Programs 2016-17

This program brings together some of our personal favorites. The charming and witty Haydn quartet that opens the program was composed in 1788 for the violinist Johann Tost, a popular Esterhazy court musician. Far from lacking is that ingenious spirit with which Haydn is able to capture, in a single breath, the cultivated atmosphere of an aristocratic court and the moonshined vapors of a barnyard contradance.

This program offers various angles of three different composers' personal take on "awareness." Mozart was highly inspired by Joseph Haydn and dedicated a set of six string quartets to him. His K.421 in D minor the second of the set and celebrates Haydn's established and cultivated style. As his only quartet in a minor key, this music at once dramatic and bold and introspective. As Kevin Puts says about his music, “Dark Vigil was a reaction to the unrelenting pattern of violence that plagued our country’s elementary and high schools during the year it was written, 1999.

As the story goes, French composer Maurice Ravel was honored with a birthday party during his visit to New York in 1928, and among the guests was George Gershwin. After an impromptu performance of Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin asked Ravel for composition lessons, to which Ravel, who admired the American's works, replied, “Why should you be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?” In this program, we feature four composers with unique musical voices.