Photo: The Fine Arts Quartet
The Fine Arts Quartet
The Fine Arts Quartet
The Fine Arts Quartet will return to Milwaukee in July offering concerts at the Zelazo Center on July 9 and 16 and the Jewish Community Center on Santa Monica Boulevard in Whitefish Bay on July 13. Admission is free for all three concerts.
The first program begins with Earnest Bloch’s Quintet No. 1 for Piano and Quartet with Wu Han as guest pianist. After intermission they will play Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major Op. 163 with David Finckel as guest cellist. Han and Finckel, a wife and husband team, are artistic directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City.
Bloch, a Swiss composer, studied composition in the early 20th century at conservatories throughout Europe, first came to the U.S. in 1916 to accept a position in composition at the Mannes School of Music in New York City. In 1920, he became the first director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and later accepted a position at the San Francisco Conservatory, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1924.
His Piano Quintet No 1, considered one of his finest compositions, demonstrates his modernistic, mystical style of writing, employing creative melodic and harmonic techniques even making use of quarter tones.
Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major Op post. 163 is a soaring masterpiece. It was composed just two months before his death in 1828, first performed in 1850, and not published until three years later in 1853. Many consider it to be the best of Schubert’s chamber music compositions and perhaps the finest of all chamber music scores. The addition of the second cello adds a richness to the lower tonalities.
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3 p.m. Sunday, July 9 | at UWM’s Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts. The pre-talk will be given by Steve Basson.
For the concert 3 p.m. July 13 at the Milwaukee Jewish Community Center, the Fine Arts Quartet will perform Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major Op. 64, No. 5 (The “Lark”) and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A minor, Op 13.
In 1762 Joseph Haydn composed his first string quartet and then went on to compose 67 more. This is one of the “Tost” quartets named after Johann Tost, a violinist in the Esterhazy orchestra from 1783–89. It received the nickname "The Lark" from the soaring melodic melody presented by the first violin in the beginning of the piece.
Mendelssohn’s quartet was composed in 1827 when he was only 18. It is a mature work forming a bridge between the classical and the romantic. Themes from the first movement appear throughout the composition and are repeated in the last movement unifying the piece and providing an early example of the cyclic form.
For the pre-talk, Gil Sharon and Efim Boico will discuss their experience playing with symphonies and chamber groups in Israel.
The Fine Arts Quartet’s final concert is at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 16, featuring Robert Schumann’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No.1 and Antonín Dvořák’s String Quintet in G Major, Op.77 with guest double bassist Brittany Conrad. Conrad joined the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2022 after playing three seasons with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with other major American orchestras and has played with several chamber groups both here and in Europe.
Schumann composed this quartet in 1842, dedicating it to Felix Mendelssohn whose A Minor Quartet was composed 15 years earlier. Musically, Schumann’s quartets provide a link between those of Mendelssohn and those of Brahms that were composed 30 years later.
Dvořák’s Quintet was written in 1875 and revised in 1888. The addition of the double bass adds depth, permitting the melodies to run over the Bohemian countryside. It was submitted to a chamber music competition sponsored by Prague’s Artistic Circle, winning first prize and extensive praise. He dedicated the composition “To My Nation,” which was the motto of the competition.
The pre-talk will be given by Steve Basson.
Further information about the concerts can be found on the Friends of the Fine Arts Quartet website: fofaq.org and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee website: uwm.edu/arts/events/category/music/.
Reservations are necessary for the concert at the Milwaukee Jewish Community Center: jccmilwaukee.org/arts-ideas/evening-with-the-fine-arts-quartet.
