2023 Summer Festival Overview
Sold out
postponed
Rain Location
11:00 am
Wednesday, August 2, 2023
August 2nd through August 13th
This summer we’ll push the limits in our ongoing exploration into the range and potential of the string quartet. Haydn’s convivial Opus 20, No. 3 (1772) is part of the set that established the string quartet as an independent genre. Shostakovich’s sparse 13th quartet (1969) swings to the other emotional extreme and is a paean to isolation from a man tormented relentlessly by the Soviets. Webern’s lush fin de siècle “Langsamer satz” (1905) features romantic music at its zenith just before the tonal structures that undergirded it began to collapse.
Indeed, three years later (1908), halfway through his Second Quartet, Schoenberg pushed tonality over the cliff, while also challenging the definition of what a string quartet is by adding a soprano (!?). Then this summer’s commissioned piece, “The Jury” (2023), by Pulitzer-nominated composer Jon Deak, erodes the line between music and theater. Based on a poem by Rhina P. Espaillat, the soprano stalks behind the musicians during the performance while the string players inhabit characters from the text. (Yes, I’m ridiculously excited about performing this.) Finally, the festival spotlights two solo violin works by Fritz Kreisler (Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice from 1911) and Eugene Ysaye (Sonata No. 3 in D Minor “Ballade” written in 1923).
Free!
Get TicketsThe Newburyport Chamber Music Festival is proud to receive the support of six cities and towns through their Local Cultural Councils: Amesbury, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury, and West Newbury. We make a point each year of holding events in at least a few of those towns surrounding Newburyport, as well as in Newburyport, itself.
Jon Deak
WORLD PREMIERE - “The Jury” for string quartet and soprano based on a poem by Rhina P. Espaillat
Josef Haydn
String Quartet in G Minor, Opus 20, Number 3
Fritz Kreisler
Recitativo and Scherzo, Opus 6
Arnold Schoenberg
String Quartet No. 2, Opus 10
Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 13 in Bb Minor, Opus 138
Anton Webern
Langsamer Satz
Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe
Ballade Sonata Number 3 in D Minor, Opus 27