Miró Quartet

Friday, May 5, 2017 7:30 PM Weill Recital Hall

The New York Times called the Miró Quartet a group that plays with “explosive vigor and technical finesse,” and the Houston Chronicle praised its “refinement, drama, and adventure.” The exciting quartet returns to Carnegie Hall for a concert that reveals the innovation and impassioned power of Beethoven’s late string quartets.

Part of Salon Encores.

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Performers

Miró Quartet
·· Daniel Ching, Violin
·· William Fedkenheuer, Violin
·· John Largess, Viola
·· Joshua Gindele, Cello

Program

ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM

String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131

String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130, with Große Fuge, Op. 133

Encore:

Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo from String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135

Event Duration

The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.

View Program Notes

At a Glance

Beethoven’s late-period string quartets pose special challenges—and offer commensurate rewards—for listeners and performers alike. The composer himself considered Op. 131 the greatest of his 16 quartets. Although much has been written about its unconventional seven-part structure and abstruse tonal relationships, the music’s robust lyricism and emotional intensity have never failed to draw audiences into its unforgettable sound world. One of the work’s greatest admirers was Franz Schubert, who is said to have requested a performance on his deathbed.

The Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130—one of three commissioned by Prince Nikolai Golitsïn, Beethoven’s Russian patron—is laid out in six movements of strikingly diverse characters. In its first incarnation, the quartet culminated in a resplendent display of contrapuntal fireworks. Under prodding from his publisher, however, Beethoven spun the Große Fuge off as a separate opus and replaced it with a more conventional, listener-friendly Allegro.

Bios

Miró Quartet

The Miró Quartet is one of America's most celebrated and dedicated string quartets. For the past 20 years, it has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin, Texas, and thriving in the area's storied music scene, the Miró Quartet takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds, while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.

Highlights of recent seasons include a highly anticipated and sold-out return to Carnegie Hall to perform Beethoven's Op. 59 quartets; a performance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center as part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's inaugural residency; the world premiere of a new concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts; performances of the complete Beethoven cycle at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and at Tokyo's Suntory Hall; and debuts in 2014-2015 in Korea, Singapore, and at the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival.

The quartet's 2016-2017 season features collaborations with David Shifrin, Martin Beaver, Clive Greensmith, André Watts, and Wu Han, as well as a performance of the complete Beethoven cycle in just nine days for Chamber Music Tulsa. During its 2015-2016 season, the quartet returned to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing Beethoven in Alice Tully Hall and the complete cycle of Ginastera's quartets at the Rose Studio; and performed a late-Schubert quartet cycle for the prestigious Slee Series in Buffalo, New York.

A favorite of summer chamber music festivals, the Miró Quartet has recently performed at La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest, Chamber Music Northwest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, OK Mozart, and Music@Menlo. The quartet regularly collaborates with pianist Jon Kimura Parker, percussionist Colin Currie, and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke.

Formed in 1995, the Miró Quartet was awarded first prize at several national and international competitions that included the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. Deeply committed to music education, members of the quartet have given master classes at universities and conservatories around the world. Since 2003, the Miró has served as the quartet-in-residence at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2005, the quartet became the first ensemble to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Having released nine celebrated recordings, the Miró Quartet recently produced an Emmy Award-winning multimedia project titled Transcendence. A work with visual and audio elements available on live stream, CD, and Blu-ray, Transcendence encompasses philanthropy and documentary filmmaking and is centered around a performance of Schubert's Quartet in G Major, D. 887, on rare Stradivarius instruments. The quartet records independently and makes its music available on a global scale through Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube.

The Miró Quartet took its name and its inspiration from Spanish artist Joan Miró, whose Surrealist works--with subject matter drawn from the realm of memory, dreams, and imaginative fantasy--are some of the most groundbreaking, influential, and admired of the 20th century.

Visit miroquartet.com for more information.

Miró Quartet

Performers

Program

Event Duration

At a Glance

Bios

Miró Quartet

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