughout

 

the United States in recital, in

 

chamber music and as a soloist with

 

orchestra. A member of the National

 

Symphony Orchestra, he has been featured

 

numerous times as soloist with

 

that ensemble. He won rave reviews

 

for the 1988 world premiere of David

 

Ott's Concerto for Two Cellos performed

 

with the National Symphony Orchestra

 

and conductor Maestro Rostropovich,

 

with repeat performances on the

 

NSO's 1989 & 1994 United States

 

tours. Mr. Honigberg is also acclaimed

 

for his explorations of important new

 

works, such as Lukas Foss' Anne Frank

 

(1999), Benjamin Lees` Night Spectres

 

(1999), Robert Stern's Hazkarah

 

(1998), Robert Starer's Song of Solitude

 

(1995) & David Diamond's Concert Piece

 

(1993), written for and premiered by

 

Steven Honigberg. Mr. Honigberg

 

graduated from the Juilliard School of

 

Music with a Master's degree in Music,

 

where he studied with Leonard Rose

 

and Channing Robbins. Other mentors

 

include Pierre Fournier and Karl Fruh.

 

Voted `Best New Chamber Music

 

Series' of 1994 by the Washington Post,

 

Steven Honigberg has been The United

 

States Holocaust Memorial Museum's

 

chamber music series director since

 

its inception. Mr. Honigberg has an

 

extensive CD recording list, which

 

includes his latest recording of Ernst

 

Toch's cello compositions. Mr. Honigberg

 

also has recorded Ludwig van Beethoven's

 

complete works for cello & piano; an

 

album of twentieth-century American

 

cello works; the chamber music of

 

Erich Wolfgang Korngold; and recordings

 

of music performed at the United

 

States Holocaust Memorial Museum

 

— four volumes of Darkness & Light.

 

His recent performances include concerts

 

at the 1998 Ravinia Festival and

 

Weill Hall in New York, and a performance

 

of Berthold Goldschmidt's Cello

 

Concerto in August 2002 with the Sun

 

Valley Festival Orchestra, where he has

 

performed as principal cellist since

 

1990. Mr. Honigberg performs on the

 

`Stuart' Stradivarius cello made in 1732.

 

 

 

Recording Engineer

 

Antonino D'Urzo

 

 

 

Producer

 

Steven Honigberg

 

 

 

Editing and mastering

 

Charlie Pilzer - Airshow, Springfield,VA

 

 

 

Cover Photo

 

David Diamond (1950s)

 

 

 

Cover Design

 

Tracy Pilzer

 

 

 

 

 

Potomac String Quartet:

 

 

 

George Marsh

 

Violin I

 

 

 

Sally McLain

 

Violin II

 

 

 

Tsuna Sakamoto

 

Viola

 

 

 

Steven Honigberg

 

Cello

 

 

 

David Diamond String Quartets published by Southern Music Publishing Co. Inc.

 

 

 

This recording is made possible in part by the

 

generous support of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

 

 

 

Recorded St. Lukes Church, McLean, Virginia • March 2001 & October 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

String Quartet No. 2 (1943-44)

 

To Edward Stringham In Friendship

 

I. Allegro Flessibile . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6:09

 

II. Adagio Mesto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7:53

 

III. Allegro Mesto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5:47

 

 

 

String Quartet No. 9 (1965-68)

 

To Roger Sessions for his 70th Birthday

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16:13

 

 

 

String Quartet No. 10 (1966)

 

For the Lywen Quartet

 

I. Allegro assai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5:53

 

II. Lento . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6:01

 

III. Adagio - Doppia Fuga . . . . . . . . . . .5:44

 

 

 

Total Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53:55