Chamber Music Northwest Presents Brentano String Quartet's A TRIBUTE TO STRAVINSKY (50 Years After His Death)

Chamber Music Northwest brings the Brentano String Quartet, CMNW 2020/21 Artists-in-Residence, to Portland the first week in December for two live concerts, and a host of community education activities including quartet-centered masterclasses for Portland Youth Philharmonic and Portland State University musicians.

In honor of Igor Stravinsky's death a half-century ago, and with deep respect and sheer delight, the Brentano String Quartet's program explores his musical contributions and influence spanning hundreds of years. This far-ranging program, curated into intentional sections, is chock-full of luminous composers like Shostakovich, Beethoven, Verdi, Gesualdo, contemporary composer John Cage, works by poet Amy Lowell, and several of Stravinsky's quintessential pieces.

The concert will be held at the Lincoln Recital Hall at Portland State University on Friday, December 3 and 4 at 7:30 pm. This concert will be recorded to premiere online December 18 and stream online until December 25.

The Brentano String Quartet, CMNW's 2021-22 Artists-in-Residence, unleash an immersive program in celebration of Stravinsky through the medium of quartet and beyond. Interlacing the legendary 20th century composer's beautifully idiomatic compositions with poetry and works from his contemporaries and acolytes, you'll first go on an eclectic journey deep into the world of Stravinsky. That immersive investigation will be followed by masterpieces that influenced Stravinsky including 16th century madrigals and Beethoven's epic final quartet with its wild, kaleidoscopic finale that could almost be mistaken for Stravinsky himself.

From Artistic Directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim: "We always love the Brentano Quartet for their emotional and thought-provoking performances. Their musical curiosity comes across both in their programming and their playing. They always take their audiences along for a journey full of discovery, and this will certainly be the case in this fascinating program celebrating Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. We are grateful to have the Brentanos performing in the community for several days as our 2021/22 Artists-in-Residence!"

From Brentano String Quartet violinist Mark Steinberg: "At this moment in time, a half century after the death of the great composer Igor Stravinsky, we offer a program that celebrates his strikingly original and gripping works for string quartet and provides a framework within which to experience them afresh. The pieces in the first half are arranged in a kind of kaleidoscopic collage, with reflections and internal dialogues between the short works and movements. Stravinsky's Concertino keeps quirky company with two movements of Cage which share with it some musical DNA. The Three Pieces for String Quartet each have a companion, each pair trafficking in similar issues. The first piece is paired with Machaut and its interlocking patterns; the second, inspired by Little Tich, an English music-hall clown, is heard alongside the Shostakovich Polka, which dances also in awkward and comic fashion; the liturgical-style third piece is heard alongside the Ave Maria of Verdi, whom Stravinsky so admired. Each of these pieces is also prefaced by a reading of an Amy Lowell poem inspired by the Three Pieces which aims to 'reproduce the sound and movement of the music as far as is possible in another medium.' A textless string quartet reading of a haunting choral anthem by Stravinsky rounds out the first half.

After intermission we play three Gesualdo madrigals, all of which Stravinsky, whose great enthusiasm for Gesualdo brought him back into the public consciousness, chose to arrange for orchestra. The ending work, Beethoven's final string quartet, Op. 135, is arguably the closest of the Beethoven quartets to Stravinsky's mosaic-like textures and utterly clear textures, with a notable pre-echo of the Three Pieces in the quartet's scherzo."

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