Program Notes
March 28, 2024 by
George Crumb believed that all composers draw on what they’ve lived and heard. He attended not only to natural echoes but also to a vast inventory of musical and human sounds that permeated his unconscious. The diverse and vibrant accumulation of sounds in Vox Balaenae and Black Angels constitute the essential acoustic of his music.
March 6, 2024 by
Guarneri Hall is proud to honor Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands with a two-day celebration of his 90th birthday. Tonight’s concert will feature four of Rands’ own compositions, as well as works by two composers who have close associations with him: Kathleen Ginther and Daniel Pesca.
March 6, 2024 by
Guarneri Hall is proud to honor Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands with a two-day celebration of his 90th birthday. Today’s concert will feature two of Rands’ own compositions, one by Augusta Read Thomas, his wife, and one by Claude Debussy, whose work has deeply influenced Rands.
November 30, 2023 by
Bartók’s String Quartet No. 1 opens with a yearning lament, which Bartók calls his “funeral dirge.” Its three movements are played without pause while the tempo grows faster and faster, culminating in a lively dance that led Kodály to describe the piece as a “return to life.” An environment of conversation pervades the piece.
November 30, 2023 by
Bartók’s Second Quartet, like his first, has three movements, but they are not continuous, and the narrative arc is also different: a moderately-paced opening leads to a lively multi-sectioned dance movement in which we hear the percussive sounds, relentless rhythms, and narrow-ranged melodies that Bartók remembered from Algeria.
