Quartet maintains its intimacy
Members of Brentano String prefer to play as an ensemble
When it came time to decide whether to play in a symphony or an ensemble, the members of the Brentano String Quartet drew from the heart.
“For me, the big difference between chamber music and a symphony is where the impulse comes from,” founding member Mark Steinberg said in a telephone interview from New York. “Does it come from a conductor or does it come directly from you?”
Steinberg and his three cohorts have been following that intimate thread of personal expression since the group’s 1992 founding. The quartet includes Serena Canin on violin, Misha Amory on viola, Nina Lee on cello and Steinberg on violin.
Recently named quartet-inresidence at the Yale School of Music, the Brentano String Quartet will perform next Sunday in Santa Fe.
The group’s name honors Antonia Brentano, the supposed “Immortal Beloved” discovered in a love letter after the composer’s death.
“His string quartets are some of the most important things in our repertoire,” Steinberg said.
The concert will open with Haydn’s String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 50, No. 1. The quartet members refer to the composer as “Papa Haydn.”
“There were no string quartets before Haydn,” Steinberg said. “What Haydn did with the quartet was unbelievable. These were for people who were very sophisticated and loved to play.”
The program then fast forwards to contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan.
His highly melodic String Quartet No. 3 features a luminous first movement followed by a maelstrom of ominous figures. MacMillan is considered Scotland’s pre-eminent composer.
“We just played it for the first time on a European tour,” Steinberg said. “People respond to it really strongly.
“It’s got some really sarcastic things in the second movement,” he said. “It’s this long, strung-out melody that goes very slowly.”
The musicians will close with Schubert’s String Quartet No. 15 in D Minor (“Death and the Maiden”), considered one of the pillars of the chamber music canon. It was written in 1824, when the composer was suffering from syphilis in a death knell of terror. Schubert died at the age of 31.
“This is one of the huge pieces in our repertoire,” Steinberg said. “It’s almost 45 minutes long.
“He knew he was dying; he was writing furiously. He was sort of preparing for the end. This one was closest to Schubert meeting with Beethoven. On his deathbed, he asked to hear (Beethoven’s) No. 14 quartet.”
Schubert was buried next to Beethoven on the edge of the Vienna Woods.
The Brentano String Quartet last performed in Santa Fe about two years ago; it plays regularly in Taos.