- Jan. 29, 2017, 2:30 pm US/Central
- Fermilab Art Gallery
- Spektral Quartet
- Tickets: $17 for individual concert; $42 for all three Gallery Chamber Series events.
- Purchase tickets »
“The quartet proved that they have everything: a supreme technical command that seems to come easily, a capacity to make complicated music clear, and, most notably on this occasion, the ability to cast a magic spell.” – The New York Times
After dazzling Fermilab audiences last season, the Spektral Quartet returns by popular demand! Since its inception, the Spektral Quartet has sought out the discourse between the great works of the traditional canon and those written this decade, this year, or this week. Creating connections across centuries, the group further invites its listeners in with charismatic deliveries, interactive concert formats, an up-close atmosphere, and bold, inquisitive programming. In residence at the University of Chicago, the ensemble is regarded for its forward-thinking endeavors like the Mobile Miniatures project, which rallied more than 40 composers from across the US including Augusta Read Thomas and Shulamit Ran to write ringtones, bringing classical music into everyday life.
FINGER ON THE PULSE
Pizzicato, both elegant and brutal, is at the center of this program. Arguably the first “extended-technique” in music for bowed string instruments of the classical era, pizzicato highlights mood and rhythm, expands available colors in an artist’s palette, and is capable of bringing both dance-like lightness and explosive power to a composition.
In a season brimming with new work, we’re eager to present two of the cornerstones of the string quartet repertoire, with Beethoven’s inviting Quartet No. 10, Op. 74 “Harp” and Ravel’s euphoric String Quartet. The pizzicato passages that mark the second movement of the latter are a nod to both Javanese gamelan orchestration and fandango rhythms, and the nickname of the former speaks for itself.
For this century’s entry, we turn to a piece by one of the nicest (and most talented) guys in the biz, Dai Fujikura. We had the opportunity to work on this vivacious score with Dai this Fall at Bowling Green State University, and became fast friends. If past is prologue, the vigorous pizzicato interludes that bookend the piece are likely to cause the untimely demise of at least one of our strings.
