Sept. 28: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Four Seasons Arts Performing the Music of Rebecca Clarke, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Maurice Ravel
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Telegraph Quartet Presented by Four Seasons Arts
Performing the Music of
Rebecca Clarke, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Maurice Ravel
Saturday, September 28, 2024 at 3:00pm
Berkeley Piano Club | 2724 Haste Street | Berkeley, CA
Tickets and More information
“soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail”
– San Francisco Chronicle
Berkeley, CA – On Saturday, September 28, 2024 at 3:00pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” will be presented in concert by Four Seasons Arts at Berkeley Piano Club (2724 Haste Street), performing Rebecca Clarke’s Poem for String Quartet, Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 74 “Harp”, and Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major. The Telegraph Quartet recorded the latter work as part of their newest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths –– the first in a three-volume album series exploring string quartets of the 20th century.
The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. 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.
This Saturday afternoon performance will feature works that were composed by Clarke, Beethoven, and Ravel during the early 19th and 20th centuries. Rebecca Clarke wrote her Poem for String Quartet –– a serene work rooted in rhythmic and melodic repetition –– in 1926. However, she would never see the work published before her passing in 1979. Beethoven had begun losing his hearing by his late 20s and by the time the good-natured “Harp” Quartet was composed in 1809, its cheery quality belied the composer’s 11-year-long struggle with hearing loss that inevitably kept him from fully experiencing this work. Ravel and Debussy held a great deal of mutual respect and admiration for each other’s work. Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major is inspired by and modeled after Debussy’s own string quartet, which he composed 10 years prior. Ravel’s quartet embraces the conventional four-movement classical structure and uses the quartet medium to find a space and vibrancy; it uses clear, etched themes set against a backdrop of colorfully evocative environments.
The Telegraph Quartet’s latest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, was released in 2023 on Azica Records. The first in the Telegraph’s three-album series focused on string quartets of the first half of the 20th century, Divergent Paths explores the bewildering and unbridled creativity of the period through the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. The album has been met with critical acclaim, with The New York Times reporting, “[I]n the Schoenberg, they achieve something truly special, meticulously guiding its often wayward progress. At times Schoenberg makes the four strings sound almost orchestral, but the Telegraph players can also make his contrapuntal tangles radiantly clear. Every minute of their account sounds gripping and purposeful, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay the piece.”
More about Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet has performed in 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. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger. 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 Telegraph Quartet released its new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths––which features Ravel’s renowned quartet and Schoenberg’s first quartet––on August 25 via Azica Records.=
The Telegraph Quartet begins a residency at The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance in fall 2024. From 2017-2024, the Telegraph was quartet-in-residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In addition to giving regular faculty performances, the ensemble gave master classes 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 and in fall 2020, Telegraph launched an 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.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Four Seasons Arts
What: Music by Rebecca Clarke, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Maurice Ravel
When: Saturday, September 28, 2024 at 3:00pm
Where: Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste Street, Berkeley, CA 94705
Tickets and information: www.fsarts.org/telegraph-string-quartet/
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in concert by Four Seasons Arts. The ensemble will perform a concert program featuring Poem for String Quartet by Rebecca Clarke, String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 74 “Harp” by Ludwing van Beethoven –– works noted for never being experienced by their composers, as well as a work on the ensemble’s 2023 album, Divergent Paths: String Quartet in F Major by Maurice Ravel.