Ames Piano Quartet Has Been the Ensemble-In- Residence at Iowa State University Since Its Inception in 1976

mind, Fauré finally wrote their names on slips of paper, placed them in a hat, and randomly picked Marie Fremiet, daughter of a sculptor. The first movement of this evening's concluding work launches impetuously EPARTMENT OF USIC HEATRE into a strongly rhythmical but somewhat sad minor key whose theme is D M & T played in unison by the three strings. The following Scherzo has been described as "a buzzing of fairy insects on a moonbeam in a Shakespearean glade" and is full of rhythmic surprises which dramatically contrast with the solemn and wistful melodies of the Adagio. Somewhat reminiscent of a Mazurka in its vigour the Finale builds to an exciting climax to conclude one of the most beloved works of the piano quartet repertoire. Notes by Ralph Aldrich Ames Quartet Biography Ames In various iterations, the Ames Piano Quartet has been the ensemble-in- residence at Iowa State University since its inception in 1976. One of the few regularly constituted piano quartets in the world, the Ames Quartet briefly became the Amara Quartet in 2012, upon the retirement of two of Piano Quartet its long-time members. Wishing to reconnect with more than thirty years of tradition, the Quartet has now returned to its original name of Ames. The Quartet has an extensive discography, including fourteen CDs under the Ames name and a further two as Amara. Labels for which the group has Borivoj Martini -Jer i , violin recorded include Musical Heritage, Dorian, Sono Luminus, Albany, and ć č ć Fleur de Son Classics. “One finds critics writing of their commitment, passion, power, and sensitivity, not to mention their collective technical Stephanie Price-Wong, viola skills,” writes Robert Cummings on the AllMusic.com web site. Of their most recent release (Faure Piano Quartets) Critic Huntley Dent writes in Fanfare George Work, cello magazine, “As to the performances on this release, the second by the Amaras on Fleur de Son, they equal the best in the catalogue….we get the two Mei-Hsuan Huang, piano virtues that make for a superb chamber ensemble: each player has an individual voice, and the group as a whole expresses a unified musical conception.” The Quartet has appeared in concert throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in France, Austria, Taiwan, South Africa, and Russia. One of its most notable tours occurred in 2003 when it traveled to Cuba as the first American chamber ensemble to be invited to perform there since the country’s communist revolution in 1959. Radio appearances by the Quartet include “St Paul Sunday,” “Music at First Hearing,” “The Listening Room,” and “Performance Today.” The group has sought to expand the available repertoire of piano quartets, both by reviving unjustly neglected piano quartets of the past, and by commissioning new works. Two of the most notable works written for the Quartet include Lee Hoiby’s Dark Rosaleen, premiered in 2000, and George Sunday, November 3, 2019 Tsontakis’ Piano Quartet #4, premiered in 2019. Members of the Ames Piano Quartet include Borivoj Martinic-Jercic, violin; Stephanie Price-Wong, 7:30 pm viola; George Work, cello; and Mei-Hsuan Huang, piano. The Quartet is rep- resented by Joanne Rile Artists Management of Philadelphia. Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall Program The Second Piano Quartet opens with very thickly chromatic piano chords, against which a magisterial cello melody is heard. After some elaboration, this material is interrupted by a fiery (the actual tempo marking is “Blazing”) fast section that includes Messiaen-like bird song in the piano. The opening texture then returns, but now with a simple, folk-song-like melody in paired eighth notes. The second movement also begins slowly, but with a chorale- Piano Quartet #2 (1998) George Tsontakis like texture featuring the strings in rhythmic unison. Motives from the first I. Lazy movement recur as the chorale is replaced by a fast and rhythmic section, II. Broad which in turn gives way to a final return to the opening material. In the fourth Piano Quartet, the use of ostinatos which are subjected to a Piano Quartet #4 (world premiere) George Tsontakis process of continual variation gives rise to an “evolutionary” feel. I. Hypnotic, Dreamy In Tsontakis’ own words: II. Swaying “Like the first movement, the second begins with a kind of "ostinato" but unlike the first movement low "major 10ths" beat and offbeat motif, the second movement features a playful scurrying figure that grows and develops while essentially staying the same (one can maintain such a technique in Intermission music despite it sounding contradictory). Both movements have longer lines flying over or under the ostinatos. The second movement is more of a com- positional self-challenge with the challenge being one of trying to create a continuum of motion and rhythm throughout a fairly long span of time -- as Quartet in C Minor, Op.15 Gabriel Fauré (1845-1925) things change and evolve as life continuously does. Allegro molto moderato Scherzo: Allegro vivo I should also mention that very few, if any, known living composers have composed four piano quartets, so in my 4th I tried to make it a departure Adagio from the first three, with a different color and "personality”. Allegro molto Camille Saint-Saens, speaking of his student Gabriel Fauré, lamented the fact that "he did not possess that defect, namely ambition, which be- Program Notes comes an admirable quality in artists". While he was the least intransigent of men, Faure's smiling affability disguised a firm forceful nature. One Writing in Groves Dictionary, composer Eric Moe says of George Tsontakis: biographer applauding his appointment as Director of the Paris Conserva- “Tsontakis's early works are written in a dissonant chromatic idiom not toire welcomed him as "a hero disguised as an old man who managed to unlike that of [his teacher Roger] Sessions. His musical language soon shift- cleanse that chamber music palace of a bevy of indignant pretenders!" About ed, however, towards a classically-influenced style characterized by large- himself, Fauré explained, "I have this fundamental naiveté which causes scaled harmonic prolongations and what he calls "the timeless gesture," me to believe good rather than evil, since imagination is the capability to to a reference to the past through evocation rather than quotation. With the create excellence, perfection and non-reality". Unlike Beethoven, Fauré was String Quartet No. 3 "Coraggio" (1986) he arrived at an idiosyncratic tonal quite happy with the musical forms which were already in use, assimilat- language propelled by non-minimalist, Beethovenian use of repetition.” ing the music of his predecessors and contemporaries if it appealed to him. While he wrote orchestral, stage and church music he was happiest in more Although both the piano quartets featured on tonight’s performance were intimate forms and it is mainly by these that he will continue to be remem- composed long after 1986, there is to this performer’s ear a kind of bered. continuation of the shift described by Moe taking place between these two works. Though there are certainly moments of “timeless gesture” in the This evening's quartet followed in the wake of Schumann's piano chamber second Piano Quartet, there is plenty of dissonant chromaticism as well, and music, the influence of which can often be heard.Quartet in C Minor, Op.15 dreamy and hypnotic sections are interspersed with fiery fast ones. The was written at an emotionally stressful period occasioned by Fauré's broken, fourth Piano Quartet, on the other hand, has a timeless and dreamlike feel five-year engagement to Marianne, the daughter of Pauline Viardot, one of throughout, and if there is any single adjective that describes it, that the most celebrated French mezzo sopranos of the 19th century. Fauré had adjective is certainly “evocative.” Repetition as a structural device is also far no intention of remaining a bachelor, and later agreed to an arranged more prominent in the fourth Piano Quartet than in the second. marriage. A friend found three potential brides but unable to make up his.

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