Cassatt String Quartet and La Catrina String Quartet
By Kathleen B. Bohné
This week I will introduce two string quartets who are part of the Chamber Music Festival this year, the Casssatt String Quartet from Manhattan, and La Catrina String Quartet from Mexico. This is the first time that the Cassatt String Quartet will perform here in San Miguel, but La Catrina has played to local audiences for several years. Both have received high praise for in their concerts in North America, Europe and elsewhere.
La Catrina String Quartet must be counted among the most promising young string quartets today. “Every note La Catrina plays is infused with energy, every gesture has a purpose and every phrase is meaningful,” noted Keith Robinson, cellist of the Miami String Quartet. La Catrina has been chosen as quartet-in-residence for this year’s Chamber Music Festival, and will provide group and individual instruction to the young Mexican musicians participating in the 2007 student program.
The Cassatt String Quartet has been named three times by the New Yorker Magazine’s “Best of…” CD selection for their classical recordings.
Cassatt String Quartet was formed in 1985 and is composed of four women: Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower on the violin, Michiko Oshima, viola, and Nicole Johnson, cello. The quartet was named for famed American Impressionist painter, Mary Cassatt, perhaps because of her innovation and strength as a female artist. They have performed from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center to the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, and in 2006 performed a special concert at the Library of Congress, using the Library’s prized Stradivarius collection instead of their usual instruments. This year in San Miguel, Cassatt will perform three times (on August 3, 4 and 7) and have compiled a program of both classical gems and recent additions to the chamber music genre.
Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E major op. 81 opens their first night here; the piece was composed in 1847, the year Felix’s sister, Fanny, died and left him bereft. Many have noted the increased depth and emotional tension of the chamber works composed by Mendelssohn, in comparison with his light, ear-caressing symphonies. This piece will be followed by Giacomo Puccini’s Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums), a rare work of chamber music from the great Italian operatic composer. Crisantemi was composed (according to legend, in one night) as an elegy to mourn the death of Amadeo, the Duke of Savoy in 1890. It was written as a single, fluid movement, with parts that may seem familiar: Puccini re-used bits of this piece in the last act of his opera, Manon Lescaut. Cassatt will finish their first concert with String Quartet in A flat Major op. 105 by Antonin Dvorak.
Cassatt’s next performance includes Beethoven’s String Quartet in A major, op. 18 #5, selections from “Quartetset” by Sebastian Currier and Piano Quintet in C minor op. 1 (performed with Mauricio Nader) by Erno Dohnanyi. The Beethoven piece was one of the composer’s first six string quartets and was published in 1801; he based it on Mozart’s quartet in the same key (K464). Sebastian Currier is a living American composer from Providence, Rhode Island, who composed “Quartetset” for Cassatt in 1995 (recorded by the group in 2006). The piece is in seven movements, and is an eclectic and humorous exploration of the possibilities of string quartet music. Erno Dohnanyi (1877–1960) was a Hungarian composer and musician whose first published piece (and selection for Cassatt’s concert) received accolades from Johannes Brahms in 1895. Dohnanyi remained in Europe until after World War II—in which his two sons were killed, one in combat and one executed for participating in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler—and then move
d to the United States, where he taught for 10 years at the Florida State University College of Music. Cassat’s final concert here will be with the Imani Winds, pianist Mauricio Nader and violinist Timothy Fain; they will perform the unusual nonet by Louis Spohr, which I hope I piqued interest in when writing about Imani Winds in last week’s Atención.
La Catrina String Quartet was formed in 2001 here in Mexico, and is made up of violinists Daniel Vega-Albela from Mexico City and George Anthony Figueroa from New York City (of Puerto Rican descent), violist Jorge Martínez from Torreón, and cellist Alan Daowz from Mexico City. This January they performed at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Convention at Carnegie Hall and have played at many other venues in the US, Mexico, United Kingdom and Japan. They declare they have a “triple mission: to work closely with living composers in order to promote the performance of new music, to promote Mexican and Latin American art music and to perform the masterworks of the string quartet repertoire.” This year in San Miguel de Allende, aside from their teaching duties as quartet-in-residence, they will perform twice, on August 1 and August 11 (with Brentano String Quartet). The first concert is at one of this year’s special venues, at Chorro 19, the lovely arts center near Parque Juárez.
La Catrina will play Mozart’s String Quartet no. 14 K387 (“Spring”) which was composed in 1782, the year he married Constanze Weber against his father’s wishes. This piece is regarded as one of the pinnacles of the genre, written as part of a set in homage to Franz Joseph Haydn. Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet #7 was composed in 1960 in memory of the composer’s first wife, Nina Vassilyevna Varzar and is his shortest at a mere 13 minutes. Shostakovich’s string quartets, written between 1938 and 1974, have risen to the top of this enormous genre to enter the league of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, although they are not always easy to listen to. As noted by the Andante website in 2003, Western musicians performing Shostakovich “were intimidated by the way, in the space of a few bars, gaiety is transformed into anger, comedy into tragedy, and the sublime into the ridiculous.”
La Catrina’s last piece of the night will be Antonin Dvorak’s famous String Quartet in F major, op. #96 the “American.” Composed in 1893 in Spillville, Iowa (which once had a large, thriving Bohemian community), the music of this quartet is as pleasingly melodic and lovely as his New World symphony, which was written in the same year.
La Catrina’s performance with the Brentano String Quartet includes Haydn’s String Quartet op. 76 #5, the Brahms Sextet op. 36 and Mendelssohn’s Octet op. 20. Haydn composed his opus 76 quartets in honor of Count Joseph Erdody between 1796 and 1797. The fifth quartet is made up of four movements, but is dominated by the well-known largo. The Brahms sextet (played by two violins, two violas and two cellos) was completed in 1864, five years after the composer’s relationship with his long-time love, Agathe von Siebold, ended; “I have emancipated myself from my last love,” noted Brahms after writing the sextet. The final work of the concert (and hence of the Chamber Music Festival 2007) on August 11, is an octet composed by Mendelssohn when only 16 years old in 1825. It was written for four violins, two violas and two cellos and the composer instructed, “this octet must be played by all the instruments in symphonic orchestra style… Pianos and Fortes must be strictly observed and more strongly emphasized than is used to in pieces of this character.” It should be a thrilling work to experience—the sensation of a symphony, but expressed in the intimacy of chamber music.
These two virtuoso string quartets are yet another indication of the superb quality of musicians coming to San Miguel this summer and present the opportunity to enjoy the pure voices of violins, violas and cellos in the beautiful venues of our city: this is how chamber music was meant to be experienced.
For ticket information, call 154-8722 or visit the Bellas Artes office at Hernández Macías 75. Hours are Monday through Friday, 10am to 3pm and 5pm to 7pm, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 2pm.
Visiting violinist to perform in new theater
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Visiting violinist Rhonni Hallman joins local guitar duo Jack and Frances to present two different concerts on successive nights in August.
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A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Hallman has performed in orchestras and chamber music ensembles, including the Pasadena Symphony, the LA Mozart Orchestra, the Frank Sinatra Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Joffrey Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and the American Ballet Theater. She was also part of the Yanni World Tour, as a performer and orchestral representative.
Hallman has recording and film music credits with Frank Sinatra, Barry White and the Village People and solos on Brian Penzzone, Neil Sadaka and Gloria Loring albums.
Jack and Frances (Jack Stillwater and Frances Zelenka), residents of San Miguel for three years, perform a wide variety of music arranged for two guitars.
Thursday, August 2, the trio will present tangos from composers including: Carlos Gardel, Astor Piazzolla, Jesús Ventura, Adler and Ross, Henry Warren, Carlos Di Sarli and Roberto Firpo, as well as a few original tangos.
The following night, Friday, August 3, the trio will play all original music composed by Jack and Frances.
The concerts will be held at the Shelter VG4 Theater, a new theater and performance space in Colonia Independencia. The theater is located just off Calle Antonio Villanueva on Calle Vicente Guerrero, 4. The concerts will be held at 8 pm both nights. Tickets are 100 pesos and available for purchase at the door each night of the performance. For advance ticket sales, contact Jack or Frances at jftix@operamail.com. For more information call (415) 154-8131.
What’s on at El Viejo Topo
By Kathleen B. Bohné
| The cafe-theater-bar El Viejo Topo, run by creative businessman Isaac Toporek, has consistently presented a wonderful diversity of musicians and performers, and the remaining weeks of July are no exception. | |
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From Wednesday, July 18 through today, Friday, July 20, El Viejo Topo hosts popular comedian Daniel Packard, who has already delighted San Miguel audiences several times with his “Live Group Sex Therapy.” Packard has been called, “...Dr. Phil meets Robin Williams” by the San Francisco Chronicle and also garnered praise from CBS: “Packard has redefined what a comedian can accomplish on stage.” Packard’s interactive, but completely relaxed relationship with his audience enables him to bring out unexpected insights from both men and women. And for those of us who keep our distance from anything with the words “sex” and “group” in the title, Packard reassures us: “the show is more about sexual politics than sex.” His goal is to inject this touchy topic with humor and honesty, because after all, “love is God’s
way of saying ‘sorry about all the other crap.’”
On the heels of Daniel Packard comes the acclaimed Eblen Macari Trio on Saturday July 21. This inventive and imaginative Mexican group—led by Eblen Macari, a Lebanese-Mexican composer and musician—has performed all over the world and received rave reviews in Europe, the US and Mexico. Their unique fusion music combines Latin American guitar with the exotic sounds of 13 other instruments of Middle Eastern and African origin. The other members of the trio are Jesús Yusuf Isa Cuevas (who incorporates harmonic throat singing into the performance) and Eblen Macari Martínez, son of Eblen Macari, who plays percussions. Some of the instruments included in the performance are the arghul which is a Bedouin reed instrument, the Middle Eastern ney which is a flute associated with Sufism, a Chinese bamboo pipe called the hulusi, the traditional bagpipe from Galicia and Asturias in Spain known as a gaita and the djembé, a ceremonial drum from Central Africa. This remarkable variety of instruments should whet the appetite of any musical adventurer eager to explore new avenues of rhythm, harmony and sound.
July 28
Tierra Tango and Río Negro with Natalia Cristóbal and Hernán Brusa (dancers)
Stirling Dickinson 28,
Col San Antonio
Reservations: (415) 154 8701
Cafeelviejotopo@gmail.com
Tango: sensuality and sorrow, poverty and performance
By Jorge Rueda
| From café tables to academic halls, one thing is certain, the origin of tango music is absolutely uncertain; though its birth has been roughly placed in the decade of the 1880s in the ports of the Río de la Plata in Argentina. | |
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What is clear is that its origin is the result of a cultural amalgam of millions of immigrants—suffice it to say that at the time, 25 percent of the population of Buenos Aires was of African descent, and that Argentina increased its population from 2 million to 4 million at the end of the 19th century. This multitude of recent arrivals brought the melodies and rhythms of their own countries to this new one.
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In the low basin of the Río de la Plata, the immigrants were thrown together. Those expelled from society as “ruffians” and “whores”, as well as hundreds of citizens looking for entertainment, danced mazurkas, habaneras, polkas, waltzes and milongas gauchas. |
All of this eventually formed “creole tango,” born from the poorest slums: its lyrics were rude and unabashedly sexual, the dance was filled with closeness and sensuality (which was demanded by clients who were paying for “love”).
In the early 20th century, tango arrived in Paris, not only as music, but as dance. Thanks to the sensuality so inherent in the French and their idolization of dance, it quickly went from exotic novelty to entirely à la mode. After this triumph in Paris and in the dance salons of many avant-garde cities, tango returned to Argentina with a new importance. This doesn’t mean that it was widely accepted, since it never lost its tremendous sexual charge. And now its enemies were not just the “good families”, but also famous and illustrious people. Pope Pious X forbade tango, the Kaiser prohibited it amongst his officers, and it provoked opinions like this one in the Spanish magazine “La ilustración Europea y Américana” that outraged over the “indecorous and in every way reprehensible tango, a grotesque conjunction of ridiculous contortions and repugnant attitudes that do not seem possible to execute if one values one’s personal decency.” But tango had already triumphed; it was here to stay as music and dance loved
all over the world.
Creole tango grew from the sensuality, melancholy and sadness of millions of emigrant workers who lived in Buenos Aires and excluded any instruments that could sound strident (such as winds or percussions), instead using those that gave a warm, intimate sound capable of transmitting its profoundly personal character. In this context, the guitar, which has always encompassed the solitary inspiration of men, was their first choice. Later came duets and trios, as in the case of Tierra Tango which will perform in San Miguel on July 28. When tango became dance music, the accordion was added to groups at the beginning of the 20th century and has maintained its important place because of its sorrowful sound. It integrates the melody in a way simultaneously harmonic and rhythmic.
Tierra Tango is a group based in Guadalajara and led by Argentinean Sibila Knobel. It recovers this traditional current that still hasn’t spread far beyond Buenos Aires,and recalls the early days when tango was still performed in intimate groups. Rio Negro is another tango group that will perform on July 28 and is also a trio. This special night, we will be able to experience a show of this cultural kaleidoscope. And what better venue than El Viejo Topo to remember the days when this world-famous rhythm and music first sprang to life.
Concert
Performance by Collar del Viento
Sat, July 28, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos
Pre-Hispanic music concert at the Biblioteca
Archaeological evidence suggests that the ancient Aztecs maintained a school of music at Tenochtitlan, their capital city. No doubt the young musicians in training studied the pre-Hispanic instruments that we find today in the museums of Mexico; instruments like the Teponaztli, a type of wood drum carved from a large tree trunk, and the Quiquiztli (conch shell trumpet). These instruments and many others will be played at a recital of pre-Hispanic music at the Teatro Santa Ana of the Biblioteca Pública.
The performing group is called Collar de Viento (Wind’s Necklace). The ensemble is made up of four kids ranging in age from 11 to 18. Three members of the group have been playing together for over six years and are instructed by two professional Mexican musicians from Pozos, Néstor Vargas and Gonzalo Gómez.
Collar Del Viento will perform in costume and face paint utilizing the traditional ritualistic effects of incense, flowers and candles. After the performance the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions and examine the instruments.