When the critically-acclaimed Jerusalem Quartet played their most recent Tucson concert in 2023, it focused on Haydn, Shostakovich and Beethoven.
When it returns to open Arizona Friends of Chamber Musicโs evening concert series on Wednesday, Oct. 22, the quartet is still flirting with Haydn and Beethoven. But the middleman this go-around is Leoลก Janรกฤekโs โKreutzer Sonataโ String Quartet No. 1.
The concert comes nearly two years to the day since the last time we had the ensemble on the Leo Rich Theater stage. The group, in fact, loves Tucson in October, judging by their history here. They have played an October date with Arizona Friends every other year since their 2011 Tucson debut with one exception: their show here in 2019 was in April.
Wednesdayโs program opens with Haydnโs String Quartet in B-flat Major No. 4 โSunriseโ and closes with Beethovenโs String Quartet in B-flat Major and Grosse Fuge.
Jerusalem Quartet returns to Tucson as part of its 30th anniversary tour.
In the middle is the Janรกฤek, which some might mistakenly connect the dots to Beethoven. After all, Beethovenโs Violin Sonata No 9 is nicknamed โKreutzerโ after the German composer dedicated the work to violinist Rudolphe Kreutzer. Fun fact: Kreutzer was the fall-back dedicatee; Beethoven initially nicknamed the No. 9 after Afro-Polish violinist George Bridgetower, who premiered the work in 1803, but when the two men had a falling out two years later, Beethoven changed the name.
So just what inspired Janรกฤek to use the moniker on his maiden string quartet 120 years later?
The short answer: Beethoven.
More accurately: Beethoven adjacent.
Bear with us; itโs an intriguing story.
Some 63 years after Beethoven composed the Kreutzer Sonata, the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote โThe Kreutzer Sonata,โ which had nothing to do with music.
Tolstoyโs 1889 novella was a twisted exploration of how sexual abstinence can lead to jealous rage. In the novel by the author of โWar and Peace,โ the main character recounts what led him to kill his wife. Tolstoy concluded that the root causes for the deed dealt with the basic difference between the sexes.
Russian authorities immediately censored the book.
In widely reported program notes, Janรกฤek said he was imagining โa poor woman, tormented and run downโ like the wife in Tolstoyโs novella. The sonata plays out that psychological drama with moments of conflict, emotional outbursts and passion.
The drama in both Tolstoyโs novella and Janรกฤekโs string quartet are a direct homage to Beethovenโs โKreutzer Sonata,โ with its emotional intensity and complex yet contradictory structure that tests even the most technically proficient musicians.
The Beethoven B-flat Major quartet weโll hear on Wednesday has flashes of that drama mixed in with some lighthearted, dance-like passages.
Wednesdayโs concert starts at 7:30 p.m. at Leo Rich, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $45, $12 for students with ID through arizonachambermusic.org.
