IVES QUARTET ANNOUNCES 12th SEASON of PENINSULA CONCERTS
FOR RELEASE FEBRUARY 2, 2011
Contact Pam Lampkin, Administrative/Development Director
August 10, 2010
Phone: (650) 224.7849
Plivesquartet80@gmail.com
IVES QUARTET ANNOUNCES 12th SEASON of PENINSULA CONCERTS
Six concerts beginning September 26
Palo Alto, August 10, 2010 – The Ives Quartet has announced its 12th annual series of chamber music concerts. Six performances of three main stage programs will be given in Palo Alto and San Jose at intimate venues that foster a close connection between performers and audience. Two salon events will be presented at an historical home in Palo Alto.
Superb artistry, performance passion, a spirit of musical adventure, warmth of tone and interpretation and smart programming have been hallmarks of the Ives Quartet’s first decade of music making.
The Ives Quartet comprises Bettina Mussumeli and Susan Freier, Violins; Jodi Levitz, Viola; and Stephen Harrison, Cello. The Quartet’s musicians enjoy dual careers in the US and Europe, making Ives Quartet concerts an inviting combination of old-world sophistication and a uniquely pioneering American panache that audiences and critics find irresistible.
Distinguished guest artists, Gwendolyn Mok, piano, and Jerome Simas, clarinet, join the quartet this season for performances of Schumann and Brahms respectively.
Featured composers on the season include Haydn, Rudhyar, Schumann, Mozart, Clark, Ravel, Brahms and a new work by Bay Area Composer Elinor Armer created specially for IQ.
2009-2010 Season “Resonate”
Fall Program:
Sunday, September 26, 2010, 7PM, Le Petit Trianon, 72 North Fifth Street San Jose,
Friday, October 1, 2010, 8PM, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado, Palo Alto The Ives continues its tradition of presenting under-appreciated gems and neglected scores alongside well-known and much loved works of the string quartet canon.
Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 50, No.1, begins IQ’s survey of the six stunning quartets in Haydn’s Opus 50, to be performed over the course of three seasons. Nicknamed “Prussian” from the calculated dedication, they begin a new phase in Haydn’s extraordinary development of the string quartet.
Expert astrologer, writer, painter, thinker, and composer, Dane Rudhyar was a unique figure in twentieth-century American culture. Noted music critic Nicolas Slonimsky described his music as “searching and challenging…the explanation of a puzzle of human existence.” The Ives includes Quartet No. 2, Crisis and Overcoming, in the fall line up. Shortly after completing three string quartets in 1842, the self-proclaimed year of chamber music, Schumann had the brilliant idea of adding a piano to the ensemble, creating his captivating Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op.44 and a new Romantic genre. Internationally renowned pianist, Gwendolyn Mok, joins the quartet for this performance.
Winter Program:
Friday, February 25, 8PM, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado, Palo Alto
Sunday, February 27, 7PM, Le Petit Trianon, 72 North Fifth Street, San Jose
Mozart’s Quartet in C Major, K. 465, “Dissonance,” the last of the six remarkable quartets dedicated to Haydn, takes its name from the poignant, slow introduction, which serves as a foil to one of his most ebullient movements and most brilliant quartet. No wonder it’s an all time favorite. Rebecca Clarke, a prominent violist, performed with Casals, Heifetz and Myra Hess. The Ives Quartet brings to light her Romantic Pieces: Comodo et amabile, Poem, which, given the climate for woman composers in the early 20th century, was first published under a male pseudonym.
“In the name of the gods of music, and in mine, do not touch a single note of what you have written in your quartet,” Debussy told a young Ravel. He didn’t and his only Quartet – in F, became a universally beloved work—a masterpiece of suave melodies, exotic sonorities and piquant rhythms.
Spring Program:
NEW PALO ALTO LOCATION AND TIME!
Sunday, May 1, 2011, 4PM, First Congregational Church, 985 Louis Road, Palo Alto
Sunday, May 15, 2011, 7PM, Le Petit Trianon, 72 North Fifth Street, San Jose
Inspired by the set of quartets Mozart had recently dedicated to him, Haydn shows the influence of “student” to “master.” Quartet in C Major, Op.50, No. 2 opens the spring series.
Over the years, IQ members have loved performing Elinor Armer’s music in a variety of settings and are thrilled she has offered to write a new piece for them. Of the work-in-progress, Eli writes, “The inspiration for the quartet still holds: circles, wheels, yawning open and closed, spinning, rolling, orbiting, looming and receding…” At the end of his life Brahms “discovered” the clarinet, reveling in its autumnal qualities. The Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op.115, the last of four masterpieces for the instrument, contains some of the composer’s most memorably yearning and passionate music. Following last season’s praised performance of the work for Music at Kohl Mansion, IQ and Jerome Simas, clarinetist, reunite.
Salon Series
Join us in the intimacy of a beautiful historical Palo Alto home, champagne at hand, and world-class chamber musicians just feet away in fervent musical conversation.
Salon 1: Sunday, November 14, 2010, 2PM
Explore Haydn’s Opus 50.
Salon 2: Sunday, April 3, 2011, 2PM
Bay Area Composer Elinor Armer and a new work composed for the Ives Quartet.
About the Ives Quartet:
Inspired by the passionate artistic commitment and unique temperament of American composer Charles Ives (1874–1954), the Ives Quartet creates powerful live-music experiences through the presentation of fresh and thoughtful interpretations of carefully curated repertory to American and international audiences. It has established a reputation for passion, high-voltage playing, and provocative programming, winning accolades for performances that show both “super-refinement” and “visceral, rock-and-roll intensity.”
The Ives Quartet is an independent non-profit, 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Major support is provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Arts Council Silicon Valley.
Subscriptions and Single tickets are now on sale:
3 Concert Subscription package:
General: $60
Senior, 65+: $45
Student, (13-24 with ID): $30
Single tickets:
General: $25
Senior, 65+: $20
Student: (13-24 with ID) $15
Children 12 and under free.
Salon tickets:
With subscription package: $30/ticket
Without subscription: $40/ticket
Purchase Tickets:
Ives Quartet, P.O. Box 60464, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone: (650) 224-7849 Web: http://www.ivescollective.org/tickets.htm
Seating is by general admission. Box Office opens one hour before concerts.
Parking is convenient and free. All concert venues are wheelchair accessible.
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