
Isidore String Quartet
ISIDORE STRING QUARTET
Comprised of recent Juilliard graduates, this New York City-based ensemble approaches the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.
Since forming in 2019 as part of Juilliard’s chamber music program, the Isidore String Quartet has been recognized with two prestigious awards, winning the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize at the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The Quartet will present a program that reveals the intersection of treasured classics and contemporary perspectives with works by Billy Childs, Mozart and Beethoven, providing a narrative theme that explores the labyrinth of human compassion and love.
- Adrian Steele, violin
- Phoenix Avalon, violin
- Devin Moore, viola
- Joshua McClendon, cello
Artist management for the Isidore String Quartet is provided by David Rowe Artists.
PROGRAM
Adrian Steele, violin (first on Childs and Beethoven)
Devin Moore, viola
Phoenix Avalon, violin (first on Mozart)
Joshua McClendon, cello
Quartet in C major, KV 465 “Dissonance” (1785)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
- Adagio-Allegro
- Andante cantabile
- Menuetto (Allegretto)
- Molto allegro
String Quartet No. 3 “Unrequited” (2015)
Billy Childs (b. 1957)
Intermission
String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 127 (1825)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
- Maestoso-Allegro
- Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile
- Scherzo. Vivace – Presto
- Finale: Allegro con moto
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Born in Salzburg, Austria, January 27, 1756; died in Vienna, December 5, 1791
String Quartet in C, K. 465 (‘Dissonance’) (1785)
“The quartets are, indeed, the fruit of a long and laborious endeavor,” Mozart admits to Haydn in a letter dated September 1, 1785, in which he encloses six new quartets. And the many crossings-out, careful corrections and fragments of quartet movements from this period of Mozart’s life bear this out. Nowhere else did he labor so painstakingly over his music. “Please, then, receive them kindly and be to them as a father, a guide, a friend,” Mozart (a generation younger than Haydn) continues. “I entreat you to be indulgent to those faults that may have escaped a father’s partial eye, and, in spite of them, to continue your generous friendship towards one who so highly appreciates it.”
The magnificent and disturbing C major Quartet is the crowning point of Mozart’s six ‘Haydn’ quartets. The work is true evidence of Mozart’s triumph in emulating Haydn in his Op. 33 collection of quartets from 1782, and achieving a balance of structure, musical style and emotion. Mozart began work on the six quartets not long after moving from Salzburg to Vienna. It was then that he began to hear music by Bach and Handel on a regular basis at weekly gatherings in the Vienna home of Baron van Swieten. The power of contrapuntal writing began to have a deep and increasing effect on Mozart’s own part-writing at the time. The effect is at its most acute in the unsettling dissonances of the opening 22 measures of the C major Quartet. They give the work a nickname (‘Dissonance’) and arise from a synthesis of free counterpoint and chromatic, ‘highly spiced’ harmonies, to use a term that was often thrown at the mature Mozart. The dissonances are calculated to shock – so much so that people at first accused Mozart of releasing the printed music without having carefully proofed the parts! Even half a century later, Belgian music theorist François-Joseph Fétis proposed a ‘fix’ to Mozart’s strident harmonies by moving the first violin entry one beat earlier. Many applauded the idea; few went along with it. Today were the opening to be played with this crass insensitivity to Mozart’s boldness, it’s certain that the stone statue of the Don Giovanni Commendatore would appear on stage to sort things out. The suspense and tension created by the dissonance is released in the ensuing Allegro. The profound, aching Andante cantabile is one of the most sublime movements Mozart wrote. Throughout the chromatic minuet and serene finale, the musical invention and disciplined working-out of short motifs are exemplary.
–Note by Keith Horner
BILLY CHILDS (b. 1957)
String Quartet No. 3 “Unrequited”
Unrequited, String Quartet #3, was conceived as a commentary on the story of Intimate Letters: String Quartet #2, by Leos Janácek. The first thing – the only thing, really – that popped into my mind was the tragedy of unrequited love (hence the name, Unrequited). When I first heard Janacek’s Intimate Letters performed live, the emotion of the piece jumped out at me: the wild shifts of tempo, the beautiful and plaintive melodies, the stark dynamic contrasts. I wanted to illustrate my perspective on this strange relationship between Janácek and Kamila Stösslová, by telling the story of a man who goes through different phases of emotion, before finally coming to terms with the fact that his love for her is one-sided – it will never be returned the way he would like. I sought to compose Unrequited so that it moves, like the five stages of grief, through a variety emotions – from romantic, pure love, through paranoid, obsessive, neurotic possessiveness, arriving finally at despondent acceptance.
This piece was commissioned by Madelyn, Jerald, and Lee Jackrel and is dedicated to and premiered by the Lyris Quartet.
—Note by Billy Childs
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Born in Bonn, Germany, baptized December 17, 1770; died in Vienna, Austria, March 26, 1827
String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 127
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a decade into what critics call his late period when he composed his String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat Major, Op. 127 (1825). It had been 15 years since he wrote his Quartet No. 11, a work he deemed so radical that he didn’t want it performed. Money from a commission convinced him to revisit the genre, setting off a late-life sequence of quartets even more iconoclastic. This quartet is perhaps the most lyrical of the set and, coming off the composition of his great celebration of joy in the 9th Symphony, the most exuberant.
The beginning maestoso chorale appears simple, but it is incredibly ambitious, offering the listener the most basic form of four-part writing that every student learns, as if to say, this quartet will contain everything. It is also an affirmation, as is what follows. Beethoven, though often considered the Classical to Romantic bridge, wanted to reclaim his classically inclined aesthetic in this period. An oversimplified tenet for the Romantics is that content dictates form. For Beethoven, form was a primary driver in the creation of his best writing. Commentary often focuses on the radicalism of the late quartets, and of course they are radical, but the paradox is that their originality emerges from Beethoven’s impulse toward conservatism, a retreat from certain contemporary trends to expand and loosen formal constraints. In this quartet, the retreat is toward Bach, Handel, and the baroque, with an emphasis on contrapuntal writing and heightened clarity of form.
The quartet promptly gets on with the business of restless counterpoint. In the context of the maestoso, each new theme sounds as if it has been gathered from a disassembled chorale and scattered across the Haydn-esque sonata allegro form. Typical of Beethoven’s late quartets, shifts are abrupt and transitions are unceremonious, creating moments of comprehensive disintegration and unease in preparation for resolution.
The second movement is a theme and variations, a form Beethoven was somewhat obsessed with in his late period. The six variations, unlike some of Beethoven’s related works from this period, do not reach for higher and higher levels of virtuosity, but simply and steadily unearth the inherent depth of one of the most beautiful melodies the composer ever wrote.
The buzzing scherzo contains the most intricate contrapuntal writing of the piece. It is a masterclass in anticipation and deception – just when a phrase feels that it is settling in, it will stop abruptly, or a unison shout will compel it to a new section.
The final movement does not reconvene themes from the previous movements as is often the case, but introduces two fresh themes, a flowing melody whose shape is reminiscent of the first theme of the piece, and a joyous march that propels with its decisive articulation and wide open harmonic accompaniment. The great pleasure of this movement is its ending, a contrasting coda in a shifted key and meter announced suddenly by a violin trill, the same technique that brought the quartet out of the maestoso at the start. It is Beethoven’s classicism shining through: clarity and unity, from beginning to end.
—Note by Connor Buckley
Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of ‘approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.’
The members of the quartet are violinists ADRIAN STEELE and PHOENIX AVALON, violist DEVIN MOORE, and cellist JOSHUA MCCLENDON. The four began as an ensemble at the Juilliard School, and following a break during the global pandemic reconvened at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2021 under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick. In addition to Mr. Krosnick, the ISQ has coached with Joseph Lin, Astrid Schween, Laurie Smukler, Joseph Kalichstein, Roger Tapping, Misha Amory, Timothy Eddy, Donald Weilerstein, Atar Arad, Robert McDonald, Christoph Richter, Miriam Fried, and Paul Biss.
Their Banff triumph brings extensive tours of North America and Europe, a two-year appointment as the Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University in Dallas beginning in 2023-24, plus a two-week residency at Banff Centre including a professionally produced recording, along with extensive ongoing coaching, career guidance, and mentorship.
The Isidore Quartet has appeared on major series in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Durham, Washington (JFK Center), San Antonio, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa, and has collaborated with a number of eminent performers including James Ehnes, Jeremy Denk, Shai Wosner, and Jon Nakamatsu. Their 23/24 season will feature appearances in Berkeley (Cal Performances), Boston (Celebrity Series), Washington DC (Phillips Collection), New York (92nd St. Y), Chicago, Baltimore, Ann Arbor, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Tucson, Phoenix, Santa Fe, La Jolla, Aspen, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and at Dartmouth College, and Spivey Hall in Georgia, among many others. European highlights include Edinburgh, Lucerne, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hanover, Frankfurt, and Hamburg’s Elb Philharmonie.
Outside the concert hall the quartet has worked with PROJECT: MUSIC HEALS US providing encouragement, education, and healing to marginalized communities – including elderly, disabled, rehabilitating incarcerated and homeless populations – who otherwise have limited access to high-quality live music performance. They have also been resident ensemble for the Contemporary Alexander School/Alexander Alliance International. In conjunction with those well-versed in the world of Alexander Technique, as well as other performers, the ISQ explores the vast landscape of body awareness, mental preparation, and performance practice.
The name Isidore recognizes the ensemble’s musical connection to the Juilliard Quartet: one of that group’s early members was legendary violinist Isidore Cohen. Additionally, it acknowledges a shared affection for a certain libation – legend has it a Greek monk named Isidore concocted the first genuine vodka recipe for the Grand Duchy of Moscow!
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