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Blair Signature Series: The Blair String Quartet *CANCELLED*

Presented by Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University - Blair School of Music

February 18, 2011

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This event has been cancelled due to illness.

The Blair String Quartet. Christian Teal, violin; Cornelia Heard, violin; John Kochanowski, viola; Felix Wang, cello.

The program opens with one of Haydn’s most charming and joyful works, the String Quartet in C Major, Op.33, No.3. This work is subtitled “The Birds”. The work is light and playful and has themes in both the first movement and the Scherzando that seem to imitate both the chirping and song-like qualities of birds.

Karel Husa was the winner of two of the highest awards given to composers, the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 and the Grawemeyer Award in 1993. His String Quartet No. 4 was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts for the consortium of the Blair, Colorado, and Alard String Quartets and was completed in the spring of 1989. A collection of six poems, the Quartet explores possibilities of unusual sonorities in virtuosic writing for the string quartet. The individual poems speak of Bells, Sunlight, Darkness, Hope, Wild Birds, and Freedom. This is a fascinating tone poem for string quartet.

The program closes with the final complete string quartet of Beethoven. The String Quartet in F Major, Op.135 was completed on October 30, 1826. Beethoven died on March 26, 1827 and this quartet was not premiered until March 23, 1828. This work is shorter than any of his other late string quartets but has four contrasting movements. The final movement starts with the question (in German): “ Must it be?” set with a musical motive. The question is decisively answered: “It must be!”

Sponsored by an anonymous friend of the Blair School in memory of Landis Gullett. Valet parking provided.