Feb. 28: Telegraph Quartet Presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Photo of the Telegraph Quartet by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet
Telegraph Quartet Presented by
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Performing the Music of Stephen Prutsman:
Film Score from The Cabinet of Caligari
Plus Alban Berg’s “Lyric Suite"
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:30pm
Sol Joseph Recital Hall | 50 Oak Street | San Francisco, CA
Tickets and Information: https://sfcm.edu/experience/performances/telegraph-quartet-recital-0
“tonal warmth and communicative urgency”
– San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco, CA – The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) –– described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control” –– will be presented in concert by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:30pm in a program featuring music by Stephen Prustman and Alban Berg.
Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet brings a concert program to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music that is both steeped in the history of the 1920s but also grounded in writing from the present day and reflective of two very different styles of music. Though Stephen Prutsman –– known for his film scoring –– is an active musician and composer of today, The Cabinet of Caligari is a silent horror film from the dawn of the 1920s that’s considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema. Conversely, Alban Berg found inspiration for his Lyric Suite in Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, with whom Berg began a love affair in 1925. Despite the affair being clandestine, the Lyric Suite itself served as Berg’s manifestation of the excitement, trepidation, and suffering of the secret relationship, with Berg going so far as to include their initials in musical cryptograms throughout.
Violinist Joseph Maile says of the emotional contrast found in this program and performing Prutsman’s film score:
“We programmed both of these works for their use of the incredibly overwrought and distorted lens of expressionism that was such a hallmark of this era of the early 20th Century. The stark shadows and harsh lighting cast on the crooked scenery of Robert Wiene’s “Caligari” create one of the first psychological thrillers of film, and Stephen Prutsman’s outstanding score draws on the styles of Bartók and the Second Viennese School (of which Alban Berg was a seminal figure) to underscore the dark expressionism of the film.
Alban Berg’s seminal chamber work and ‘latent opera’ as he called it, was inextricably tied to and pulled out of his deeply personal, secret affair and spiritual relationship with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, which, in his own words, caused his world to be turned upside down and continued via letter until his death 10 years later. It expresses through the newly created 12-tone language, that same degree of delirium, passion, and mysticism of the ‘Caligari’, but through a purely musical medium.”
The Telegraph Quartet’s new release, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths was released on August 25 via Azica Records. The first album in a three record series focused on string quartets of the era, Divergent Paths offers a glimpse into the beginning of the 20th century. The Telegraph Quartet explores this time period 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.
As a recorded display of the Telegraph Quartet’s long standing appreciation for the unique musical work of this era, Divergent Paths has been highly praised by both for its adventurous pairing and for the ensemble’s impressive performance thereof. Arts Fuse writes, “[The Telegraph Quartet] demonstrate[s] an attractive comfortability with Schoenberg’s larger style. The New York Times says: “[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.” The Strad writes of Telegraph’s performance of the Ravel, “The textures are delicate and subtle, the Telegraph’s interpretation equally nuanced. Virtuosity is consummate: expressively full one second, lean the next, with the players bending in the wind of Ravel’s quixotically shifting sonorities.
About 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 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.
The 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; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; 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.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence and has given master classes at the SFCM 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 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:
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as having "tonal warmth and communicative urgency,” is presented in concert by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:30pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a program highlighting history of the 1920s through two very contrasting works, including Stephen Prutsman’s film score for German-expressionist horror film The Cabinet of Caligari (1920) and Alban Berg’s love-affair inspired “Lyric Suite" (1925).
Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, described as having "tonal warmth and communicative urgency” (San Francisco Chronicle), is presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on February 28, 2024 for a performance featuring the music of Stephen Prutsman and Alban Berg.
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
What: Music by Stephen Prutsman and Alban Berg
When: Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Sol Joseph Recital Hall, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Tickets and information: www.sfcm.edu/experience/performances/telegraph-quartet-recital-0