Photo: philomusicaquartet.com
Philomusica Quartet
Philomusica Quartet
The Philomusica Quartet concludes their 2022-2023 season with a program entitled “Vive la Difference!” in the delightful Schwan Hall on the Wisconsin Lutheran College Campus where they are the resident quartet.
In the first half of the program they will play Édouard Lalo’s “String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 45” and Caroline Shaw’s “Entr’acte” for String Quartet.” After the intermission they will be joined by pianist Melinda Masur for César Franck’s “Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 14.”
Lalo is a 19th century French violinist and composer best known for his Symphonie espagnole, a five-movement concerto for violin and orchestra. Sasha Mandl kindly pointed out the “difference” in this composition: “written in an era post George Onslow using Beethovenian models (in particular Quarteto Serioso). Lalo’s musical is an amalgam between French and Germanic schools, truly defying French romanticism, yet he has his own forward-looking treatment of counterpoint and melodic material.”
Caroline Shaw was born in South Carolina in 1982 and is a violinist, composer and singer (not necessarily in that order). She won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition “Partita for 8 Voices” when she was 30. She completed Entr’acte in 2011 “after hearing the Brentano Quartet play Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2—with their spare and soulful shift to the D-flat major trio in the minuet. It is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.” I listened and was reminded of Haydn’s “Musical joke.” There’s definitely a difference in this unique piece and as Mandl pointed out she uses a wide variety of sound effects of string instruments.
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The final composition is the wonderful piano quintet by Franck composed in 1879. It premiered with Franck’s friend Camille Saint-Saëns at the piano and was inscribed to him: “To my good friend Camille Saint-Saëns." However, when the piece was over, his friend walked off the stage leaving the open score on the piano creating a minor scandal as people interpreted this as a sign of disdain. Certainly, this gesture was different, though perhaps not something for which we’d shout “Vive!” Most quintets of this large proportion would consist of four movements. Here Franck uses only three, which is, as Mandl points out, a major difference.
Violinists Jeanyi Kim and Alexander Mandl, violist Nathan Hackett, and cellist Adrien Zitoun formed the Philomusica Quartet in 2008 to create an outlet for sharing and expressing their love of chamber music. Kim, Hackett and Zitoun are members of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Mandl is the concertmaster for several regional symphony orchestras besides being a member of the music faculty at UW-Parkside, Wisconsin Lutheran College, and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Nathan and Adrien also teach at Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Worldwide Members
The members of the quartet are from around the world. Kim is from Toronto and her husband, Mandl, was both a violinist and conductor in his native Brazil. Hackett is a native of Wisconsin while Zitoun is from France.
The Chinese American pianist Melinda Lee Masur has performed on all three stages of Carnegie Hall, at London’s Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, the Berliner Philharmonie, Ravinia Festival, as well as other venues around the world. She serves as Director of Piano Chamber Music and Co-Director of the Young Artist Piano Program for the BU Tanglewood Institute.
This is certainly an exciting way to end their season and one can understandably join in the cheers, “Vive la difference!” this wonderful chamber group brings to Milwaukee audiences.
Philomusica Quartet perform “Vive la Difference!” 7:30 p.m., April 24, at Wisconsin Lutheran College’s Swan Hall, 8815 W. Wisconsin Ave. More information about the quartet and tickets can be found at: philomusicaquartet.com
