Quartets Through the Ages With Fine Arts Quartet

Out of necessityand limited resources true creation can emerge. Witness the case of a youngJoseph Haydn (1732-1809) who had but two violinists, a violist and cellist athand to fulfill the desire of a royal patron for new music. Haydn essentiallybecame the founder of the string quartetone of the fundamental genres ofClassical Music. And what an enduring genre it is! Modern composers stillregularly use the four stringed instrument combination.

By 1799, whenHaydn composed his String Quartet in G Major, Op. 77, No. 1, the form wasvirtually the only one that he felt comfortable pursuing. The G Major Quartet,first of the two of Op. 77, is generally regarded as his finestthe crowningglory of which is the Adagio second movement.

SergeyRachmaninoff (1873-1943), though a composer mainly for orchestra and the piano,found it necessary to at least dabble in the genre founded by Haydn. His firstsuch efforta string quartet from 1890consists of a Romance first movement andScherzo second, but that’s as far as he ever got with it.

His contemporary,Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), was the most popular violin virtuoso of the early20th century. His compositions may be few, but his recordings, performances andviolin cadenzas are legendary. Kreisler’s String Quartet in A Minor is a workcharacterized by the wit, charm and warmth that made him so famous.

These works willbe performed by the Fine Arts Quartet in their next concert, takingplace at UWM’s Helen Bader Concert Hall on Feb. 7.

The durability ofthe string quartet is evinced by the fact that, for many years now, stringensembles have existed solely to perform in their beloved milieu. One suchgroupBrooklyn Rideris coming to Milwaukeeunder the auspices of Frankly Music. Veterans of renowned cellist Yo-YoMa’s Silk Road Project, Brooklyn Rider (Johnny Gandelsman, Colin & EricJacobsen, and Nicholas Cords) state they’re “as willing to explore the world ofHaydn as the music of our time,” and that the ensemble was “born out of adesire to use the rich medium of the string quartet as a vehicle for borderlesscommunication…”

For theirMilwaukee concert, Brooklyn Rider performs four short works by Colin Jacobsen;the fourth of Philip Glass’ (b. 1937) five string quartets, composed in memoryof artist Brian Buczak; the String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10 by Claude Debussy(1862-1918), a poetic, sonorous piece and his sole venture into the form; FedericoII from Viaggio in Italia by Giovanni Sollima (b. 1962); and alniente by Uzbek composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky (b. 1963)a truly diverseprogram in keeping with Brooklyn Rider’s mission. “I think it will be anamazing show,” predicts Frankly Music’s founder and Milwaukee SymphonyOrchestra Concertmaster Frank Almond.

At Wisconsin Lutheran College’sSchwan Concert Hall on Feb. 16.