Terra String Quartet

MADDALENA CASULANA 
Madrigals 

The term “madrigal” in 16^th century Italy loosely referred to musical settings of various types of poetic texts.  The fact that this genre was rising in popularity while music publishing was exploding as an industry in the Republic of Venice created a perfect storm that shaped musical taste well beyond the Veneto region.  Philippe Verdelot and Jacques Arcadelt were two composers who relocated from France to work in the Florentine courts.  Their works piqued the interest of Venetian music publishers and it is through wide dissemination of their works that they influenced composers in regions far beyond where they were based.  Commercial demand for madrigal collections grew strong starting in the 1540s, and rival publishers Antonio Gardano and Girolamo Scotto curated collections drawing on a wide swath of composers from Venice and beyond to catalyze consumer interest. 

Maddalena Casulana (c.1544-c.1590) was widely respected as a composer, singer, lutenist, and teacher in Vincenza (which during her lifetime was part of the Republic of Venice).  The constant search for new material by publishers led to the inclusion of Casulana’s work in a collection of madrigals edited by Giuglio Bonagiunta and published by Scotto in 1566, achieving the historical milestone of being the first woman to publish her own works.  Her music became so popular that she published an entire volume of her works two years later.  The collection was dedicated to Isabella de’ Medici of Florence, an independent spirit who was herself an accomplished musician as well as an important patron of the arts.  Here we find an important example of a call for equity that is not brought to our attention in many traditional examinations of music history: 

I know truly most excellent Lady, that these first fruits of mine, flawed as they are, cannot produce the effect that I desire, which would be in addition to providing some evidence of my devotion to Your Excellency, also to show the world the futile error of men who believe themselves patrons of the high gifts of intellect, which according to them cannot also be held in the same way by women. Because of all this, I did not wish to fail to publish them, hoping that in Your Excellency’s bright name they would achieve such light as might kindle some other, higher talent to succeed more clearly in that which except for the spirit, I have not been able to show. 
 
Venice, April 10, 1568. 
from Your Excellency’s most humble servant, 
Maddalena Casulana 

BENJAMIN BRITTEN 
String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94 

In 1975 the health of Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) took a turn for the worse and he had a sense that he was nearing the end.  He contracted infective carditis in February 1968 after a trip to Venice, which eventually led to heart valve replacement surgery in 1973.  Although the surgery was initially successful Britten suffered a slight stroke which affected his right hand and left him feeling weak and unable to compose.  Exploring revisions of his works helped bring creative inspiration in his prolonged recovery period.  The cellist Mstislav Rostropovich came to visit Britten in January 1974 to workshop the Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87.  The work had been completed in 1971 but Rostropovich had become persona non grata in the Soviet Union when he housed the dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn from 1970-1974 and could not travel during this period.  Britten made revisions to the work and the premiere was given later that year.  Britten was also convinced to revisit and revise for publication his String Quartet in D major that he wrote in 1931 (not to be confused with his Op. 25 work in the same key).  Many works written in his youth for string quartet remained unpublished at the time. 

It had been 30 years since Britten wrote his String Quartet No. 2 in C major, Op. 36 in 1945.  During that time many speculated when he would return to a genre that he held close to his heart but his prolific output, much of it written with his partner Peter Pears as well as other individual muses like Rostropovich in mind, delayed him from composing a successor to the Op. 36 work.  It is possible that knowledge that his declining health left him with limited time and the catalyst of revising his 1931 quartet finally led him to compose the String Quartet No. 3. 

Britten’s operas serve as pillars of his compositional output and provide valuable reference points to works that are found in their orbit from a chronological standpoint.  Just as the composition of Peter Grimes directly preceded (and influenced) his String Quartet No. 2, his opera Death in Venice, composed in 1971-1973 before his surgery, has a direct relationship with the String Quartet No. 3.  Death in Veniceis based on the novella by Thomas Mann depicting the internal struggles of Gustav von Aschenbach, an aging artist living in Munich who is suffering from a creative block and has a vision that traveling to Venice may provide him much-needed inspiration.  There he encounters Tadzio who he believes can serve as his muse, but his inability to directly interact with Tadzio provides a dramatic tension that provides an apt representation of the beautiful being both very close yet painfully out of reach.  Aschenbach succumbs to the cholera outbreak sweeping the island and the opera ends with him watching Tadzio slip away distantly into the water as he takes his last breaths. 

The String Quartet No. 3 was written in October-November 1975.  The last movement was sketched out while Britten was in Venice, making explicit reference to Death in Venice via its title La Serenissima (a commonly used nickname for the city) as well as through musical quotes from the opera, further strengthening the parallels between Britten and Aschenbach.  According to composer Colin Matthews, who worked with Britten on the scores of Death in Venice and the String Quartet No. 3, the passacaglia theme in this movement is based on bells Britten heard from his balcony on that visit.   

The quartet was dedicated to the music critic Hans Keller, a close friend of Britten’s and to whom he had promised that he would write another string quartet.  In his writings on string quartets, Keller often critiqued the use of textures in string quartets that used three voices or less. Britten biographer Michael Oliver notes that the choice to construct the first movement of the third quartet around all possible duo combinations in the ensemble and then center the central third movement based on a soaring solo in the first violin shows that Britten was playfully  provoking Keller’s sensibilities in this work.  There are five movements in total, comprising an arch form very similar to the Beethoven Op. 132 string quartet also on this program.  Britten worked with the Amadeus Quartet in November of 1976 to prepare the premiere of the work.  Unfortunately, Britten died on December 4, 1976, two weeks before the premiere.   

Peter Evans, in a review of the piece, noted the relationship between the quartet and Death in Venice, writing: “whether we hear this music as new light on Aschenbach’s [the main character of Death in Venice] fate or, still more poignantly, as comment on the composer’s own, we shall find a rare aptness in the powerful upsurge of the creative imagination which shaped the quartet’s closing passionate sigh.”   When listening to the String Quartet No. 3 after the opera one does get a sense that Britten presented the conflict between the rational Apollonian and earthy Dionysian qualities quite differently in the two pieces.  In the opera the tug between the two was relentless and ended in tragedy, whereas in the arch form of the quartet both sides are able to express themselves and a more peaceful balance is found at the end of the work.    

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 
String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132 

Prince Nikolai Galitzin was one of a network of patrons that generously supported Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).  In 1822 Galitzin commissioned Beethoven to write three string quartets, hoping to end a 12-year drought in his quartet output.  As the composer was busy completing the Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9 he was unable to fulfill the commission until 1824-5; the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 is the second of the set of three quartets (the others being Op. 127 and Op. 130). Beethoven dealt with his own anxieties as a young composer studying with Franz Joseph Haydn, considered by many to be the composer that established the string quartet as a genre.  With the publication of his Op. 18 string quartets in 1801 Beethoven definitively set out to take the genre in new directions.  The experiments he undertakes in these late-period Galitzin quartets take the genre to a new dimension entirely, pushing well past the boundaries of sonata form and other parameters that had up until this time defined what listeners expected upon hearing a string quartet. 

One of the distinctive features of Op. 132 is the fact that Beethoven decided to add an additional movement to the four that had become standard practice.  In some ways this is a return to the movement scheme Haydn used in his early quartets – a first movement in sonata allegro form, a dance/scherzo movement, a central slow movement, another dance/scherzo movement, and another fast movement to take us to the other end of the arch form.  After the wildly experimental first movement Beethoven chooses to make the second movement more in the style of a minuet, swinging the pendulum in the direction of tradition.   

The focus of this string quartet is in the middle slow movement, creating an arch form centered around the Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart (“Hymn of Thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian mode”).  The composer had fallen seriously ill in 1824, and was told by a physician that in order to recover he was to have “No wine, no coffee, no spices of any kind…”  In the movement the listener definitely hears both spiritual and earthly music when Beethoven shifts between modal and tonal sound worlds, thanking God both for his return to health which in turn allows him to enjoy wine and spicy food!  The Heiliger Dankgesang is one example of Beethoven’s ability to look backwards and forwards, drawing inspiration from the past to create music that pushes the boundaries of what is possible in a tonal system. 

The fourth movement starts with a march, which would fit in the category of “dance movement”.  Instead of a trio, however, Beethoven decides to throw in a recitative, a decision which calls to mind the famous recitative that opens the last movement of his Symphony No. 9, composed shortly before this quartet.  This leads us to a finale that heavily features the cello, Prince Galitzin’s instrument of choice.   

— Daniel Doña

Daniel Doña is a violist on the faculty at the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music. He is a member of the Arneis String Quartet.

Prizewinners at the 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and 2023 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the Terra String Quartet is a vibrant young international ensemble based in New York City. They are composed of graduates of The Juilliard School, The New England Conservatory, Harvard University, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Praised for their “remarkable maturity and musicality” and “superb ensemble playing” (Hyde Park Herald, Chicago), these four musicians hail from across the globe and, through their unique individuality as artists, are committed to infusing the string quartet with equal parts passion, spontaneity, and humor.

TSQ has performed at numerous festivals and venues across the world, with recent concerts at Guarneri Hall, Chamber Music Raleigh, Randolph College, Music for a Great Space, and the Emilia-Romagna Festival in Italy. They have appeared in concert with the Cremona Quartet and have collaborated with pianist Diane Walsh at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival and violinist Ray Chen at Rockport Chamber Festival. As the ‘23-24 Project Music Heals Us Arts Leadership Ensemble, TSQ is deeply invested in education and community work, and they were also chosen as the inaugural Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival’s Professional Fellowship Quartet at East Carolina University. Their mentors and coaches include Ara Gregorian, Mark Steinberg, Marcy Rosen, Nina Lee, Hye-Jin Kim, Daniel Avshalomov, Natasha Brofsky, Catherine Cho, and Calvin Wiersma. 

TSQ is the recipient of the Silver medal at the 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Bronze medal at the 2023 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, and the Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the 2022 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. They were also awarded the Christine and David Anderson Career Development Prize at the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition. In their spare time, they enjoy playing Mahjong together.

Korean-Australian violinist Harriet Langley received her education from New England Conservatory, Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, and The Juilliard School. An accomplished soloist, she has performed with ensembles including the London Chamber Orchestra, the Verbier Festival Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Reno Philharmonic, the Gyeonggi Philharmonic of Korea, and the Orchestre National de Belgique. Harriet has also performed at the Seiji Ozawa Academy, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, YellowBarn, and the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove. Other than music, Harriet enjoys reading, going to museums, and she has a passion for perfumes and teas.

Violinist Amelia Dietrich earned her Bachelor of Music from The Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles under the teaching of Robert Lipsett, and her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School studying with Ida Kavafian. She grew up studying in North Carolina with her long-time mentor, Ara Gregorian. Amelia has concertized in chamber series across the US, Europe, and Australia, including Alice Tully Hall’s Wednesdays at One, National Sawdust, The Guggenheim, the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, the ClasClas Chamber Festival in Spain, and the Moritzburg Festival in Germany. Beyond her performance career, Amelia has a passion for pedagogy and mentoring young musicians. She is a mentor and chamber music coach with the New York Youth Symphony, maintains a private teaching studio in New York City, and teaches at Suzuki on the Island- a school in Manhasset, NY. She enjoys running, is an avid cook, and has a passion for fashion and interior design.

Violist Chih-Ta Chen, from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is the winner of the 2022 Chimei Arts Award and the 2018 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award. His passion lies in chamber music, and he has been featured at Music@Menlo, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival. Currently, Chen holds the Jean J. Sterne and Edwin B. Garrigues Fellowship as a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying under Roberto Diaz, Hsin-Yun Huang, Ed Gazouleas and Misha Amory. Previously, he attended the New England Conservatory and Tainan National University of the Arts and studied with Mai Motobuchi, Yong-Zhan Chen, and I-Chen Wang. In his free time, he loves playing badminton and spending time with his two-year-old gray cat, Cheetah.

Washington state native and cellist Audrey Chen has concertized with the Seattle Symphony and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and has been featured as a guest with the Jupiter Chamber Players, Parker Quartet, Argus Quartet, and Borromeo Quartet. An avid chamber musician, she has performed at festivals across the country, including Yellowbarn, Olympic Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Four Seasons Chamber Music, Perlman Music Program, and Tanglewood Music Center. A graduate of the Harvard/NEC dual degree program, Audrey received her B.A. from Harvard University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where her teachers included Laurence Lesser and Lluis Claret. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center under Marcy Rosen, and she also teaches chamber music at CUNY Hunter College. Audrey was named a 2022 recipient of the prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Outside of music, she enjoys watching films, cooking/baking, and making greeting cards.