Telegraph Quartet Announces New Album, Divergent Paths, on Azica Records out August 25
Telegraph Quartet Announces New Album on
Azica Records: Divergent Paths
Worldwide Release: August 25, 2023
Downloads and CDs available to press on request
“precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication”
– The Strad on Telegraph Quartet’s musicianship
San Francisco, CA – The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) announce Divergent Paths. The Quartet’s newest album –– the first in a series of recordings titled 20th Century Vantage Points –– is set for worldwide release, digital and CD, on August 25, 2023 via Azica Records. This first volume features two works that (to the best of the quartet’s knowledge) have never been recorded on the same album before: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7. Through this series, the Telegraph Quartet intends to explore string quartets of the 20th century –– an era of music that the group has felt especially called to perform since forming in 2013. The new album's release will also mark the ensemble’s tenth anniversary together.
The Telegraph Quartet’s new release offers a glimpse into the beginning of the 20th century –– a time of bewildering and unbridled creativity –– through the work of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. For what would be Ravel’s first and sole string quartet, the piece offers a fascinating dimension of duality within itself. Conventionally Classical writing with four movements of traditional form and temperament, which simultaneously presents modal scales, complex melodies over extended harmonies, novel time signatures, and vibrant character reminiscent of Spanish or Basque dances, as well as Russian and Asian music. Like Ravel’s Quartet, Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 is a work of similarly early status against his whole body of work. A staggering 46 minutes in length, Schoenberg’s piece also embraces the traditional classical structure in four movements. However, unlike Ravel, Schoenberg unites the elements in a continuous fashion, revealing a refined way to connect the Brahms’ approach to Classical writing and the Romantic New German School of Liszt, Wagner and Strauss. For the modern day listener, the Telegraph Quartet offers an analogy of musical form: “Schoenberg’s Op. 7 is like a Wagner opera for string quartet”. It is a chamber music tone poem.
The Telegraph Quartet found these two works by Ravel and Schoenberg, despite their contrasting qualities, make an appealing and intriguing pair. They say:
"As an ensemble, we've always been attracted to these two quartets by Ravel and Schoenberg –– at first for almost opposite reasons: the Ravel Quartet has a vibrant purity, while Schoenberg's epic Quartet No. 1 is thoroughly tumultuous and bewildering. Yet we found that both works, written within two years of one another and by composers of the same age, truly do reflect the sensuality and exploration of the human psyche that was such an important part of the dawn of the 20th century."
Celebrated by the San Francisco Chronicle as having “soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail,” and seen as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape," the Telegraph Quartet’s sophisticated blend of meticulous technicality and emotive chemistry has led the group to connect with audiences from all walks of life, bringing their memorable musicality to concert halls, classrooms, and vineyards alike.
Divergent Paths is the Telegraph Quartet’s second full length release and the group’s debut album with Azica Records. This record follows Into The Light (2018), an album highlighting a gripping set of works by Leon Kirchner, Anton Webern, and Benjamin Britten. Strings Magazine described the Telegraph Quartet’s performance of Britten's Three Divertimenti as “sparkl[ing] with brilliant humor,” calling the full recording an “exciting new disc.” AllMusic describes the ensemble as an “adventurous group,” stating that Into the Light “[put] the Telegraph Quartet on the map.”
Divergent Paths | Telegraph Quartet | Azica Records | Release Date: August 25, 2023 (Digital, CDs, Worldwide)
[1-4] Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937): String Quartet in F Major (1902-1903)
[5-8] Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951): String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7 (1904-1905)
[Total Time: 71:57]
Recorded July 14-16, 2022 at St. Stephens Episcopal Church, Belvedere, CA.
Recorded and Produced by Alan Bise
Cover image: “Gaze” ca. 1910 Catalogue raisonné 62
Used by permission of Belmont Music Publishers, Los Angeles
Graphic Design: Monica Mussulin
About the Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “…an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. The Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence.
Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; the Henschel Quartett, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet.. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger, and Osvaldo Golijov.
In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The San Francisco Chronicle praised the album, saying, "Just five years after forming, the Bay Area’s Telegraph Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of serious depth and versatility, and the group’s terrific debut recording only serves to reinforce that judgment." AllMusic acclaimed, “An impressive beginning for an adventurous group, this 2018 release puts the Telegraph Quartet on the map.
Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan.
The Telegraph Quartet adapted to the challenging times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and performed virtual concerts presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Crowden Chamber Music Workshop, Noe Music, Noontime Concerts, Music in Corrales, and Intermusic SF. For Earth Day 2020 (the 50th anniversary of Earth Day), the National Academy of Science in collaboration with the ClimateMusic Project hosted a virtual performance by the Telegraph Quartet of Richard Festinger’s Icarus in Flight. In 2020, Telegraph launched an ongoing online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet. For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.