Meccore String Quartet FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2021, 7:30PM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2021, 7:30PM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2021, 3PM FROM OUR CHAMBER TO YOURS Our 68th Year... Our First Virtual Season 1 1 Since 2003, Altavista has oered our clients experience, versatility, discipline, and highly personalized service. Discover what the right investment rm can do for you. 4 Vanderbilt Park Drive Suite 310 Asheville, NC 28803 828.684.2600 [email protected] altavistawealth.com 2 About the Asheville Chamber Music Series Welcome to the 68th season of the Asheville Chamber Music Series. We are excited to share this year’s lineup of world-class chamber ensembles as we have done for the past 67 years. As always, we wish to thank you, our loyal audience of subscribers, patrons, donors and chamber music lovers. The ACMS thrives because of you and we are grateful. Founded in 1952 by Joe Vandewart, a refugee from Nazi Germany and ten other music lovers, the Asheville Cham- ber Music Series began modestly. After setting up a table in the lobby of the Battery Park Hotel, the group quickly found 800 people willing to pay the $4 price for a season subscription for “an unspecified number of concerts.” The Alberni Trio gave the first concert on October 16, 1952. Since then, chamber ensembles from around the world have performed for the Series. These include the Buda- pest, Emerson, Fine Arts, Juilliard, and Kodaly Quartets, along with trios, piano quartets, quintets and larger cham- ber ensembles as well as duos, such as the one featuring cellist Janos Starker and flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal. The legendary Amadeus Quartet performed in the first season and returned seven times, partly due to the friend- ship and hospitality of Mr. Vandewart, who was a leading force in the organization until his death in 1985. Each year, one concert is designated as the Joe Vandewart/Annie Westall Memorial Concert. (Ms. Westall, an Asheville na- tive and tireless supporter, served on the board from its second season until her death in 1984.) 3 Call to schedule a visit and discover a holistic approach to a joy-filled retirement. Asheville, NC 800-284-1531 deerfieldwnc.org 4 ~Program~ Quartet in G major, Op. 18, No. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven Allegro (1770-1827) Adagio cantabile; Allegro Scherzo: Allegro Allegro molto, quasi presto Quartet in D major, K. 575 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Allegretto (1756-1791) Andante Menuetto: Allegro Allegretto ~~intermission~~ Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Moderato e semplice (1840-1893) Andante cantabile Scherzo: Allegretto non tanto Finale: Allegro giusto Management: ARTS MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC., 130 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019 5 Thank You! 2020/21 Programming Sponsors Suzanne Jones Bruce I Minkin MD Joselyn Hill 2020/21 Outreach SPonors Interested in sponsorship opportunities for you or your business? Visit ashevillechambermusic.org or contact Sarah at [email protected]. 6 ~The Performers~ Bruce I Minkin MD MECCore string quartet February 2021 Jaroslaw Nadrzycki, violin Wojciech Koprowski, violin Michal Bryèa, viola Karol Marianowski, cello Established in 2007, the Meccore String Quartet is one of Europe’s most compelling ensembles. For many years they have been a treat for music lovers and have performed in prestigious concert halls such as the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Wigmore Hall in London, Bozar in Brussels, Musikverein in Vienna, Pollack Hall in Montreal, and at The Frick Collection in New York. The musicians appear at the most important music festivals such as Rheingau Musik Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, L. van Beethoven Easter Festival, Budapest Spring Festival, Heidelberg Frühling Musikfestival, Kissinger Sommer Musikfestival, Festival Radio France Montpellier, Bregenzer Festspiele. The ensemble had the honor to perform, as the first ever Polish string quartet, during the ceremony on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the German Bundestag. The quartet has received numerous important chamber music awards. In 2012 Meccore won a Second Prize, as well as awards 7 for the best performance of classical string quartets, and for the best performance of Brett Dean’s obligatory composition at the Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition in London. A year earlier they earned the finalist award and the special award for the best performance of the obligatory composition by Giya Kancheli at the International String Quartet Competition “Premio Paolo Borciani” in Reggio Emilia. In 2010 the quartet won First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Weiden as well as First Prize at the Max Reger International Chamber Music Competition in Sondershausen. A number of international distinctions brought the Meccore String Quartet nomination for the “Paszport Polityki” award in the classical music category for their “innovative approach to the music and for breaking musical stereotypes.” With the support of the Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation, the quartet released their debut CD album as well as their second disc, which was granted the “Supersonic Award” by classical music magazine Pizzicato and received two nominations for the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry music award “Fryderyk 2016”. Their third album, with string quartets by Edvard Grieg, received many distinctions along with a nomination for the “Fryderyk 2018” award. The musicians have recorded numerous TV and radio appearances for Bayerischer Rundfunk, BBC Radio 3, Rai3, Radio Clásica RTVE, Radio Stephansdom, Radio Merkury, NDR Kultur, ZDF, Phoenix and WQXR. Their performance of Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden for Polish TV Kultura was nominated to the 2011 edition of “Gwarancje Kultury” award. The quartet was at first tutored by the members of the Camerata Quartet followed by studies with the Artemis Quartet at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels. Meccore String Quartet further developed their skills with Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet) at Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. An important event in the artistic life of the quartet was their participation in the course on interpretation of Ludwig van Beethoven’s music held by Alfred Brendel. 8 Since 2010 Meccore String Quartet has hosted the International Chamber Music Festival “Quarto Mondi” in Poznań, which features top quartets from all over the world. The members of Meccore are also active pedagogues, leading chamber music and violin classes at Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. ~Program Notes~ String Quartet in G major, Op.18, no.2 Ludwig Van Beethoven The G major, the briefest of the Op. 18 quartets, emerges as a charming and witty work. Despite its apparent light, happy character, it is considered difficult to perform, and Beethoven’s notebooks reveal that the lightness was achieved only after a lengthy struggle, covering 32 notebook pages, to blend many disparate elements into a smooth creation. The quartet opens with a series of short, balanced phrases followed by a gruff bridge passage that leads to the second subject. The development is devoted exclusively to material from the first subject and the bridge. The Adagio second movement features the solo violin at first, but Beethoven takes the closing cadenza figure of this section, quadruples its tempo, and sends the music scurrying off in a parody-like Allegro. The slow, gentle strains of the Adagio return, now in variation and shared by all players. In the Scherzo third move- ment, the two violins gleefully toss the music back and forth until the other instruments join in to introduce a more sober note. In the trio that follows, the two contrasting moods — playful and serious — are expanded. In the transition back to the repeat of the Scherzo, the cello plays a descending scale line, and the violins, unable to contain their enthusiasm, anticipate the repeat of the first section. Beethoven referred to the last movement as “aufgeknopft” (“unbuttoned”), connoting a free, informal character. Starting with perfectly symmetrical, four-square phrases, it goes on to an impish second theme with a syncopated start and a delightful counter melody. Rollicking along lightheartedly, it builds to a brilliant conclusion. Written between 1798 and 1800, the six Op. 18 quartets were dedicated to Prince Karl Lobkowitz, an Austrian nobleman, and their 9 10 premieres were given at Friday morning musicals held at the Prince’s Viennese home. They were published in 1801. - adapted from Guide to Chamber Music by Melvin Berger String Quartet in D major, K.575 W.A. Mozart The String Quartet in D major, K. 575, is the first of the three Prussian Quartets—the last string quartets Mozart ever wrote. In April of 1789 he had left Vienna for Potsdam with his pupil, Prince Karl Lichnowsky (later Beethoven’s patron), who was to introduce him to King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. The king, like his flutist/composer uncle, King Friedrich Wilhelm I, and his pianist/composer cousin, Prince Louis Ferdinand, was a great music lover—his instrument was the cello. Mozart hoped the visit would result in some financial gain, but all he received was a small amount of money and a commission to compose “six easy clavier sonatas for Princess Friederike and six quartets for the king.” When Mozart got back to Vienna his situation was no better. He was constantly begging money from friends, who this time did not answer his requests; his wife fell seriously ill; and he himself was suffering from rheumatism, toothaches, headaches, and insomnia. He composed one quartet, K. 575 in D major, but waited almost a year before adding two more, K. 589 in B-flat major and K. 590 in F major. He never wrote the other three, nor did he complete the set of sonatas for the princess.