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 Audubon
Quartet
Renowned for their "strikingly beautiful, luminescent" sound
(The New York Times), the Audubon Quartet, now in residence at
Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA., has won acclaim
throughout the world for nearly 30 years. The quartet was
founded in 1974 at a session of the Lenox Quartet Chamber Music
Seminar held in Binghamton, New York. They quickly achieved
international recognition by winning top prizes in three major
competitions in their first four years together: The
International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France
(1977); The String Quartet Competition at the Festival Villa
Lobos in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1977); and in 1979, The
International String Quartet Competition in Portsmouth, England.
They were the first American string quartet ever to win a first
prize in international string quartet competition.
Performances of note include: the first American string quartet
to tour mainland China (1981), a special appearance at the White
House (President Carter), inauguration of Pennsylvania’s
Governor Richard Thornburgh, and regularly on the BBC in London
as well as radio and television here in the US. In addition to
numerous national and international summer festivals, they have
performed and taught at a summer institution near and dear to
this writer, namely the Chautauqua Institution in New York
State. Of note to you “classical music” readers, they have given
23 world premiers of culturally diverse contemporary composers
and regularly premier new works to American audiences.
All four quartet members are associated with major American
orchestras as soloists, teach at major American colleges and
universities, and perform/record with many chamber
organizations.
Akemi Takayama and Ellen Jewett (first and second violin), are
currently in their ninth year with the quartet. Doris Lederer,
viola, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and has
been a member for 33 years. Clyde Thomas Shaw, ‘cello, was born
in Orlando, Florida, attended Oberlin Conservatory, Stetson
University, and the State University of New York in Binghamton,
and, is the founding member of the Audubon Quartet. For more
information on the group and its members, see their website at
http://www.audobon4tet.com/.
Akemi and her violin were effected by our humidity: her sinuses
hurt and her ears said her violin had lost some of its
brightness. The other members did not seem so effected and
remarked that they were enjoying our weather as it was “very
cool” when they left Virginia.
The first piece on the program was the legitimate composition
Quartet #1, “American Dreams” by Peter Schickele. I say
legitimate because some of you may know him better by his
(earlier in his career) musically clever and funny mad comic
composer/performer/conductor name of PDQ Bach. Movement I,
“Opening Diptych”, presented an image of an Appalacian morning
with delicate harmonics and even more delicate improvising.
Movement II, “Four Studies”, was classical jazz with one
exciting rhythm after another, tone clusters, use of intervals
of a second, and cross-chording ending with what Thomas said was
a jazz cantata. Movement III, “Music at Dawn”, made us feel the
warmth of the sun, then an awakening bird, and finally other
“critters” are heard. The pentatonic feel and by a pedal point
in the ‘cello sustained the quiet mood. The story is that a bird
woke Mr. Shickele while on vacation at Woodstock, and, unable to
get back to sleep, he went to work composing what ended up as
this piece for the Audubon Quartet. Movement IV, “Dance Music”,
started with an Appalacian “hee-haw” feel, then a waltz, and
ended with an outdoors western sound with hints of the American
Indian. At one point three different “fiddle” tunes are
introduced and then all three tunes are played simultaneously.
It was exciting to listen to this unique trio moment and this
over-all unique string quartet piece.
The middle of the program was assorted tunes of Jerome Kern from
the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Then some tango music by Astor
Piazzoli. There were hints of the south American accordion and
the spice and sensuousness of the tango, but this was not your
typical Argentinian tango. This “cross-over” to contemporary
classical yielded an awesome 20th century tango. There were
shrieks (very fast glissandos), long downward slow slides (slow
glissandos), use of harmonics, bowing behind the bridge (a very
strange sound), tremolos, and playing rhythms with the fingers
and occasionally the hands on the body of the instrument. If you
were not a fan of 20th century compositional techniques, this
part of the program could have been difficult for the listener.
Thomas introduced us to each piece with some background, a few
things to listen for (often with a short played example), and
hints as to what we were to experience. He gave the audience
permission to find something, to stay engaged as a listener.
Even this graduate level musician writer found his comments
helpful and most welcome. |
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