The C major Fantasy for Violin and Piano in Schubert’s manuscript (Wienbibliothek im Rathaus)
My essay for the recital by Leonidas Kavakos and Enrico Pace at the Pierre Boulez Saal on 29 April is here.
Complete program:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major Op. 47 “Kreutzer”
Richard Dubugnon: La minute exquise; Hypnos; Retour à Montfort-l’Amaury
Franz Schubert: Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C major D 934
The program that Leonidas Kavakos and Enrico Pace bring to the Pierre Boulez Saal offers three perspectives on the violin–piano duo, from the fire and drama of Ludwig van Beethoven to the rhapsodic lyricism of Franz Schubert—with a contemporary interlude of enigmatic, nocturnal miniatures by the Swiss-French composer Richard Dubugnon….
A new interview for The Strad: I spoke with Ayane Kozasa and Paul Wiancko of the Kronos Quartet about the dramatic change in the ensemble’s lineup that began with the current season:
Having celebrated its 50th anniverary last season, the Kronos Quartet has already begun its latest chapter with a dramatic change in the ensemble’s makeup. Longtime members John Sherba (violin) and Hank Dutt (viola) retired at the end of June, leaving violinist David Harrington, who founded Kronos, as the sole remaining member from the early years. Dutt had been part of Kronos since 1977, while Sherba joined them in 1978. Cellist and composer Paul Wiancko began his relationship with the quartet in 2019 and took the place of Sunny Yang in February 2023. Violinist David Harrington, who founded Kronos, is the only member who now remains. ..
James Garlick and Richard O’Neill, co-founders of Music on the Strait. (Nora Pitaro)
The 2024 edition of Music on the Strait opens tonight with a concert at the new Field Arts & Events Hall in Port Angeles, WA. You can also livestream the concert, which starts at 7pm PT, on this YouTube page as well as on the Music on the Strait Facebook page here. The livestreams will also allow you to access the 6.15 pre-concert presentation with Lisa Bergman.
Music on the Strait has entered a new phase. Among the Puget Sound region’s youngest festivals devoted to chamber music, MOTS kicks off this year on Aug. 1…
The Danish String Quartet’s multi-year “Doppelgänger” Project has paired newly commissioned works by four leading contemporary composers with chamber music masterpieces by Franz Schubert (three of them quartets, the last one being Schubert’s String Quintet in C major). The project has now concluded with the premiere of Thomas Adès’s new string quintet Wreath.
Wreath — for Franz Schubert is the latest creation from one of the world’s most-sought-after composers. “I am most grateful to the great Danish String Quartet for giving me the time and encouragement to realize and develop this new path in my work,” Adès writes in the freshly completed score.
My program notes for the Cal Performances performance in April 2024 can be found here.
Here’s my report for Musical America on Sun Valley Music Festival’s recent winter season, which focused on the music of Brahms. Guest artist Jon Kimura Parker and members of the Sun Valley Festival Orchestra:
Ketchum, ID—In the 1930s, an ingenious combination of marketing and new technology (the design of modern chairlifts) transformed this former mining town and sheep-farming center into the country’s first destination ski resort—as well as a magnet for Hollywood celebrities….
Thursday marks the 50th anniversary to the day that Irvine Arditti and his colleagues gave their first concert. The Arditti Quartet would go on to become one of the leading advocates for new chamber music — from Ligeti, Xenakis, and Stockhausen (including the HelicopterQuartet) to their latest commissions from Toshio Hosokawa and Cathy Milliken.
Jonathan Harvey (1939–2012) String Quartet No. 1 (1977)
Cathy Milliken In Speak for String Quartet (2023) world premiere Toshio Hosokawa (*1955) Oreksis for Piano Quintet (2023) world premiere Intermission Harrison Birtwistle (1934–2022) The Tree of Strings for String Quartet (2007)
Two blissful weekends of intimate music-making are about to start as Seattle Chamber Music Society’s 2024 Winter Festival kicks off on Friday, 26 January. Artistic Director James Ehnes will appear in all six programs over the festival’s two weekends. On opening night, he’ll join colleagues Amy Schwartz Moretti, Che-Yen Chen, Cynthia Phelps, Edward Arron, and Efe Baltacıgil for Brahms’s String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18; the program also includes Ravel’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major and British composer Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio — part of this winter edition’s focus on 20th-century British composers.
Jan. 26-28 and Feb. 2-4; Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; $30-$65; subscriptions and streaming options available; free prelude recital starts an hour before each concert; seattlechambermusic.org
This summer’s Music on the Strait summer festival of chamber music (19-27 August) opens on Saturday, 19 August, at the newly opened Field Arts & Events Hall in Port Angeles, WA. The opening night concert in the 500-seat Donna Morris Auditorium begins at 7pm and features Garrick Ohlsson and the Takács Quartet in a program of Brahms and Amy Beach, as well as the world premiere of a new work for violin and viola by 2023 composer-in-residence Lembit Beecher, which was written for Artistic Directors James Garlick and Richard O’Neill. It was inspired in part by the transformation of the Elwha River. This will be one of the first performances at the Field Arts and Events Hall .
The 19 August opening concert will be livestreamed here and on Music on the Strait’s homepage; you can also watch the concerts on 25 August and 27 August (check MotS’ homepage).
On 26 August at 7pm, also at Field Hall, Jeremy Denk performs Bach’s Complete Partitas; the students of the Olympic Strings Workshop will present a showcase at 6.15pm. For the festival finale on 27 August at 2pm, Jeremy Denk & Friends will play music by Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms.
Other events will take place at Maier Hall at Peninsula College in Port Angeles:
On Sunday 20 August at 2pm, Takács plays Haydn, Beethoven, and Bartók, and onFriday 25 August at 7pm, Noah Geller, Seattle Symphony’s concertmaster, makes his Music on the Strait debut together with James Garlick, Richard O’Neill, and Ani Aznavoorian in Grieg’s String Quartet in G minor and shares the stage with percussionist Mari Yoshinaga in Anton Prischepa’s Based on Actual Events for Violin and Marimba. The quartet will also perform Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s Pisashi for string quartet.
Steven Osborne, James Ehnes and Alisa Weilerstein; (c)Jenna Poppe
Seattle Chamber Music Society’s 2023 Summer Festival is now in full swing. My review of the opening night concert:
Opening night concerts can be an invitation to default to lightweight programming, letting extramusical distractions become the focus. Not so at Seattle Chamber Music Society. The 2023 Summer Festival kicked off with a concert that kept the audience’s attention avidly fixed on the music at hand…
Jean-Yves Thibaudet and an ensemble from the Colburn School perform a chamber program this evening at Boulez-Saal in Berlin.
Frank Gehry, architect of Boulez-Saal and a friend of Daniel Barenboim, has also designed a 100,000 square-foot expansion of the Colburn School campus in downtown LA, including a 1,000-seat, in-the-round performance space, a studio theater, dance studios, and public gardens and green spaces. Reuniting with Gehry for that project is another name familiar to Berliners: Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics, who served as acoustician for Boulez-Saal (along with other Gehry buildings, including Disney Concert Hall). The new Colburn performance hall, expected to open to the public in 2025, will have parallels with Boulez-Saal.
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 