Dora Pejačevič (1885-1923). By Robert Croan Two of the three composers represented on Chameleon Musician’s season finale Sunday afternoon were names that few, if any, members of the audience had ever heard before. The delightful and enthusiastically received concert, in the Josephine S. Leiser Opera Center, featured rarely heard piano quartets by Dora Pejačevič and Zygmunt … [Read more...]
Poland’s Meccore Quartet closes Flagler season in brilliant fashion
The last of this year’s fine crop of string quartets to play in Flagler Museum’s Music Series came from Poland. Introduced by the museum’s new executive director, Erin Manning, the Meccore String Quartet, established in 2007, has won numerous awards for their innovative approach. Each member currently receives scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture and teach at the … [Read more...]
Amernet Quartet offers rare (Michael) Haydn at Chameleon
By Robert Croan Pity poor Michael Haydn! Posterity has not treated him kindly. A respected composer in his time, he has suffered from the fame of his older brother, Franz Joseph, as well as comparisons with his younger contemporary Mozart. Michael Haydn’s best-known symphony found its way into the Köchel catalogue of Mozart’s works as Symphony No. 37 because Mozart happened … [Read more...]
Bennewitz Quartet dazzlingly disciplined at Flagler
Editor’s note: The publication of this review, which was scheduled for the week of Feb. 21, was delayed by technical problems. In 1998, four young men attending Prague’s Academy of the Arts decided to form a professional string quartet. Emphasizing their Czech origins, the four high school-age boys took the name Bennewitz to honor Antonin Bennewitz, founder of the Czech … [Read more...]
Escher Quartet remarkable in Bartok, Beethoven at Four Arts
The Escher String Quartet came to the Society of the Four Arts on Sunday, and everything about its performance was spotless and perfect. So spotless and so perfect, that at times it became bloodless, even while the foursome was demonstrating an astonishing display of musical excellence that was a triumph of instrumental wizardry and interpretive subtlety. This was a bigger … [Read more...]
Danielpour’s new quartet outlines search for inner divinity
In 1995, the composer Richard Danielpour marked the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps in a string quartet he subtitled Psalms of Sorrow. That quartet, his third, featured a baritone singing texts from Stephen Mitchell’s translation of some of the Psalms. Last year, Danielpour returned to the string quartet for a seventh essay in that form, and also … [Read more...]
Danielpour quartet makes strong impression at Delray SQ
The string quartet remains the vessel into which composers since the days of Haydn have poured their deepest thoughts, perhaps because there is something about the intimate, confessional sound of the four instruments that encourages it. On Sunday afternoon, the Delray String Quartet offered a fine contemporary example of serious string-quartet writing with a performance of the … [Read more...]
Pacifica Quartet took epic journey with Shostakovich
One of America’s finest string quartets, the Pacifica Quartet, opens the musical year with a performance Friday afternoon at the Kravis Center of music by Ravel and Haydn, as well as the Piano Quintet of Johannes Brahms, for which they will be joined by pianist Christopher O’Riley, familiar to public radio audiences as the host of From the Top. The performance should start … [Read more...]
Escher Quartet plays Haydn, Beethoven with warmth, dazzle
Of the many string quartets that have visited Palm Beach in the past 10 years, the Escher String Quartet has accolades a-plenty: the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, artists-in-residence at the BBC and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Close on 10 years old as a group, they take their name from the celebrated Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. This very … [Read more...]
Wind quartets stand out at second PB Chamber Music Fest fall program
The composers of the so-called Boston School, with the exception of Leonard Bernstein, are not well-known today, which is unfortunately par for the course for American classical composition in general. But one good reason to know the music of at least one other of the Boston composers, Arthur Berger (1912-2003), could have been heard Saturday night at the Lighthouse ArtCenter … [Read more...]