Part of: Quartets Plus
Lead support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Additional funding is provided by members of Carnegie Hall's Composer Club.
The number of great composers who have felt the influence of The Well-Tempered Clavier only begins to reflect the impact it has had on composition in every generation since Bach. Nicholas Kitchen’s arrangement for string quartet belongs to a tradition of composers drawing from these indispensable works and discovering new ways to bring Bach’s counterpoint to life.
Written when he was 18, Mendelssohn’s A-Minor Quartet bears the hallmarks of his precocious genius in its technical assurance and confident handling of large-scale forms, reflecting his close study of Beethoven’s quartets. So characteristically “Beethovenian” are the A-Minor Quartet’s quasi-cyclical structure and generally high level of dissonance that it was once mistaken for one of Beethoven’s late quartets, much to Mendelssohn’s chagrin.
Etudes and Lullabies, by American composer Sebastian Currier, comprises a dozen short pieces for string quartet that can be played either singly or in any combination the performers choose. The pairing of etude and lullaby, two genres with long histories and rich associations, offers ample scope for contrast—in this case, between the blistering energy of “Velocities” and the hallucinatory reverie of “Dreaming.”
Schumann’s three Op. 41 quartets of 1842 marked his return to chamber-music composition after a hiatus of several years. Like its two companions, the A-Major Quartet reflects the composer’s deep immersion in the chamber music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as a departure from the literary models that had inspired much of his earlier work.
With each visionary performance, the award-winning Borromeo String Quartet strengthens its reputation as one of the most important ensembles of our time. It recently celebrated 25 years of inventive music making.
Known for its innovative performances, the quartet strives to redefine the classical music landscape through a pioneering use of technology. It was the first string quartet to utilize laptop computers in concert, a tool that allows the artists to perform from four-part scores and manuscripts, better revealing the composer’s creative process. It was also the first classical ensemble to make and distribute its own live concert recordings and videos through the Living Archive, a music education web portal with a revised version soon to be released.
The Borromeo’s recent and upcoming seasons include the premiere of a new work by Aaron Jay Kernis; a multimedia collaboration with visual artist, puppeteer, and director Doug Fitch in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth; concerts in Switzerland, Japan, Korea, and China; performances of the Bartók cycle of string quartets in Boston and San Francisco; and appearances at Baltimore’s Shriver Hall, Minneapolis’s Schubert Club, and the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival.
The quartet has presented more than 10 string quartet cycles by beloved masters and enjoyed collaborations with major composers of the last two centuries. It has served as ensemble-in-residence at the New England Conservatory, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Taos School of Music for 25 years, and worked extensively with the Library of Congress and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
The Borromeo String Quartet has received numerous awards, including Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and Martin E. Segal Award, and Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award. It was a recipient of top prizes at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France.
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