Group will finish playing all composer’s string quartets at Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Playing all of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets in concert is a mammoth undertaking, but one that the Orion String Quartet relishes the opportunity to do, says the ensemble’s violist Steven Tenenbom.
“There’s an achievement reached in playing these pieces,” he explained by phone from Connecticut. “Beethoven had an idealistic attempt to reach superhuman values. He transports people to emotions and inner feelings in ways that you don’t find in other music. Performing the string quartets is an uplifting experience for us and for the audience.”
The Orion String Quartet played half of the 16 quartets during the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s season last year and will perform the remaining quartets this summer. Quartets 4, 9 and 12 already have been performed. Numbers 5 and 15 are programmed for performance in St. Francis Auditorium on Sunday, while 6, 11 and 13 will be played on Monday.
“There are so many ways to present the quartets,” Tenenbom said. “You can do it chronologically, but we don’t think that’s a good idea. What we decided to do was make sure each concert had pieces on it that both represent Beethoven’s three different compositional periods and complement each other. Every concert is like a mini quartet cycle within itself.”
The 20-year old Orion String Quartet, with Tenenbom, brothers and violinists Daniel and Todd Phillips and cellist Timothy Eddy, is known in the classical music scene for presenting the entire cycle of Beethoven string quartets. In 2000 the ensemble played the cycle in a series of free concerts at New York’s Alice Tully Hall. Since then, the group has performed the series of quartets in concert in Kansas City and Pittsburgh and at Indiana University.
On Wednesday, Orion members will split up to perform chamber works with other musicians in St. Francis Auditorium. The program will feature Todd Phillips and Eddy playing Ravel’s “Piano Trio in A Minor” with pianist Benjamin Hochman and Daniel Phillips and Tenenbom performing Brahms’ “Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34” with violinist Benny Kim, cellist Eric Kim and pianist Jon Nakamatsu
The opening piece on Wednesday night’s program will be “Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet” by Stravinsky, performed by Todd Levy. The work was written in 1918 as thanks to Swiss financier Werner Reinhart, an accomplished amateur clarinetist who had provided financial backing for the original production of Stravinsky’s work “L’Histoire Du Soldat.”
“It was one of the first pieces for a solo wind instrument written by anybody,” Levy said. “In this way, it’s important. Each of the three pieces is unique. The first is slow and tranquil. The second has a virtuosic section that exploits the range of the clarinet. The third is very loud and rhythmic and has changing patterns throughout the piece. You don’t feel as if you’re listening to a piece with a regular rhythm.”
Levy says “Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet” is often played during clarinet recitals. “It’s a neat way to start a program, because it sets up a mood,” he added.
Saturday afternoon’s recital in St. Francis Auditorium will feature Hochman playing Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.”
If You Go
WHAT: Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
WHEN: Aug. 8-14
WHERE: Concerts take place at the Lensic Performing Arts Center and St. Francis Auditorium in the New Mexico Museum of Art.
COST: $33-$83; noon concerts $15.
CONTACT: (505) 988-1234
For a detailed schedule: www.sfcmf.org
