Tickets $20 for general audiences, $15 for students, children over age 12, IA Course participants & seniors 60+.  Children age 12 and under: free.  Tickets available by calling the Sondheim Center box office at 641-472-2787.  www.sondheimcenter.com

The Maia Quartet, the first string quartet ensemble to perform at the new Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts in Fairfield, Iowa.

This is going to be a great night for classical music lovers!  On Saturday, October 11, 2008, 7:30 p.m. the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts will have the pleasure of having the first ever string quartet ensemble performing on its stage.

Chamber Music Society Fairfield has invited the Maia Quartet from Iowa City to give a string quartet concert in Fairfield.  Since its formation in 1990, the Maia Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Iowa, has established itself nationally as an ensemble of innovation and versatility.

Praised by critics for its "sparkling musical intelligence," the quartet has appeared in major concert halls throughout the U.S. and abroad, including New York's Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and the 92nd Street Y, Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, Beijing's Forbidden City Concert Hall and the Aspen Music Festival's Harris Hall.

    PROGRAM

Joseph Haydn

String Quartet in G Major, Op. 76 No. 1

Allegro con spirito

Adagio sostenuto

Menuetto: Presto

Finale:  Allegro ma non troppo

Serge Prokofiev

Quartet No. 2, op. 92

Allegro sostenuto

Adagio

Allegro - Andante molto

   INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven

String Quartet in F Major Op. 59 Nr. 1  

Allegro

Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando

Adagio molto e mesto

Theme russe: Allegro

Listen to

http://www.maiaquartet.com/audio/beethoven.ram

Beethoven: String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6

http://www.uiowa.edu/~c025188/

Tricia Park, Violin, Zoran Jalovcic, Violin

Elizabeth Oakes, Viola, Hannah Holman, Cello

    PROGRAM NOTES

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

String Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No.1

The String Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No.1 is the least performed of the six Erdödy Quartets (as they are often called).  The first movement, Allegro con spirito, opens with three powerful chords before the separate themes are introduced and are developed into a joyful jaunt of bouncy melodies. The moving and racy rhythms are continued throughout the movement whether expressed by individual instruments in pairs or as a complete ensemble.  The second movement, Adagio sostenuto, is the longest of the four. The first section is a chorale-style blend of the four instruments. This is followed by dialogues between two of instruments in sequence: cello and violin, then viola and violin. The third section involves all in a more complex pattern built around the theme that had been expressed by the opening statement.  The Menuetto, Presto, has a fast tempo in the character of a scherzo. Its quick-stepping dance is almost biting in nature. The middle “Trio” section is more tempered in the mode of a slower Austrian country dance. There is a return to the fast tempo, and after a brief pause the music moves quickly into the Finale, Allegro ma non troppo, bursting forth and sounding ominous. The movement develops dramatically with countermelodies brought about by different instruments and a number of variations. The ending is in a more cheerful mode.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92

It was Prokofiev’s fascination with the folk music of the Karbardino-Balkaria region of the Caucasus Mountains  that inspired him to write the String Quartet No.2 in F Major, Op.92. Thus, each of the three movements of the work contains actual folk songs and dances. The first movement (Allegro sostenuto), in a sonata form, uses two contrasting folk songs for themes. The first is based on a bold dance, Udzh Starikov, and the second, Sosruko, features the violin, with the other three players creating an accordion-like accompaniment to the song. The second movement (Adagio) is based on a Kabardian love song, Synilyaklik Zhir, sung by the cello in a high voice.  The middle section utilizes a folk dance, Islamei, which seeks to imitate the sound of the kemange, a variety of “spike fiddle” used in various forms throughout the Middle East. The movement ends with a brief return of the opening song. The rhythmic third movement (Allegro), in sonata rondo form, is based on the joyful Karbadian mountain dance, the Getegezhev Ogurbi,  augmented with  two subordinate themes that are  reminiscent of the first movement’s songs.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No.1  (of the “Razumowsky Quartets)

The spacious first movement, Allegro, begins with a long serene cello melody that leads to the highly dramatic exploration of multiple themes, with leaps and staccato measures. The themes are developed and recapitulated with brilliant fugal passages and conclude with a well-defined coda.  The second movement, Allegretto vivace e sempre, opens with a very soft monotonous drumming rhythm from the cello that is picked up and fragmented by a violin. It is repeated by the other two strings, creating a restless dialogue. The music develops into a kaleidoscope of contrasting melodies, some dance-like, others song-like that are passed quickly from one instrument to another and repeated. The third movement, Adagio molto e mesto, is a long tragic statement, described by Beethoven in his sketches for this section of the quartet, as “A weeping willow or acacia tree upon my brother’s grave.” The statement is slowly drawn out in two melodies that are mingled and reworked until an elaborate violin cadenza closes it. The music, without pause, moves into the finale (Thème Russe: Allegro). This melodic theme is presumed to have been used by Beethoven to honor his patron, and was apparently derived from a Russian folk song collection. However, it is not presented in the style of the original slow tempo and minor key but rather fast and in a major key, giving the music a spirited, ebullient character.  As the movement draws to a close, the melody is restated in a slow tempo, more in keeping with the nature of the original song and ends the quartet in an exuberant flourish.

─Notes by Arthur Canter

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