Preview
by Kevin T McEneaney
The Hudson Valley Music Circle opens at Bard College’s Olin Hall with its 75th Anniversary June series at 4 pm, June 1. The prize-winning Balourdet Quartet will open with “The Lark,” String Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5, by Franz Joseph Haydn. This string quartet is my favorite above all quartets. I never tire of hearing it because of its buoyant, infectious joy combined with a deep appreciation of Nature. Even if you have heard this magnificent work before, the balanced blend of the Balourdet Quartet will force a smile of gratitude. The work opens with a depiction of Haydn getting to work at his desk in the early morning, then strolling outside with an intimate evocation of landscape amid charming birdsong.
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They will then perform a recent composition by Paul Novak: Impossible Inventions (2024) commissioned by the Barlow Endowment in Music Composition at Brigham Young University. Some reviewers have claimed that this work attempts to defy the laws of Nature, inspired by hypothetical technologies envisioned in science fiction, reimagining the quartet as a series of fantastical futuristic machines. This offers a lively contrast between the past and the future.
After the Intermission, they will perform another recent composition, Galaxy Back to You (2024) by Nicky Sohn. Sohn is currently pursuing a fully funded doctoral degree at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and holds a Master of Music from The Juilliard School. While riding in my car, I heard on WHMT the final movement of the premiere of her Albany Symphony, which electrified me and prompted me to check out her biography online. This will be an astonishing treat to hear, which will undoubtedly evoke amazement.
The closer will feature a great classic that is rarely played: Bedřich Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, Z mého života (From My Life)(1876). Smetana, a friend of Franz Liszt, is without a doubt the greatest Czech composer who was able to employ native folksong rhythms within a classical framework, This first string quartet is autobiographical, illustrating the composer’s enthusiasm for his art, his friendships and youthful loves, yet shifts in a change of mood describing the onset of his deafness which is represented by a long harmonic E in the final movement above ominous string tremolos.
This will be a concert not to be missed!
Tickets may be purchased online at: https://tickets.fishercenter.bard.edu/3464/3466
P.S. If you cannot attend on June 1, you will have a second chance to hear this young, dynamic quartet with a different program in the Millbrook Music Salon series on August 31.
