The Expert Musicianship Of The Dover Quartet Returns

NotesSeptember 2018Vol. 19, No. 1photo: Carlin MaThe Expert Musicianship of the Dover Quartet ReturnsWhen the immensely talented Dover Quartet debutedwith Friends of Music in 2016, our audience said,“Bring them back, please.” Therefore, they will beopening our milestone 65th season on Saturday,September 22, 2018 at 8 pm in Sleepy Hollow HighSchool. Their program will include Tchaikovsky’sQuartet No. 3 in E-flat minor, Op. 30; From AmberFrozen, by the young American composer Mason Bates;and Schubert’s Quartet in G Major, Op. 161 (D 887).The Dover Quartet catapulted to international stardomfollowing a stunning sweep of the 2013 BanffInternational String Quartet Competition, becomingone of the most in-demand ensembles in the world.The New Yorker recently dubbed them “the youngAmerican string quartet of the moment,” and The Stradraved that the Quartet is “pulling away from theirpeers with their exceptional interpretive maturity, tonalrefinement, and taut ensemble.”The Dover has continued to receive accolades.For two consecutive years the group was awardedthe highly prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award.Shortly thereafter, Lincoln Center awarded theQuartet the annual Hunt Family Award, as part ofthe organization’s Emerging Artist Awards; it thenreceived Lincoln Center’s prestigious Avery FisherCareer Grant. In 2013-14 the Quartet was the first everQuartet-in-Residence for the venerated Curtis Instituteof Music. It now is faculty Quartet-in-Residence atNorthwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.Violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist MilenaPajaro-Van de Stadt, and cellist Camden Shawformed the Quartet in 2008 at Curtis Institute. Theirsubsequent performances have taken them throughoutthe United States, Canada, Europe, and the MiddleEast, as well as to some of this continent’s mostprestigious music festivals. The first of three plannedCDs, Tribute: Dover Quartet Plays Mozart, wasreleased in the fall of 2015 to universal acclaim.

-2-4-The 65th Continues With the Takács QuartetBphoto: Amanda TiptonHow often do critics say, of a chamber group,“Their exquisitely blended tone is amber-rich,like a cognac cask-ripened to maturity?” Justonce that we know of, and our audiences in2007 and 2012, when the Takács last appearedon our series, have agreed. More recentlyThe New York Times has commented “Even inthe most fiendish repertoire these players showno fear, injecting the music with a heady senseof freedom.” We look forward to the group’sreturn to our stage on Saturday, October 20,2018. Their program will include Haydn’sString Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2;Shostakovich’s String Quartet in D Major, No.4, Op. 83; and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet inF minor, Op. 80.In 2014 the Takács became the first stringquartet to win the Wigmore Hall Medal, whichrecognizes major international artists who havea strong association with that London venue.In 2012 the group became the only stringquartet to be inducted into Gramophone’s Hallof Fame, taking its place with such legendaryartists as Jascha Heifetz, Leonard Bernstein,and Dame Janet Baker. Their many otherawards have included the 2011 Award forChamber Music and Song presented by theRoyal Philharmonic Society in London. Nowbased in Boulder at the University of Coloradowhere they are Christoffersen Faculty Fellows,the Quartet performs eighty concerts a yearworldwide, throughout Europe as well as inAustralia, New Zealand, Japan, and SouthKorea. During the 2017-18 season thoseincluded a six-concert Beethoven cycle inWigmore Hall, at Princeton, the University ofMichigan, and U.C., Berkeley.The Takács brings fresh insights to the stringquartet repertoire, as illustrated in their manyaward-winning recordings for both Decca/London and Hyperion labels. Releases forHyperion include string quartets by Haydn,Schubert, Janacek, Smetana, Debussy, andBritten, as well as piano quintets by CesarFranck and Shostakovich (with Marc-AndreHamelin), and viola quintets by Brahms (withLawrence Power). Their CDs for Decca/London have included one of Schubert’smagnificent String Quintet in C Major, Op.163. FbmSctaEwpd“omswhie“sefMwspMsLHSPiaAa

-3-5-Still Time toSubscribeBeyond ConcertsFrom its outset, Friends of Music Concerts has been almost as much aboutbringing music to children as it has been about providing excellent livemusic experiences for adults. Its first concert, by the then young JuilliardString Quartet, was preceded by a JSC day-time concert for students, withcommentary by the artists. Over the years that developed into a programthat brought young professional musicians into the public schools, led fora while by Board member Bill Altman. Most recently this Partnership inEducation program has been overseen by Board member Rosella Ranno,whose own background as a piano teacher included many years teaching inpublic schools in New York City. Last spring before one of our concerts shedescribed it for the audience:“Our Partnership in Education grant provides a unique opportunity for extraordinarily talented young professional musicians to connect with dedicatedmusic students and faculty throughout the Westchester County schoolsystem. And by ‘connect’ I mean performance through guided listening andworkshops for both small ensembles and large, from elementary school throughhigh school orchestras. The workshops take varied forms but always includeinstruction on instrumental technique, musical interpretation, performanceevaluation, and, most interesting lately, improvisation and composition.“All of us are enthralled by the talented musicians who grace our concertstage but to see them in action as enthusiastic, engaging teachers, and toenjoy the response from the students and faculty is a rewarding experiencefor everyone involved.”Ms. Ranno said that the Partnership program not only nurtures those studentswho might continue a performing path but also helps develop all participatingstudents into audiences of the future. She pointed out that, since chosenpartner/school districts incur no charge, increased funding to Friends ofMusic would help us expand the program beyond its current limit of twoschool districts per year.Last spring the Zorá String Quartet spent a day-long residency at SleepyHollow High School and the PUBICQuartet spent one at Ossining HighSchool, both free of charge to those school districts, as part of thePartnership program. The school districts had been chosen after describingin their applications their own music programs and what schedules theyanticipated. Applications now are open for next spring’s residencies.Application forms and more information about the program areavailable on FOM’s website, www.friendsofmusicconcerts.org. Subscriptions for this landmark65th season have been rolling inall summer and of course we noware accepting orders for tickets toindividual concerts. If you haven’tyet gotten your subscription ordersin, you still can do so.Most people have been takingadvantage of the traditionalsubscription, which, at 140 each,admits each concert goer to sixconcerts for the price of four atthe single ticket price of 35. Thisyear we’re trying out the additionaloption of purchasing three ticketsfor 90 (a lesser discount) that canbe used for in different ways, e.g.all three for one concert, one ticketfor whichever of three concertsyou prefer, etc.Whatever option you choose,send your orders now to Friendsof Music Concerts, Inc., P.O. Box675, Millwood, NY 10546, orsubscribe on line via our website,www.friendsofmusicconcerts.org.While you’re at it, bring studentswith you. If they are ages 18 orunder, they will be admitted freeof charge, as they have been forseveral years. But this year wehave an additional option: collegestudents with appropriate i.d.s canpay just 15 per concert. This isall part of our effort to enhancestudents’ musical experiences andbuild audiences of the future. Youcan help us spread the word.If you have any questions aboutticket availability, you can call914-861-5080, leave a message,and your call will be returnedpromptly. asemDaGiChCa8VSpyowicoexVawofo

-4-Comments on Classical MusicThe Washington Post’s chief classical music critic, Anne Midgette,recently mused about the genre and provided what she called a field guideabout how to exercise one’s classical music muscles. Here are some of her thoughts. – Ed.There’s a lot more to classical music than orchestramusic including everything from solo piano worksto Gregorian chant to contemporary instrumentalsextets with electric guitar. She mentions favoritestring quartets (all those of Beethoven andShostokovich and some from living composers suchas Elena Ruehr and Jefferson Friedman. She goes onto talk about trios: stringed trios by Mozart and pianotrios (a piano and two string instruments) by Shubert.And the septet Stravinsky used in “L’histoire dusoldat” and the quartet of clarinet, violin, cello, andpiano that Olivier Messiaen used in “Quartet for theEnd of Time.”Classical music is relaxing. By that she doesn’t mean“elevator music,” but rather works like Erik Satie’spiano music, “languid and quirky, drifting across theear;” Lou Harrison’s Suite for Violin and AmericanGamelan; and Bach’s unaccompanied suites for solocello, which she describes as “pieces you can returnto throughout your life.”Classical music does amazing things for the humanvoice. She’s not talking about opera here, but ratherOrff’s “Carmina Burana;” Richard Strauss’s “FourLast Songs;” John Adams’s “Harmonium,” luminoussettings of poems by Emily Dickinson. She alsomentions two recent Pulitzer Prize winners:David Lang, whose “Little MatchGirl Passion” retells the HansChristian Anderson story, andCaroline Shaw’s “Partita for8 Voices.”Speaking of the Bach cello suites,you can make classical musicwith only one instrument. Ofcourse, here the piano is the instrument parexcellence. For it, she mentions Bach’s GoldbergVariations, Beethoven’s sonatas, all of Chopin’s pianoworks, Shostakovich’s preludes. But Bach also wrotefor solo violin, as did Paganini and Ysaye.Classical music isn’tjust about the composers, butalso about the musicians whoperform their works. AlthoughCDs capture performers ofthe past, she mentions currentpianists such as Daniil Trifonovand Yuja Wang, violinistsHilary Hahn and Jennifer Koh,and the singer Julia Bullockas musicians with distinctiveviewpoints. (We at Friendsof Music also might includepianists like Garrick Olssen andJeremy Denk in this group.)She closes with this: “Classical music can do thingsthat no other music can [it makes] a particularkind of musical statement, often immersive, oftenlonger than other forms and often in a particularlycomplex manner that involves the juxtaposition ofdifferent voices. Like a novel, it’s not something thatcan be apprehended quickly or conveyed in any otherform; like a novel, you have to meet it halfway andthink about what it is or isn’t saying to you, listeningto the different sounds it offers, recognizing thereemergence of earlier themes, weighing the pausesand the crescendos .Comparing and contrasting,and debating preferences, is a big part of any musiclover’s experience.”