Daedalus Quartet to Play Beethoven, Schubert and Berg at Mahaiwe

The Daedalus Quartet is Min-Young Kim, violin; Thomas Kraines, cello; Matilda Kaul, violin; Jessica Thompson, viola (photo Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – As part of the Close Encounters With Music series, the Daedalus Quartet will perform an all-Viennese program at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 19, 2012, at 6 pm. Selections include Schubert’s Quartettsatz, Beethoven’s majestic Razumovsky, Opus 59, No.1; and Alban Berg’s Quartet Opus 3, completing a musical journey through Imperial Vienna to the era of Klimt and Freud.

Recognized as one of the leading quartets on the scene today, members of the Daedalus are Min-Young Kim, violin; Matilda Kaul, violin; Jessica Thompson, viola; and Thomas Kraines, cello.

The program reflects how composers inspire each other across time, and, in this instance, also across town. Schubert took inspiration from his hero, Beethoven, and especially from the almost symphonic Razumovsky Quartet, and ran with it. The results are evident in the two-movement Quartettsatz, foreshadowing Schubert’s later chamber music masterpieces.

The first string quartet of Alban Berg was completed in 1910, when he was twenty-five years old. The emotional power of the Opus 3 takes its cue from Mahler, his mentor and a great source of his inspiration – and another denizen of Vienna. It was Berg’s first great success.

Tickets are $40 (Orchestra and Mezzanine) and $30 (Balcony) and include the post-performance audience reception on stage provided by Guido’s Fresh Marketplace and Domaney’s Fine Wines & Liquors. They are available at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, 413.528.0100 or at online at Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. For further information contact Close Encounters With Music or 800-843-0778.

The Daedalus Quartet is Matilda Kaul, violin; Jessica Thompson, viola; Min-Young Kim, violin; Thomas Kraines, cello (photo Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)

Praised by the New Yorker as “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets,” the Daedalus Quartet has established itself as a leader among the new generation of string ensembles. In the eleven years of its existence the Daedalus Quartet has received plaudits from critics and listeners alike for the security, technical finish, interpretive unity, and sheer gusto of its performances.

Since its founding the Daedalus Quartet has performed in many of the world’s leading musical venues; in the United States and Canada these include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (Great Performers series), the Library of Congress, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Boston’s Gardner Museum, as well as on major series in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. Abroad the ensemble has been heard in such famed locations as the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and in leading venues in Japan.

The Daedalus Quartet has won plaudits for its adventurous exploration of contemporary music, most notably the compositions of Elliott Carter, George Perle, György Kurtág and György Ligeti. Among the works the ensemble has premiered is David Horne’s Flight from the Labyrinth, commissioned for the Quartet by the Caramoor Festival; Fred Lerdahl’s Third String Quartet, commissioned by Chamber Music America; and Lawrence Dillion’s String Quartet No. 4, commissioned by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.

To date the Quartet has forged associations with some of America’s leading classical music and educational institutions including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. The Daedalus Quartet has been Columbia University’s Quartet-in-Residence since 2005, and has served as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania since 2006. In 2007, the Quartet was awarded Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award. The Quartet won Chamber Music America’s Guarneri String Quartet Award, which funded a three-year residency in Suffolk County, Long Island from 2007-2010. The award-winning members of the Daedalus Quartet hold degrees from the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, Cleveland Institute, and Harvard University.

 

 

 

 

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