So often the cello is the Atlas of the quartet world, supporting, holding and enabling the group from its position of strength beneath. It is a noble and an exciting role. But there was a moment early on in the quartet’s development when the importance and seriousness of this role was cast aside in order […]
Mother I shall weave a chain of pearls for thy neck with my tears of sorrow. The stars have wrought their anklets of light to deck thy feet but mine will hang upon thy breast… This my sorrow is absolutely mine own and when I bring it to thee as my offering thou rewardest me […]
related: Bach, Mozart, Schoenberg, Schubert
For this “Fragments” project we are exploring the idea of this linkage, reentering abandoned imagined spaces to discover what they might suggest when examined from a fresh perspective. [VIDEO]
related: Mark Strand, Mozart, Webern
Webern’s time is an expansion of moments which almost elude our grasp, with individual instants held under the magnifying glass of our attention…
Stylistic progression over an artistic lifetime is often a complex, even convoluted journey, a refashioning of texture, rhetoric and form to suit the expressive concerns of a personal historical moment.
related: Bach
In commissioning composers to write “commentary” pieces as companions to selected contrapuncti from the Bach work the Brentano Quartet is presenting an evening of Bach and contemporary composers’ musical reactions to his work…
related: Haydn, Mark Strand
…the composite work comprising Haydn’s music and Mark Strand’s poetry forms an integrated artistic whole, with poetry and music symbiotically entwined…