Pacifica String Quartet - Wooster Chamber Music Series

Wooster Chamber Music Series
2009-10 Season Schedule
October 25, 2009
Colorado Quartet
November 22, 2009
Borealis Wind Quintet
January 3, 2010
Tokyo String Quartet
February 28, 2010 Marian Anderson String Quartet
March 21, 2010
April 18, 2010
Juilliard String Quartet
Pacifica Quartet
Presents the
Pacifica Quartet
Be Sure to visit our website!
www.woosterchambermusic.com
Wooster Chamber Music Series
The College of Wooster
P.O. Box C-3175
Wooster, OH 44691
The College of Wooster
Scheide Music Center
Gault Recital Hall
525 East University Street
Wooster, Ohio 44691
Sunday, April 18, 2010
3:00 PM
330-263-2115
Jarrod@woosterchambermusic.com

A Message to Our Friends
Welcome to our 25 th year! We are so pleased to have reached this
milestone. The Wooster Chamber Music Series has been an amazing
venture. We are excited by the year-long celebratory programs we have
planned for you. We began the celebration with the extraordinary
performance by the Emerson String Quartet in September at our first
Benefit Concert. We are grateful to all of you for having made all of this
possible and are happy to have you here celebrating with us.
We are very appreciative of our faithful audience members, patrons,
benefactors and underwriters whose generosity makes this series
possible. Our thanks to our collective donors whose continuing support
allows us to bring you some of the world’s greatest musicians and
greatest music, and to maintain the Series at the least possible cost to
you in terms of ticket prices. Now, more than ever, we need you to keep
on providing that financial backing so that we can keep providing quality
music programming for our community. It is our mission to continue
presenting world-class musicians in this series.
Don’t forget that you are invited after each concert to meet and mingle
with the musicians at a reception in the lobby. We know that you will be
pleased with this year’s roster and that you will enjoy the music.
Yvonne Williams
Director
Advisory Committee
Sarah J. Buck
Jarrod Hartzler
Tricia James
Jay Klemme
Cameron Maneese
Cyril Ofori
Bill & Carolyn Sheron
Yvonne Williams
Thank You
UNDERWRITER
Wayne Boettner & Hildegard K. Wiss-Boettner
Sarah Jane Buck and Nick Amster Fishelson
David and Carol Briggs
Julia Fishelson
Stanley & Flo Gault
Jay Klemme and Anne Wilson
The Donald and Alice Noble Foundation
Cyril and Amelia Ofori
Ken and Jill Shafer
Yvonne C. Williams
Bill & Marilyn Blanchard
Dorothy Carlisle
H. Alberta Colclaser
Marian Taylor Cropp
Com-Patt-ibles Floral Elegance
Mary Grace Engisch
Brian & Karen Gardener
Catherine and Tom Graves
Elinor Hancock
Peter and Tricia James
BENEFACTOR
Ed and Mary Eberhart
Louise E. Hamel
Cally King
Terry Wagner Ling
Lois G. McCall
Clara Louise Patton
Bill and Carolyn Sheron
Frances G. Shoolroy
PATRON
SUBSCRIBER
Ken & Nancy Anderson
Polly & Denny Davis
Richard & Susan Figge
Alice and Larry Gabriel
Liz & Steve Glick
Lucille L. Hastings
Stan & Diane Hales,
*In memory of Annetta Gomez Jefferson
Frank & Barbara Hayes
Frank and Jean Knorr
Beth & Arn Lewis
Lyn Loveless
Sara L. Patton
Kenneth and Louise Plusquellec
Margaret and David Powell
Jon & Pamela Rose
Ed Schrader and Dan Rider
Steve and Cheryl Shapiro
Mary Alice Streeter
Marilyn Tanner
Ken & Carol Vagnini
Kathy and Harry Zink
Marna & William Mateer
Julie Mennes
Steve & Sandy Nichols
Craig & Denise Parker
Elena Sokol and Yuri Popov
Mike & Maxine Smith
Don and Linda Sommer
Peggy and Charles Ulrich
Mina and Don Van Cleef
Meredith Williams
Carol Rueger and David Wiesenberg

Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
Ludwig van Beethoven
While working on his Op. 132 quartet during the winter of 1824-1825,
Beethoven fell gravely ill with liver disease, bowel inflammation, and other
painful and debilitating abdominal maladies. The condition left him
seriously weakened, but he was still able to finish the work by July 1825.
Although it has the highest opus number of the three quartets that he
composed at the behest of Russian nobleman and amateur cellist, Prince
Galitzin, it was actually second in order of composition. Study of his
sketchbooks shows that he originally planned the quartet in the traditional
four movements, but on recovering from his sickness decided to replace
the two middle sections with three movements, including the central
Heiliger Dankgesang.
The quartet starts with a short, slow introductory motif that bears a
similarity to the ones heard at the opening of the quartet Op. 131 and the
Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. Emerging from the introductory measures is a
brilliant violin flourish that leads to the main theme, played high in its
register by the cello. Following some expansion, a new idea, starting with
the three repeated notes, is heard and quickly passes through the
quartet, leading to still another distinctive idea – a flowing melody in the
second violin over a nervous, agitated triplet accompaniment.
Wistful and nostalgic in tone, the second movement has two motifs that
run throughout the entire opening section. The first is a pair of rising
three-note figures; the other, and more important, is a long note that
drops down with a little flurry of faster notes.
Over the third movement Beethoven inscribed the words, Heiliger
Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart
(“Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity by a Convalescent, in the
Lydian mode”). The sublime hymn expresses his gratitude for the return
of good health; use of the Lydian mode, an ancient ecclesiastical scale
(corresponding to the modern F scale, but without a B flat) gives the
music a spritual tone. The vital and vigorous contrasting second section,
Neue Kraft fühlend (“Feeling of new strength”), evokes a sense of
strength through alternating loud and soft measures that surge with a
powerful, propulsive force.
Pacifica Quartet
Simin Ganatra, violin
Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin
Masumi Per Rostad, viola
Brandon Vamos, cello
PROGRAM
Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5, “The Lark”
Allegro moderato
Adagio cantabile
Menuetto: Allegretto
Finale: Vivace
Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 92
Allegro sostenuto
Adagio
Allegro
INTERMISSION
Franz Joseph Haydn
(1732-1809)
Sergei Prokofiev
(1891-1953)
Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
Assai sostenuto; Allegro
Allegro ma non tanto
Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit,
In der lydischen Tonart: Molto adagio; Neue Kraft fühlend:
Andante
Alla marcia, assai vivace
Allegro appassionato
The raucous Alla marcia provides the sudden change in mood, from
heavenly to earthly, which Beethoven seems to need, following moments
of deeply emotional expression. The finale follows the recitative without
pause. Structurally, it combines rondo and sonata form.
--Adapted from Guide to Chamber Music by Melvin Berger

Biography
Founded in 1994, the Pacifica Quartet took very little time establishing
prominence on the chamber music scene. They won three top
competitions, early in their career: the Coleman Chamber Music
Competition, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the Naumburg
Chamber Music Competition. Before the end of their first decade, the
group received the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award. More recently,
the Pacifica garnered the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music
Performance, for their recording of Elliott Carter’s String Quartets No. 1
and 5. Also in 2009, Musical America recognized them as “Ensemble of
the Year.” They have been praised by critics across the globe, noting,
among other assets, their “stupendous, breathtaking virtuosity” (The
Sunday Times - London); and “astounding performances” (New York
Times). The Pacifica Quartet has recently been appointed quartet-inresidence
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a highly
distinguished position previously held by the renowned Guarneri Quartet,
who retired after 43 years.
The Pacifica Quartet has toured extensively throughout the United
States, Europe, and Asia. Venues they have played include Lincoln
Center, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery, the
Supreme Court in Washington DC, and London's Wigmore Hall. The
current concert season has them performing in three separate European
tours, and participating in Beethoven cycles around the United States,
among many other projects. Future seasons will include performances of
the complete Shostakovich cycle, in addition to more Beethoven cycles.
The Pacifica has commissioned and performed as many as eight new
works per year, doing much to further the cause of contemporary music.
The enthusiasm they bring to modern composers (e.g., Elliott Carter,
George Crumb, Osvaldo Golijov, Ligeti) is at least equalled by their
affection for the more familiar composers such as Haydn, Beethoven,
Mendelssohn, and Dvorak. Their recent Grammy-winning CD is the first
of what is now a two-disc set of Carter’s complete string quartets. Other
recordings by the Pacifica include the complete quartets of
Mendelssohn, and works by Dvořák, Blackwood, Janáček, Ruth Carter
Seeger, and Hindemith.
Committed to education, the Pacifica Quartet regularly teaches and
performs at numerous summer festivals. They have fulfilled many visiting
residencies at universities and schools worldwide. Based in Chicago,
they are the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. They also act as resident performing artists at the
University of Chicago and at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
With three of the members having been friends and collaborators since
their teens, the Pacifica Quartet first played together on the West Coast
and took their name (and inspiration) from the Pacific Ocean.
-- Sarah J. Buck
Program Notes
Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5, “The Lark” Franz Joseph Haydn
Written in the spring and summer of 1790, Haydn's Opus 64 quartets
were among the last pieces he wrote while still in the employ of the
Esterházy family. Following the death of Prince Nicholas Esterházy in
September, Haydn was discharged from his duties as Kapellmeister after
nearly thirty years of service, albeit with a handsome pension requiring
only that he supply music for a few ceremonial occasions. Free to pursue
a musical career on his own, Haydn travelled to London for a concert
tour, and the six quartets of Op. 64 were published there.
Opus 64, No. 5 bears the nickname “The Lark”—not suggested by the
composer—from the general impression of birdsong in the opening violin
melody. The quartet opens with a repeated simple figure in the lower
instruments over which the first violin glides up in the "Lark" melody. The
mood darkens somewhat as the conversation between voices becomes
more intense and dissonant, but order is finally restored by the opening
theme to end the piece.
Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 92
Sergei Prokofiev
In June 1941, Hitler tore up Germany’s non-aggression pact with the
Soviet Union and hurled his army into a blitzkrieg attack on Russia. A
succession of stunning military victories carried the Nazis deep into
Russian territory. In August, the Soviet government, fearing the
advancing Germans, evacuated a group of leading artists, composers,
and writers, including Sergei Prokofiev, from Moscow to the quiet little
town of Nalchik in the Kabardino-Balkaria Autonomous Republic region of
the northern Caucasus Mountains.
At Nalchik, Prokofiev was introduced to the wealth of folk music from the
area. Prokofiev was inspired to use several of the melodies for a new
string quartet, in which he aimed to achieve “a combination of virtually
untouched folk material and the most classical of classical forms, the
string quartet.” He began work on his String Quartet No. 2 on November
2 and was finished some five weeks later.