Calidore String Quartet

Longy's Pickman Hall - Longy's Edward M. Pickman Hall
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The Calidore String Quartet’s “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” (New York Times) and “balance of intellect and expression” (Los Angeles Times) have won them global accolades. Their meteoric rise accelerated in 2016, when they made international headlines as the winner of the $100,000 Grand-Prize of the 2016 and inaugural M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition, the largest prize for chamber music in the world. The same year the Calidore were the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and were named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists. In 2017, they received the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award.

Seating for this performance is limited.

Program

Ludwig van Beethoven | Grosse fuge in B-Flat Major, Opus 133

Anna Clyne | Breathing Statues (New England premiere; co-commissioned by Celebrity Series and inspired by Beethoven’s Grosse fuge) - Watch Video

Ludwig van Beethoven | Quartet in F Major, Opus 59, no. 1 "Razumovsky"

Videos

01 03

The Calidore String Quartet: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

02 03

Calidore String Quartet - Felix Mendelssohn Quartet in A minor

03 03

At University of Michigan

01 03

The Calidore String Quartet: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

02 03

Calidore String Quartet - Felix Mendelssohn Quartet in A minor

03 03

At University of Michigan

Composer's Note by Anna Clyne
Breathing Statues for string quartet

Breathing Statues draws inspiration and musical quotes from Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartets No. 13 in B-flat major Op. 130, No. 16 in F major Op. 135, and the Grosse Fuge Op. 133. It also draws inspiration from On Music, a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.

The concept for Breathing Statues came from a poignant moment in the Grosse Fuge where the music stops and, in between moments of silence, breathes as it shifts from a root position E-flat major chord to a first inversion C major chord.

This idea of the music breathing reminded me of another poignant moment in the B-flat Major Quartet (for which the Grosse Fuge was originally the final movement) when the lower strings provide a pulsing accompaniment to a violin melody that is marked beklemmt (oppressed, anguished, stifled) and the voice almost stutters as if out of breath. I also found other quotes that have a similar feeling of breathing or sighing, such as a moment in the Adagio of the B-flat major quartet, and quotes that would strongly contrast, such as the descending rhythmic lines in the lower strings in the Grosse Fuge, and a violent outburst in the last movement of the F-Major Quartet - the last movement of the latter is titled "Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß" ("The Difficult Decision") and is the last major work that Beethoven completed.

Breathing Statues begins with a quote from the opening of the last movement of Beethoven’s F-major quartet, which is originally accompanied by text – Beethoven writes: Muss es sein? Es muss sein! (must it be? It must be!). His notation of these statements are also marked by significant pauses between them. This musical quote builds the foundation for Breathing Statues.

The concept of breath – of the music and musicians breathing – sometimes together and sometimes apart, reminded me of Rilke’s poem On Music, from which Breathing Statues derives its title.

On Music

Music: the breathing of statues. Perhaps:
the silence of paintings. Language where
language ends. Time
that stands head-up in the direction
        of hearts that wear out.

Feeling...for whom? Place where feeling is
transformed...into what? Into a countryside we can hear.
Music: you stranger. You feeling space, growing
away from us. The deepest thing in us, that
rising above us, forces its way out...
a holy goodbye:
when the innermost point in us stands
outside, as amazing space, as the other
side of the air:
pure,
immense,
not for us to live in now.

         - Rainer Maria Rilke

 

The 2019-20 Debut Series is sponsored by
HARRIET & DAVID GRIESINGER and the LONGY SCHOOL OF MUSIC OF BARD COLLEGE

 

This performance is made possible in part by support from Celebrity Series LIVE PERFORMANCE! Arts for All Innovation Funds.

Arts Society Members ($500) and above are invited to join us for complimentary refreshments pre-show and during intermission at this performance. Learn more about our Member Events.

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