Emerson String Quartet
The Helen Wagner Memorial Concert
11 October 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
Brickner Auditorium at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple
Mozart: Quartet in F major, K. 590
Shostakovich: Quartet No. 5
Dvořák: Quartet in G major, Op. 106
Pre-concert lecture: Edward Haymes (6:30 p.m.)
The Emerson String Quartet stands alone in the history of string quartets with an incomparable list of achievements For over three decades: nine Grammy® Awards (including two for Best Classical Album, an unprecedented honor for a chamber music group), three Gramophone Awards, the coveted Avery Fisher Prize and an international reputation for groundbreaking chamber music projects including cycles of the complete Beethoven, Bartók, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich string quartets in the world's musical capitals. Dedicated to the performance of the classical repertoire, the Emerson has also demonstrated a strong commitment to the commissioning and performance of 20th-and 21st-century music, including over 20 important commissions and world premieres. The Quartet has collaborated in concerts and on recordings with some of the greatest artists of our time. After 35 years of extensive touring, the Emerson Quartet continues to perform with the same benchmark integrity, energy and commitment that it has demonstrated since it was formed in 1976.
In March of 2011, Sony Classical announced an exclusive agreement with the Emerson String Quartet. The Quartet's debut album for the label, Mozart's Prussian Quartets K. 575, K. 589 and K. 590, will be released in November 2011 to coincide with a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall in London and Alice Tully Hall in New York City. This summer they return to esteemed music festivals across the United States including the Ravinia, Caramoor, Interlochen, Tanglewood and Aspen Music festivals as well as Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart festival and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. During the 2011-2012 season, their 35th season as an ensemble, the Emerson will perform extensively throughout North America and Europe, with performances slated in Boston, Vancouver, Denver, Philadelphia, Washington DC, San Diego, Houston and Ann Arbor as well as Germany, Denmark, Slovenia, Austria, England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, and South Korea. The Emerson continues its residency at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, now in its 32nd season.
The Emerson String Quartet's most recent recording for Deutsche Grammophon is Old World, New World, a 3-CD set of Dvorak's late quartets, Cypresses and the viola quintet, released in April 2010. Other notable recordings on Deutsche Grammophon include 2009's Intimate Letters-featuring chamber works by Janacek and Martinu and winner of the 2009 Grammy® for Best Chamber Music Performance-J.S. Bach Fugues from "The Well Tempered Clavier," the Grammy® Award- winning Intimate Voices, a recording of Grieg, Nielsen and Sibelius string quartets, and the complete Mendelssohn string quartets and octet, which received 2005 Grammy® Awards for "Best Chamber Music Performance" and "Best Engineered Album, Classical."
The Emerson is Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University, where, in addition to a concert series, teaching and chamber music coaching throughout the academic year, it has conducted intensive string quartet workshops in 2004, 2006 and 2008. The Quartet has also overseen three Professional Training Workshops at Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. In the 2006-2007 season, Carnegie invited the Emerson to present its own Perspectives series, a nine-concert exploration titled Beethoven in Context, held in Isaac Stern Auditorium. No other quartet has had the opportunity to present such an expansive series at Carnegie Hall. In March 2004 the Emerson was named the 18th recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize - another first for a chamber ensemble.
Formed in 1976, the Emerson String Quartet took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer alternate in the first chair position and are joined by violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel. Since January 2002, Messrs. Drucker, Setzer and Dutton have stood for their performances; Mr. Finckel sits on a podium. The Quartet is based in New York City.
Web site: http://www.emersonquartet.com