2020-2021 ARTISTS & REPERTORY BesenArts LLC | Robert Besen, Director 7 Delaney Place | Tenafly, NJ 07670-1607 T: 201-399-7425 | E: [email protected] Alexander String Quartet The Beethoven Cycle The Alexander has performed the Beethoven cycle dozens of times in various formats. Please inquire for more details about performances of the cycle, individual all-Beethoven programs, and other special programs. FoghornClassics 1996, 1999, and 2002 “The performances are unfailingly fresh and musically compelling. The interpretations are crisp and polished, full of perceptively observed detail; alert to the smallest change of accent and nuance. … The ASQ can take considerable credit from these superb interpretations. Their dedication and insight have paid off as this set is one of the very finest available. … Unquestionably one of my ‘Records of the Year.’ “ — Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International 2 Alexander String Quartet Mozart-Shostakovich-Brahms Three programs bringing the works of these composers together. MSB-A Mozart: String Quartet No. 23 in F major, K. 590 (1790) Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp minor, Op. 108 (1960) Brahms: String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51, No. 1 (1873) MSB-B Mozart: String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K. 575 (1789) Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 138 (1970) Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2 (1873) MSB-C Mozart: String Quartet No. 22 in B-flat major, K. 589 (1789) Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83 (1949) Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat major, Op. 67 (1875) World War II Commemorative Haydn: String Quartet in C major, Op. 76, No. 3 “Emperor” (1796-7) Bartók: String Quartet No. 6, Sz. 114 (1939) Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68 (1944) Alexander String Quartet Favorites FAV-A Mozart: String Quartet No. 22 in B-flat major, K. 589 (1789) Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp minor, Op. 108 (1960) Schubert: String Quartet in D minor “Death and the Maiden” (1824) FAV-B Mozart: String Quartet No. 20 in D major, K. 499, “Hoffmeister” (1786) Ravel: String Quartet (1902-3) Beethoven: String Quartet in C major, Op. 59 No. 3 “Razumovsky” (1808) Viola Quintet Extravaganza! (with guest violist TBA) 1. Mozart: String Quintet No. 1 in B-flat major. K. 174 (1773) 2. Mozart: String Quintet No. 6 in E-flat major, K. 614 (1791) —OR— Mozart: String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516 (1787) 3. Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111 (1890) Collaboration with pianist Joyce Yang Continue to Page 4 for more details on this collaboration, which focuses on programs of three works for piano and strings. “British Invasion”: Collaboration with guitarist William Kanengiser The Alexander String Quartet and guitarist William Kanengiser are pleased to announce an unusual collaborative program, “British Invasion,” available beginning in 2020-2021. Continue to Page 6 for details. 3 Alexander String Quartet & Joyce Yang Joyce Yang courtesy Arts Management Group. “Alongside her burgeoning career as a soloist and concerto performer, the pianist Joyce Yang has also demonstrated impressive gifts as a chamber musician. Here [FoghornClassics CD2014] she joins the excellent Alexander String Quartet for passionate, soulful readings of two pinnacles of the chamber repertory.” –The New York Times “Their approach reminds me of such conductors as Rodzinski, Toscanini, Munch, or Gielen, a straight-ahead reading in which one hears inner voices as if X-rayed, yet never loses the lyrical flow of the music or its ability to surprise the listener with innumerable small details. … If you enjoy these two works, you owe it to yourself to 4 Alexander String Quartet & Joyce Yang hear what the Alexander Quartet and Joyce Yang make of them.” –Fanfare “I truly hope that the collaboration between Joyce Yang and the Alexander String Quartet will continue, as it’s a match like no other.” –San Francisco Classical Voice PROGRAMS OF WORKS FOR STRINGS & PIANO The focus of this collaboration is to offer audiences a full program of works for strings and piano – rather than the more standard constellation of two string quartets and one piano quintet. (However, that program configuration, or one including a set of solo piano works and a string quartet as well as a piano quintet, is available by request.) Here is a list of works available: Brahms: Quintet for Piano & Strings in F minor, Op. 34 (1864) * Dvořák: Quintet for Piano & Strings in A major, Op. 81 (1887) Mozart: Quartet No. 1 for Piano & Strings in G minor, K. 478 (1785) ** Mozart: Quartet No. 2 for Piano & Strings in E-flat major, K. 493 (1786) ** Alfred Schnittke: Piano Quintet (1972-6) Schumann: Quintet for Piano & Strings in E-flat major, Op. 44 (1842) * Shostakovich: Quintet for Piano & Strings in G minor, Op. 57 (1940) NEW WORK FOR PIANO QUINTET Samuel Adams: Quintet (2018) The Alexander String Quartet and Ms. Yang are pleased to announce the commissioning of a new work for them by a consortium including the Arizona Friends of Music, Mondavi Center, San Francisco Performances, and Soka University. The premiere took place in Tucson, Arizona, in February 2019. * FoghornClassics 2014 ** ForghornClassics 2018 5 British Invasion: William Kanengiser and the Alexander String Quartet The Alexander String Quartet and guitarist William Kanengiser are pleased to announce an unusual collaborative program, “British Invasion.” The germ of this project is a work co-composed by Sting and Dušan Bogdanović, “Prisms – Six Songs by Sting” (2013). The work reinterprets, for guitar and string quartet, the songs “Every Breath You Take,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Shape of My Heart,” “Fields of Gold,” “Roxanne,” and “Desert Rose.” This will be the U.S. Premiere of this work. The musicians decided to craft a program of quintet works, all with a British connection: Sting/Bogdanović Prisms – Six Songs by Sting [2013] – U.S. Premiere Leo Brouwer From Yesterday to Today: Seven Songs After the Beatles [1995] Ian Krouse Labyrinth (on a theme by Led Zeppelin) [1995] Ian Krouse Music in Four Sharps (on Dowland’s Frog Galliard) [2004] 6 Viva Tango! Featuring Cho-Liang Lin & David Shifrin The Project… Letters from Argentina, composed by Lalo Schifrin, was premiered in 2005 at a performance of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The work was presented soon after by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the La Jolla SummerFest, and Chamber Music Northwest, which joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in commissioning the work. This commission gave birth to the program Viva Tango!, which pairs Schifrin’s work with music of Ástor Piazzolla. The Artists… Cho-Liang Lin, violin ∙ David Shifrin, clarinet ∙ Héctor Del Curto, bandonéon ∙ Alex Brown, piano ∙ Pablo Aslan, double bass ∙ Satoshi Takeishi, percussion The Music… Ástor Piazzolla: Tangos… Michaelangelo 70 ∙ Porteño ∙ Adiós Nonino La muerte del Angel ∙ Oblivion ∙ Libertango Lalo Schifrin: Letters from Argentina… “Like the clear sky, like the rain, like the clouds, music has always been part of the Argentinean atmosphere, ever present in the literature, in the visual arts, and in the history of the country.” –Lalo Schifrin In these eight vignettes, the composer weaves the nostalgic sounds of his childhood into a wistful musical impression. He draws from the auditory imprints of having grown up in the vibrant sonic landscape of his homeland – his father’s violin playing, the drums of indigenous peoples, the impassioned strains of tango that emanate from forbidden cafés and radio speakers, the festive dance music that saturates the streets of entire villages and barrios, the faint strumming of the gauchos’ guitars on tranquil evenings in the pampas – and fashions an imagined reawakening of these experiences. (From the program note by Patrick Campbell Jankowski.) Availability: March 15-23, 2021 and by inquiry. 7 Argus Quartet Lightness of Being Music, like life, is fundamentally ephemeral: it exists in linear time, and once the final chord echoes through the concert hall, the music is gone. Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a meditation on ephemerality, exploring the idea that each person only has one life to live, that the events in one’s life occur only once and never again: the “lightness” of being. Centered around Beethoven’s final string quartet (and the last major work he completed before his death) – whose famous “Muss es sein?” (“Must it be?”) motive plays a major role in Kundera’s novel – this program spans centuries, asking questions about fate, transcendence, destiny, necessity, and lightness and weight. LB-A Shuying Li: A Strange Story - Miss Ying-Ning (15’) * Christopher Theofanidis: Five (25’) Camila Agosto: Blemish (12’) ---OR--- A.J. McCaffrey: New Work * Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 (25’) LB-B Shuying Li: A Strange Story - Miss Ying-Ning (15’) * Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 (25’) Camila Agosto: Blemish (12’) ---OR--- A.J. McCaffrey: New Work * Ravel: String Quartet (25’) ---OR--- Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: String Quartet in E flat (25’) Argus Quartet noise/SILENCE The language we use to describe sound is rich with metaphor: both noise and silence can be deafening, we speak of both “brain chatter” and a “quiet mind,” noise can be “white” or “static.” It’s been said that “silence is the sharper sword.” To humans, noise and silence can both empower and oppress us – from the cheering of a crowd to something left unsaid by a loved one, from chirping birds to an incessant alarm. John Cage – whose 4’33’’ famously explores the power of silence – aimed in his String Quartet in Four Parts to write a work that praised silence without actually using it.