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Guarneri and Johannes String Quartets Guarneri String Quartet Johannes String Quartet Thursday, November 20, 8pm
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—Washington Post
ProgramS
BERMEL: Passing Through (Bay Area Premiere)
DVOŘÁK: Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, "The American"
MENDELSSOHN: Octet, Op. 20
About This Performance — ALERT
ALERT ABOUT THIS PERFORMANCE:
The sudden and unexpected death in Korea on Tuesday of the brother of Choong-Jin “C.J.” Chang, violist of the Johannes String Quartet, has necessitated a change in the program for the concert with the Johannes and the Guarneri String Quartet.
Standing in for Chang, who has returned to Korea to be with his family, will be Lesley Robertson, violist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet. She will join the Johannes to perform Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat, Opus 20, which remains on the program, as does the Bay Area premiere of Passing Through, the Derek Bermel piece commissioned for the Guarneri.
However, due to the tight timeframe, the Johannes, with Robertson, will not be able to perform originally scheduled new works by William Bolcom (Octet: Double Quartet) and Esa-Pekka Salonen (Homunculus for String Quartet).
For more information, please call the San Francisco Performances' office at 415.398.6449.
Artist Biography
The renowned Guarneri String Quartet "is among the most revered and enduring ensembles of its kind in the world" (National Public Radio) and has circled the globe countless times since it was formed in 1964, playing in the most prestigious halls in North and South America, Mexico, Europe, Asia and Australia. The Guarneri String Quartet has announced its retirement at the completion of the 2008-09 season. In the coming seasons the quartet will celebrate by doing what it does best—touring extensively throughout the United States as they have for nearly 45 years. These performances also include their annual Metropolitan Museum of Art concert series, instituted in 1965, as well as a collaboration with the Johannes String Quartet. The ensemble also makes its annual tour to Europe this winter.
The Guarneri has been featured on many television and radio specials, documentaries and educational presentations both in North America and abroad. They have been interviewed by Charles Kuralt on CBS' nationwide television program, Sunday Morning. A full-length film entitled High Fidelity—The Guarneri String Quartet was released nationally, to great critical and public acclaim, in the fall of 1989 (the film was directed and produced by Allan Miller who was also the director/producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary, From Mozart to Mao, which dealt with Isaac Stern's visit to China). The quartet is also the subject of various books including Quartet by Helen Drees Ruttencutter (Lippincott & Crowell, 1980), The Art of Quartet Playing: the Guarneri in Conversation with David Blum (Alfred A. Knopf, 1986) and Arnold Steinhardt's Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998).
In addition to mastering the finest works in the existing quartet repertoire, the Guarneri String Quartet is committed to performing and popularizing works by today's foremost composers. In the spring of 2008 the quartet, in collaboration with the Johannes String Quartet, will premiere new works by acclaimed American composers William Bolcom and Derek Bermel. In the 2003-04 season, they gave the first performance of String Quartet No. 5 (In Search of La Vita Nuova) written for them by the award-winning American composer, Richard Danielpour. Mr. Danielpour had previously written a Concerto for String Quartet and Orchesta, commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and written expressly for the Guarneri String Quartet. It was premiered with the NSO in the Kennedy Center under the direction of Leonard Slatkin in January, 2000 followed by its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall later that same month. In the 2001-02 season, the Guarneri gave the first performances of String Quartet No. 5, written for them by Lukas Foss and this work remains in their active repertoire.
In 1982, Mayor Koch presented the Quartet with the first New York Seal of Recognition. The Quartet was awarded Honorary Doctorate degrees by the University of South Florida (1976) and the State University of New York (1983). In 1992, the Guarneri String Quartet became the only quartet to receive the prestigious Award of Merit from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in New York City. The Quartet continues their longstanding series and residency at the University of Maryland where they are on the faculty. In 2004, the Guarneri received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award from Chamber Music America. This is CMA's highest honor, given annually to an individual or ensemble for a lifetime of service and achievement in the field. In 2005, Guarneri received the Ford Honors Award from the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan where they have performed 30 times over the past 40 years. The Guarneri String Quartet has recorded for Surrounded by Entertainment, which released a CD in Spring 2001 of Quartets by Ravel, Debussy and Faure. Several of its recordings on both RCA Red Seal and Philips have won international awards, including its recent recording of Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga's String Quartet Nos. 1-3 (Philips), which won the 1996 Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Award in Germany. Among its other award-winning recordings are collaborations with such artists as Artur Rubinstein, Pinchas Zukerman; and Boris Kroyt and Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet. They have also recorded on the Arabesque label Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 3 and its first ever recording of the great Mendelssohn Octet, Op. 20, in collaboration with the Orion Quartet.
The Johannes Quartet consists of four outstanding musicians who take time away from their busy careers to pursue their love of the string quartet literature. This quartet brings together the Principal cello of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first American to win the Paganini Violin Competition in 24 years, and a Concert Artist Guild International Competition Winner, and has been praised by listeners and critics alike for its special combination of passion, warmth, elegance and poetry. Each member has spent numerous summers at the celebrated Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, birthplace of many of the world's renowned ensembles. New York appearances include their recent Carnegie Hall debut as well as frequent performances on the Schneider Series at the New School and the Peoples' Symphony Concerts at Town Hall.
Forthcoming is the world premiere of a new octet written for the Johannes Quartet and the renowned Guarneri Quartet by award winning composer William Bolcom, to be commissioned by the Music Accord consortium of presenters. In addition to this work, the quartet will also premiere a new string quartet to be written for them by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Recent highlights include performances in Chicago, Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall (NY), Los Angeles (CA), Norfolk(VA) Phoenix(AZ), Schenectady(NY), and Storrs(CT) . The Johannes has also been heard around the country through broadcasts on NPR's Performance Today and MPR's St. Paul Sunday.
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