photo by: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Emerson Quartet
Perelman Theater| Wednesday, April 24 | 8pm | buy tickets! |
Copland: Lento for Quartet
Berg: Lyrische Suite
Intermission
Grieg: Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27
This year is particularly special for the Emersons in that it marks the departure of cellist David Finckel at the end of the 12-13 Season. Join PCMS in celebration of Mr. Finckel's 33 years of dedication and artistry with the Emerson Quartet. 'The performances were everything we have come to expect from this superb ensemble: technically resourceful, musically insightful, cohesive, full of character and always interesting' —The New York Times. This event opens with Copland's Lento: a languorous, blues-inspired melody; borrowing a few gestures and contours, such as a swanky off-kilter accent, a sultry portamento, or a gritty chromatic inflection, and it teases out their expressive essence by working them into a complex and moody harmonic language. In the middle is Berg's tour de force Lyricshe Suite centered around a secret muse in Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, with whom he had a 10-year affair. Concluding the concert is Grieg's only and incomparable string quartet—one of the most striking aspects of this work is the distinctive way Grieg writes for the string ensemble, an inseparable combination of texture and color resulting in a consistently unique quartet sound.
All artists and programs subject to change.