Pittsfield — For the last 200 years, convention has held that Beethoven’s late quartets should be performed only by venerable old men sufficiently endowed with “interpretive maturity.” After all, only greybeards are capable of handling the profound emotional and interpretive demands of Beethoven’s Op. 127-132 quartets. But kids these days are giving the old men a run for their money, and the Calidore String Quartet is a perfect example: Their three-disc set of Beethoven’s Quartets Nos. 12-16 won the BBC Music Magazine 2024 Chamber Award. Thus have the kids schooled the oldsters. Following this major recognition, the Calidores are likely to be found playing ever larger venues. But they are regulars at South Mountain Concerts, and if tickets are still available, you can hear them perform the first of those late Beethoven quartets on Sunday, September 15, at 3 p.m.
The Calidore String Quartet had won grand prizes in most of the major U.S. chamber music competitions within two years of forming in 2010. Since then, the awards have piled up. But nothing beats the review they got from BBC Music Magazine:
The New York-based Calidore Quartet gives meticulously detailed performances of Beethoven’s late string quartets, with playing of quite remarkable technical accomplishment. I’m not sure, for instance, that I’ve ever heard the tremendously challenging Op. 133 Fugue (the original finale of the Quartet Op. 130) done with greater precision and clarity, and it makes for quite overwhelming experience … The players have clearly thought long and hard about these masterpieces of the string quartet repertoire, and they have produced performances that can stand comparison with the best.
Haydn and Beethoven you are familiar with. But perhaps not Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whose third string quartet follows Haydn on Sunday’s program. It is always fun to see Korngold on a concert program, because concert music was not his main gig after he moved from Vienna to Hollywood. His primary occupation was writing film music, at which he excelled so profoundly that his roots and professional accomplishments as a Vienna prodigy—even his professorship at the Vienna State Academy—were eclipsed by his scores for such classics as “Captain Blood” and Oscar winners “Anthony Adverse” and “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” In fact, Korngold is, along with Max Steiner and Alfred Newman, one of the founders of film music.
Here is the Calidore’s full program for September 15:
- Haydn — String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33, No. 3
- Korngold — String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 34
- Beethoven — String Quartet No. 12 in E♠major, Op. 127
The Second Viennese School might have closed its doors on the first day of class had it begun with a thorough study of Beethoven’s Op. 127-132 quartets. Indeed, it is hard to believe Arnold Schoenberg would have felt the need to cook up his 12-tone system had he engaged deeply with Beethoven’s last masterpieces, which stretched tonality to its absolute limits. If Schoenberg wanted more expressivity than tonal music could provide, Beethoven gave it to him almost a century earlier.
Come to South Mountain on Sunday, September 15, at 3 p.m., to hear the Calidore String Quartet demonstrate that Beethoven’s late quartets are not the sole domain of elder statesmen. Works by Haydn and Korngold also are on the program at South Mountain Concerts, 730 South Street, Pittsfield.
South Mountain is located two miles south of Pittsfield center on U.S. Route 7, (South Street in Pittsfield). More information and tickets are available here.
