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March 31, 2008
String Quartet No. 4
Music by Béla Bartók (1881 - 1945)
Composed in 1927 while in Budapest dedicated to the Pro Arte Quartet.
First performed by the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet in Budapest on March 20, 1929.
Chamber Music Society Concert Date: March 31, 2008
Click here for ticket information.
"Bartok achieved something that no one had before his time, the symbolic handshake between East and West: synthesis, a seamless blending of two sources into a single style.”
–Paul Wilson, The Music of Bela Bartok
About this work
"Bartok, an earlier Eastern European master, is also known for his sometimes brusquely compact compositional style. Bartok's String Quartet No. 4 seemed positively loquacious. Here were complete phrases laid out with the logic of a well-constructed paragraph."
-New York Times
This work is in a so-called "arch" structure - the first movement is thematically related to the last, and the second to the fourth with the third movement standing alone. Also, the outer four movements feature rhythmic sforzandos that cyclically tie them together in terms of climatic areas. The playing time for the movements are [generally] 5, 2, 5, 2, 5 minutes respectively, a display of the mathematical logic behind this quartet.
The quartet employs a number of extended instrumental techniques; for the whole of the second movement all four instruments are played with mutes, while the entire fourth movement is played pizzicato. In the third movement, Bartók sometimes indicates held notes to be played without vibrato, and in various places he asks for glissandi (sliding from one note to another) and so-called Bartók pizzicati
.-Source Wikipedia
Critical Acclaim–
"Bela Bartok's quartets were written between 1908 and 1939, and encapsulate the development and compositional thought of one of modernism's giants. Indeed one can easily trace to Bartok's works the cutting, driving style of quartet playing that often grates in Beethoven and Dvorak today. The fast movements of No. 4 are the showpieces of the cycle."
–Will Crutchfield, NY Times
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String Quartet No. 1
Music by Reinaldo Moya (b. 1984)
Composed in 2007 while studying at Juilliard.
World premiere by the Attacca Quartet in New York at MoMA on July 27, 2007.
Chamber Music Society Concert Date: March 31, 2008
To read an interview with Mr. Moya, click here. About this work
"Their [the Attacca Quartet's] program... start[ed] with the world premiere of the admirable String Quartet No. 1 by the 22-year-old Venezuelan-born composer and Juilliard student Reinaldo Moya. Its single movement encompasses subtly delineated sections, beginning with a meditative Lento and a plaintive violin melody that is adopted by the viola in the ensuing Allegretto. The frantic final section, with its Shostakovichian angst and angry pizzicatos, ends suddenly in quiet melancholy." -New York Times
An ASCAP 2007 Morton Gould Young Composer Award Recipient, Reindaldo Moya graduated with a degree in music composition from West Virginia University, where he studied composition with John Beall and violin with Laura Kobayashi. A native of Venezuela, Moya was a member of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra and performed throughout North and South America, as well as Europe. In the summer of 2005, he studied composition in Berlin with Samuel Adler, which he describes as "life-changing." In the fall of 2006, he began composition studies at The Juilliard School pursuing a Masters degree in composition and continuing study with Samuel Adler. He participated in the "Composers and Choreographers" workshop at The Juilliard School and his "Ethereal Whispers" (correographed by Nathan Madden) was premiered in December of 2007. His "Aurora Australis" for full orchestra was chosen as the recipient of the Friedman Memorial Composition prize for orchestral works at The Juilliard School and will be premiered on May 1st, 2008.
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Dark Energy
Music by Kelly-Marie Murphy (b. 1964)
Composed in 2007.
Click here to read more about this composer.
Commissioned by the CBC and the Banff International String Quartet Competition.
First performance in Banff, Canada August 31, 2007
Chamber Music Society Concert Date: March 31, 2008
"...This world premiere revealed Murphy to be a most modern creator, employing layered climaxes and jaunty passages where orchestral soloists salute a comrade." - Toronto Star
About this work
"We live in a cosmologically interesting time. First, Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, reducing our solar system to eight planets. Then, an ancient cosmic mystery came to light. Apparently five billion years ago, there was a sudden expansion of the cosmos. The galaxies started moving away from one another at a faster pace, as if repelled by some kind of antigravity. Recently, a group of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope observed that billions of years before this antigravity sent the galaxies flying apart; it was already present in space and was affecting the evolution of the cosmos. This antigravity force is known as 'dark energy'
The existence of dark energy was first postulated by Einstein in 1917 as a way to explain why the universe doesn’t collapse. In November 2006, The New York Times explained it this way: 'Because it is a property of empty space, the overall force of Einstein’s constant grows in proportion to the expanding universe until it overwhelms everything.'
In a single movement, Dark Energy opens softly and simply. It is melodic and displays many different colours using various techniques. It gains momentum and is eventually consumed by its own propulsion. The piece is virtuosic in every way, yet there are flexible moments in which each performance can be different.." --Kelly-Marie Murphy
Critical Acclaim–
(about Murphy's concerto for violin)
"Startling orchestration, but Murphy knows how to achieve both effects and emotions. Unlike so many modern orchestral works which find the orchestra underused, Murphy knows her instrumentation inside out and has a grasp of tone colours and voicings "
–Harry Currie
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Six Bagatelles for String Quartet,
Op. 9
Music by Anton Webern (1883 - 1945)
Composed in 1913.
Click here to read more about this composer.
Chamber Music Society Concert Date: March 31, 2008
"Even in the span of half a minute, which each bagatelle averages, Webern manages to coax extremes out of the music -- long, quiet chromatic melodies burst into a clash of tremolo. Exploring the works of Webern became one of those personal checklist items that get bumped in favor of more immediate gratification. "
- Music W---.org
About this work
If you like Webern, these are simply indispensible--and you probably know that already and are wasting your time reading reviews that would better be spent buying them. If you don't know whether you like Webern, be warned that this isn't music for the faint-hearted. It's musically very dense and concentrated, yet sonorally very sparse, requiring the constant attention of the listener. Nonetheless, it is immensely expressive and harmonically very beautiful. To most, nonetheless, it sounds like Psycho music, as even Webern fans must concede.
--Amazon.com
Critical Acclaim–
"These are miniatures, really, each cutting rapidly to the quick of the matter and finding sometimes abrupt completion. It's perfect music for an era when the tension between experimentation and economy of phrasing urges on creative motion. And here it's perfectly played: tense, sad, sweet, and urgent."
–Andrew Bartlett
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Performers:
Attacca Quartet
Sponsored by :
Bireley Family Foundation
Arts Fund
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Performers:
Attacca Quartet
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Performers:
Attacca Quartet
Performers:
Attacca Quartet
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